The emancipatory promise of liberalism – and its exclusionary qualities – shaped the fate of Jews in many parts of the world during the age of empire. Yet historians have mostly understood the relationship between Jews, liberalism and antisemitism as a European story, defined by the collapse of liberalism and the Holocaust. This volume, edited by Abigail Green and Simon Levis Sullam, challenges that perspective by taking a global approach. It takes account of recent historical work that explores issues of race, discrimination and hybrid identities in colonial and postcolonial settings, but which has done so without taking much account of Jews. Individual essays explore how liberalism, citizenship, nationality, gender, religion, race functioned differently in European Jewish heartlands, in the Mediterranean peripheries of Spain and the Ottoman empire, and in the North American Atlantic world. 

Panelists:

Abigail Greene, Professor of Modern European History, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Brasenose College

Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University

Rebecca Kobrin, Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History and Co-Director of the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University

Simon Levis Sullam, Associate Professor of History at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Moderator: Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History and Director of the European Institute, Columbia University

Sponsored by the European Institute, the Department of History, and the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies

While all Institute events are free and open to the public, we do encourage a suggested donation of $10.