Event
Is the writing of Jewish history possible without tears and tales of woe? This was the challenge leveled nearly a hundred years ago by perhaps the most influential Jewish historian in the United States, Salo Baron. Since then, scholars have worked to ensure that Jewish history is not reduced to a tale of suffering alone, and rightly so. But in recent years historians of Jewish life—from the Ancient Mediterranean to the modern Americas—have begun to wonder if perhaps we have written suffering and sadness too far out of the stories we tell. In this conference, an international group of scholars will join together to rethink this important question for the writing of Jewish history.
Through a series of presentations and discussions, participants will examine how scholars have balanced the weight of suffering with accounts of creativity, adaptation, and joy in Jewish life. What new methodological approaches might allow us to better capture the complexities of Jewish historical experience? How have different historiographical traditions influenced the ways in which sorrow and struggle are remembered—or forgotten? By bringing together voices from diverse fields, this conference aims to foster a fresh and critical conversation about the place of suffering in Jewish historiography and the possibilities for reimagining its role in our scholarly narratives.
Cosponsored with the Department of History and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, Global Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the Middle East Center, and a gift from Marc and Sheri Feigen.
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Elissa Bemporad (CUNY Grad Center)
Lila Corwin Berman (NYU)
David Engel (NYU)
Tamar Herzig (Tel Aviv University)
Debra Kaplan (Bar-Ilan University)
Ethan Katz (UC-Berkeley)
Ross Kraemer (Brown University)
Hartley Lachter (Lehigh University)
David N. Myers (UCLA)
Sarah Pearce (NYU)
Ishay Rozen-Zvi (Tel Aviv University)
Seth Schwartz (Columbia University)
Ephraim Shoham-Steiner (Ben Gurion University)
Paola Tartakoff (Rutgers University)
Adam Teller (Brown University)
Magda Teter (Fordham University)
SCHEDULE
Sunday Evening, March 30
6:30 Dinner for presenters and invited guests
(Penn Hillel, Steinhardt Hall, 215 S 39th St.)
All sessions will be held in Classroom L2 at the Penn Museum (East Entrance)
Monday, March 31
8:30 Coffee and Breakfast
9:00-9:15 Greetings (Joshua Teplitsky and Simcha Gross)
9:15-10:45 SESSION I: Ancient
Chair: Natalie Dohrmann, University of Pennsylvania
Paper 1 – Ross Shepard Kraemer, Brown University
"'Neolachrymosity?' The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity"
Paper 2 – Seth Schwartz, Columbia University
“Did the Jews of Asia Minor have a Lachrymose History?”
Paper 3 – Ishay Rozen-Zvi, Tel Aviv University
“How Normal Are the Rabbis? Four Case Studies”
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 SESSION II: Medieval
Chair: Paul Cobb, University of Pennsylvania
Paper 1 – Paola Tartakoff, Rutgers University
“Lachrymosity and Jewish Exceptionalism:
What can we learn from the historiography of medieval Jewish conversion?”
Paper 2 – Hartley Lachter, Lehigh University
“Terrors of History: Medieval Kabbalah and the Lachrymose Reading of Jewish Experience”
Paper 3 – Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, Ben Gurion University
“’The Scales of Suffering’ and the ‘correct weight of Cologne’:
A Proposal for Writing Medieval European Jewish History”
Paper 4 – Sarah Pearce, New York University
“All Joy is Darkened, the Mirth of the Land is Gone":
Approaching Affect in the Maimonidean Archive”
12:30-1:30 Lunch for presenters and invited guests (Classroom L1)
1:45-3:15 SESSION III: Early Modern
Chair: Anne Albert, University of Pennsylvania
Paper 1 – Adam Teller, Brown University
"Lachrymosity and Anti-Lachrymosity: Untying the Knot”
Paper 2 – Tamar Herzig, Tel Aviv University
"Contending with Female Slavery, Sexual Violence, and Jews in the Early Modern Era”
Paper 3 – Debra Kaplan, Bar Ilan University
“Beyond Expulsion? Finding Balance in Writing Early Modern Jewish History”
3:15-3:30 Coffee Break
3:30-5:00 SESSION IV: Modern
Chair: Ben Nathans, University of Pennsylvania
Paper 1 – Elissa Bemporad, CUNY Grad Center
“A Tale of Suffering or a Tale of Success?
Rethinking Soviet Jewish Historiography Through the Lens of (Anti-)Lachrymosity”
Paper 2 – Ethan Katz, University of California, Berkeley
“Can Wartime Resistance Be Both Successful and Lachrymose?
The Strange Alliance of Jews and Arch-Conservatives That Liberated Algiers in 1942“
Paper 3 – Lila Corwin Berman, New York University
“Golden Age, Golden Cage? Liberating American Jewish History from Gilded A/Illusions”
5:00-5:15 Break
5:15-6:45 SESSION V: Rebalancing the Scales: The Future of the Past
Chair: Joshua Teplitsky, University of Pennsylvania
Paper 1 – David N. Myers, University of California, Los Angeles
“Sage Politics or Lethal Subordination:
Rethinking the Legacy of the Royal Alliance in Jewish History”
Paper 2 – Magda Teter, Fordham University
“Missing Voices: Antisemitism Studies and Jewish Suffering”
Paper 3 – David Engel, New York University
“Reflections on ‘Neolachrymosity’”
7:00 Dinner for presenters and invited guests
(Hall of Flags, Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street)
A printable conference schedule can be found HERE.