Reproduction in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire: The story of the “bloodstained” Jewish midwives
Concern over a shrinking population led Ottoman authorities to undermine reproductive autonomy in the 19th century, writes grad fellow Büşra Demirkol, starting with outlawing abortion and exiling two "bloody" Jewish midwives.
Global Holocaust education? What Taiwan can teach us
Graduate fellow Eryk Waligora explains why Holocaust education matters on a global scale by looking at the case of Taiwan — a country with a painful past of its own to contend with.
How the Jewish community in Côte d’Ivoire is helping to build peace after war
Graduate fellow Francis Abugbilla tells the story of C'ôte d'Ivoire's young Jewish community, and its efforts to promote peace in a country recovering from multiple civil wars.
Arts & Culture
François Azar brings folktales and the French Sephardic revival to Seattle Ladino Day
François Azar, a leader of the French Sephardic revival, on writing his own Ladino folktales, censorship, and why he is confident about the future.
Reading Agnon in Indiana
How scholar Adam Rovner's move from Israel to Indiana deepened his appreciation of Hebrew, thanks to one of Israel's most classic authors.
Shem Tov de Carrión: How a Jewish poet from medieval Spain speaks to us today
Shem Tov de Carrión's "moral proverbs" about human nature and right rulership are surprisingly relevant today, Graduate Fellow Vivian Mills writes.
Hebrew & Israel Studies
How Benjamin Netanyahu is resetting Israel-Africa relations
Graduate fellow Francis Abugbilla explains how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's push to reconnect with African nations is shifting Israel's status on the continent.
The good goods: Smuggling between Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Graduate fellow Bret Windhauser explains the economic underpinnings of smuggling between Israel and the Palestinian Territories — and why the most commonly smuggled goods may not be what you think.
Personal History
What I learned from majoring in Jewish Studies and studying abroad in Israel and London
Senior Lily Rosencrantz reflects on what she learned in her time with Jewish Studies, both at the University of Washington and abroad.
Learning Ladino, a Language I Already Knew
Graduate Fellow Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano specializes in Ottoman Turkish history, but his Jewish Studies research project has led him to a rare Ladino manuscript.
What a year in Israel taught me about community
Finding a truly international community was why opportunity grant winner Marissa Gaston decided to spend a whole year studying abroad in Israel.
Jewish History & Thought
Mosaics of the Abraham & Isaac story show how Jews in late antiquity used art to connect with religion and community
Countering misperceptions, grad fellow Abby Massarano explains that Jews in the 6th century CE embraced visual art, and shows what we can learn about these communities from their depictions of the key story of Abraham's Binding of Isaac.
“The yoke of the Gentiles is not upon them”: Benjamin of Tudela’s geography of Jews in medieval Iraq and Kurdistan
Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela's travel writing shows that Jews in medieval Iraq and Kurdistan lived in (relative) peace and freedom, countering narratives of universal misery and oppression, grad fellow Jeffrey Haines writes.
Learning from the history of Ottoman Jews & 19th-century cholera outbreaks during COVID-19
Grad fellow Canan Bolel explains the unfortunate parallels between responses to 19th-century cholera outbreaks in Ottoman Izmir (present-day Turkey) — especially for Jewish communities— and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sephardic Studies
PODCAST | Jewish Questions, Episode 5: Before Zionism — Liora Halpern
Present-day discussions of anti-Semitism often involve Israel and the Zionist movement… but before the 20th century, Jews’ and Jewish scholars’ understandings of anti-Semitism were completely connected with Europe and Christianity. In the last episode of our series, guest Liora R. Halperin looks at how 19th-century Jewish settlers to Ottoman Palestine were influenced by the anti-Semitism they experienced in the Russian Empire
PODCAST | Jewish Questions, Episode 4: Jewish Anti-Semitism? — Devin Naar
Can Jews be anti-Semitic against other Jews? In this episode, guest Devin E. Naar looks at the history of Jewish prejudice against other Jews in the United States, from the very first American Jewish settlers in the 1600s to twentieth-century efforts to exclude Jews from the Muslim world from Jewish institutions — as American Jews struggled to hold on to their “precarious whiteness.”
PODCAST | Jewish Questions, Episode 3: Being Jewish in Medieval Spain — Ana Gómez-Bravo
Has anti-Semitism always been the same, or have ideas about Jewishness, and suspicion towards Jews, changed over time? In this episode, guest Ana Gómez-Bravo helps to answer these questions by looking at the lives of Jews and “conversos” (Jewish converts to Christianity) in medieval Spain, exploring how Catholic authorities tried to define and restrict their Jewish and converso residents.
Videos
VIDEO | Graduate Fellows Research Colloquia
The 2020-2021 cohort of graduate fellows in Jewish studies presents their research on Sephardic Jews in modern times, midwives in the Ottoman Empire, Sephardic music, ancient Jewish art, and Kurdish Jews in medieval Iraq.
VIDEO | 2021 Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies: Reading Jewish Texts in an Age of Climate Change
In the 2021 Stroum Lectures, Julia Watts Belser uses classic rabbinic Jewish texts to grapple with questions about climate change and environmental justice, inviting us to tangle with grief and re-imagine possibilities for survival.
VIDEO | 8th Annual Ladino Day: Revolutionizing Ladino, from the Printing Press to the Smartphone
The 8th Annual Ladino Day at the University of Washington highlighted technological developments that have shaped Ladino over time. Featuring Rachel Amado Bortnick, Carlos Yebra López, and Devin E. Naar.