Expanding what it meant to be Jewish in East Germany as the Berlin Wall fell
Ph.D. candidate Katja Schatte explains how ideas of Jewishness gradually expanded in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) starting in the mid-1980s.
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.
Arts & Culture
How Franz Kafka connected with Yiddish language and theater in Prague
Though he wrote in German, author Franz Kafka became an enthusiastic supporter of Yiddish theater in Prague. Graduate fellow Aaron Carpenter tells the story.
“On the Jewish Theater” – Essay by Yitzhak Löwy, edited by Franz Kafka
Yitzhak Löwy, future head of a Yiddish theater company, explains how his fascination with theater developed in spite of his parents' disapproval. Circa 1917, translated from German by Aaron Carpenter.
‘What is Sephardic Music?’: A study of the diverse sounds collected by a culture in diaspora
Ph.D. candidate Ke Guo begins to document her world travels by sharing the first two interviews from her forthcoming series 'What is Sephardic Music?'
Hebrew & Israel Studies
American Jews & Israel: The history of the Palestine Economic Corporation shows how “support” can take many forms
The history of American-supported development in Mandate Palestine is an early example of the complicated relationship between American Jews and Israel, writes graduate fellow Jake Beckert.
Why Israel isn’t a settler colonial state
Dr. Alan Dowty analyzes various aspects of Israel's past and present to determine that it is not a settler colonial state, at least not by the usual definition.
What is Israel’s policy on Africa post-Netanyahu?
Benjamin Netanyahu was known for strengthening ties between Israel and Africa. Will Israel's new government follow the former prime minister's lead? Grad fellow Francis Abugbilla explains the situation.
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
Activist ancestors: Reaching towards the Jewish Labour Bund’s strategies for cultural organizing
Graduate fellow Shelby Handler shares the history of the General History Labor Bund, the 20th-century Jewish socialist organization that inspired her new collection of poetry.
What does it mean to be a minority? Anti-Jewish violence in medieval Egypt offers insights for today
Popular ideas about what it means to be a minority may change, but incidents of state-sanctioned violence remain eerily similar across millennia, explains Hazel D. Cole Fellow Brendan Goldman, a historian of the medieval Islamic world.
Maja Haderlap, Jewish writers, and telling the story of ethnic Slovenians in Austria using the “language of the enemy”
Like German-language Jewish writers, ethnic Slovenian author Maja Haderlap struggles with the language of the Nazis in telling the story of her community's persecution in Austria, writes graduate fellow Aaron Carpenter.
Sephardic Studies
The Catastrophe in Turkey and the Duty of Sepharadim — Then and Now
Stroum Center faculty member and Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies Devin E. Naar retells the history of Sepharadim in the US coming to the aid of Turkey in the aftermath of the earthquake of 1939.
‘What is Sephardic Music?’: A study of the diverse sounds collected by a culture in diaspora
Ph.D. candidate Ke Guo begins to document her world travels by sharing the first two interviews from her forthcoming series 'What is Sephardic Music?'
Learning Ladino to preserve Sephardic culture for future generations
Anna Jacoby as a baby with her great-grandmother, Beya "Betty" Policar Alhadeff (1912-2004). Betty and her family, including her parents Jacob and Esther Policar, were among the first Sephardic Jews in Seattle. The
Digital Jewish 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 | 9th Annual Ladino Day – Sephardic Trajectories: Archives, Objects, and the Ottoman Jewish Past in the United States
Editors and contributors to "Sephardic Trajectories: Archives, Objects, and the Ottoman Jewish Past in the United States" (Koç University Press, 2021) discuss this multidisciplinary volume that highlights artifacts from the Sephardic Studies Digital Collection.
VIDEO | Narrating Migration Stories: Podcasting Sephardic Jewish Journeys
In this exclusive student event, scholar and co-creator of the well-known Ottoman History Podcast Chris Gratien and retired journalist Sam Negri discuss their approach to telling the stories of marginalized migrants to the United States, focusing on the story of Negri’s father, Sephardic Jew Leo Negri.
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.