4-Part Series: May 4, 11, 18; June 1
Presented by Geraldine Gudefin, Historian
What did it mean for Jews to become citizens of modern states—and what did citizenship demand in return? This four-lecture series explores modern Jewish history through the lens of rights, belonging, and political identity from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century.
Moving from revolutionary France to the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and Israel, we will examine how Jews navigated new promises of equality while negotiating the preservation of communal and religious life. Through close engagement with primary sources we will explore competing visions of citizenship: Was emancipation a path to full inclusion, or did it require redefining Jewish collective identity? How did imperial and colonial systems reshape the meaning of rights? And how did Jews imagine belonging across borders in an increasingly interconnected world? Jewish history reveals that citizenship is never fixed or guaranteed. It is contested, negotiated, and often fragile—a reality that continues to resonate in today’s debates over migration, minority rights, and national identity.
Register one time for all four sessions.
We will use the same Zoom link for each program. Barring technical issues, these talks will be added to our Program Archive.
SESSION OVERVIEW
The first session examines the process of civil and political emancipation in Western Europe, with particular attention to the contrasting experiences of Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
In the second session, we will focus on Jewish rights, or their absence, in the Russian and Ottoman Empires at the turn of the twentieth century, highlighting the diverse political visions advanced by Jewish individuals on the eve of imperial collapse.
Our third session, we explore how conceptions of Jewish belonging evolved during the first half of the twentieth century under the influence of British and French imperialism and colonialism.
Then, we will conclude by considering the impact of the establishment of the State of Israel and the shift toward Jewish political sovereignty, examined through the lens of the concept of “return.”
Dr. Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian specializing in Jewish migration, family life, and legal pluralism. She holds an MA from Yale University and a PhD in History from Brandeis University. Her work has been published in American Jewish History and Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues. She has received fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Posen Foundation, and the Center for Jewish History.
Dr. Gudefin’s earlier research examined Jewish marriage and family law in France and the United States. Now based in Southeast Asia, she is currently researching Jewish life in colonial Singapore.
We extend a special thank you to Andrew R. Ammerman for sponsoring our 2026 program lineup. He dedicates the semester’s learning in loving memory of Josephine and H. Max Ammerman and Stephen C.