Jewish History Colloquium
The Greater Washington Jewish History Colloquium (JHC), hosted by GW’s Judaic Studies Program, is a hub for faculty, postdoctoral students, independent researchers and graduate students working in the field of modern Jewish history (broadly defined) in the greater Washington, D.C., area.
Discussions during the colloquium focus on pre-circulated papers. The format includes a 15–25-minute presentation by the author(s) of the papers, followed by a Q&A session. The colloquium is open to the public, but audience members are kindly requested to RSVP.
When campus is open, the colloquium is held at GW's Gelman Library.
The colloquium meets three times each semester.
Upcoming Colloquia
Spring 2025
- February 5: Steve Wagner will present "Assassination and Information Operations in Palestine, 1917-48"
- February 27: Naomi Seidman will discuss her new book, Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish
Past Colloquia
- 2024
February 7, 2024
Title: Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals
Presenter: Ronnie A. Grinberg- 2023
October 12, 2023
Title: Between the colonial and the authoritarian: The two faces of Israel’s regime
Presenter: Yael Berda
Affiliation: Hebrew UniversityOctober 25, 2023
Title: The Occupational Attainment of American Jewish and Other Free Men in the Mid-19th Century
Presenters: Barry R. Chiswick & RaeAnn H. Robinson
Affiliation: George Washington UniversityNovember 29, 2023
Title: When Ahasverus Turned Jewish: How the Premodern Legend of the Wandering Jew was Reclaimed by Jews
Presenter: Prof. Yair Mintzker
Affiliation: Princeton University- 2021
January 27, 2021
Title: Fake Jews: Contested Epistemologies of Jewishness
Presenter: Jason Lustig
Affiliation: The University of Texas at AustinFebruary 10, 2021
Title: On the Construction of Jewishness and the Inescapable Jewish Fate: The Cases of Werner and Gershom Scholem
Presenters: Mirjam Zadoff & Noam Zadoff
Affiliation: The Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism; University of InnsbruckMarch 24, 2021
Title: Rothschilds of the East? The making of a Global Jewish Elite in the Age of Empire
Presenter: Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah
Affiliation: Leiden/Ben-GurionSeptember 9, 2021
Title: Ernst Müller’s Esotericism: Toward a German-Jewish-Christian Theology
Presenter: Amir Engel
Affiliation: Hebrew UniversityOctober 7, 2021
Title: Breaking barriers: intercultural encounters in British Mandate Palestine
Presenter: Maayan Hilel
Affiliation: Northwestern UniversityNovember 30, 2021
Title: Jews and Law and the Modern State: Legal Nationalization in Colonial North Africa
Presenter: Jessica Marglin
Affiliation: University of Southern California