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 and Events

View All on the GW Calendar

Spring 2025

• February 5, 2025
  Title: Assassination and Information Operations in Palestine, 1917-48
  Presenter: Steven Wagner
  Affiliation: Brunel University, London
• February 27, 2025
  Title: Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish
  Presenter: Naomi Seidman
  Affiliation: University of Toronto
• March 19, 2025
  Title: The German Democratic Republic's Jewish Diplomacy: Between Anti-Fascism, Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism
  Presenter: Jonathan Kaplan
  Affiliation: University of Verona

Past Colloquia

2024

November 11, 2024
Title: In Love with the Land? Jewish Archaeology, Hebrew Fiction, and Yehuda Amichai's 'Nina of Ashkelon'
Presenter: Giacomo Loi 
Affiliation: Haifa University

October 25, 2024
Title: Vanishing Vienna: Modernism, Philosemitism, and Jews in a Postwar City
Presenter: Frances Tanzer
Affiliation: Clark University

September 27, 2024
Title: A Tempestuous, Romantic Life: Tea Arciszewska (1890-1962) and Yiddish Plays by Women
Presenter: Sonia Gollance
Affiliation: University College London

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 University

October 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 University

November 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 Austin

February 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 Innsbruck

March 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-Gurion

September 9, 2021
Title: Ernst Müller’s Esotericism: Toward a German-Jewish-Christian Theology
Presenter: Amir Engel
Affiliation: Hebrew University

October 7, 2021
Title: Breaking barriers: intercultural encounters in British Mandate Palestine
Presenter: Maayan Hilel
Affiliation: Northwestern University

November 30, 2021
Title: Jews and Law and the Modern State: Legal Nationalization in Colonial North Africa
Presenter: Jessica Marglin
Affiliation: University of Southern California