The Past, Present, and Future of Jewish History

The Past, Present, and Future of Jewish History gathered twenty prominent Jewish historians to discuss a series of pressing questions pertaining to the recent evolution and future development of Jewish history as a field of scholarly inquiry. Ranging from the metahistorical to the methodological, the questions address how Jews have navigated the vexed relationship between tradition and modernity, assimilation and dissimilation, place and mobility, radicalism and conservatism, acceptance and antisemitism, diaspora and nationhood, power and powerlessness, structure and agency, and universalism and particularism. In exploring these and other universal themes, the symposium underscored the importance of Jewish history to the study of the humanities.

Highlights