Late antiquity culminated in shocking episodes of violence both against and by Jews, accompanied by the spread of stories and accusations that would profoundly shape Jewish reputations among Christians and, in time, Muslims. This lecture examines these developments as part of a broader transformation in how communities came to be evaluated through the lens of loyalty.
Thursday, October 15, 2026 17:00to18:30
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Tuesday, October 27, 2026 17:30to19:00
The following lecture examines the meaning of the Yiddish term nakhes. Translated most frequently as “parental joy,” the term comes to bear an alternative connotation in the work of Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. As I will explore, for Sholem Aleichem the term bespeaks a restive concern for literary futurity. This lecture reads Sholem Aleichem’s monologue, “The Joy of Children” (“Nakhes fun kinder”), in conversation with two parodic versions of the text written by others. These readings will textualize a new understanding of joy in Yiddish.
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Monday, November 2, 2026 17:00to19:00
This talk offers a new approach to the history of Jews’ citizenship in the Ottoman Empire. The standard narrative presumes that Ottoman Jews lacked citizenship before 1856, when their status as dhimmis (protected non-Muslim monotheists) was abolished. Many historians, both Jewish and Ottoman, thus follow the model of European Jewish historiography in framing the abolition of dhimmi status as a form of “emancipation.” Instead, Marglin argues that Jews did have a form of citizenship in the early modern Ottoman Empire.
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Thursday, November 12, 2026 16:00to17:30
How do we write a history of urban centers in the late Ottoman Empire in which we study Muslims, Jews, and Christians through a single frame? Focusing on his new book The Ottoman World of Sports: Refashioning Bodies, Men, and Communities in Late Imperial Istanbul (University of Texas Press, 2026), historian Murat C. Yıldız explores the creation of a shared sports culture among Turks, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews at the end of empire in the political center of the Ottoman Empire.
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