Come learn about the experiences of Jews Across the Americas this winter with Dr. Adriana M. Brodsky. We will use historical documents to reconstruct their presence on the continent, starting with their persecution by the Inquisition in Spanish America, and ending with Jewish reactions to the Holocaust, and efforts at preserving their rich history.This three-part course will meet weekly from 1:00 to 2:30 PM ET. Dates for the class:
Sunday, February 23
In this class, which will focus on two documents to learn about how Jews fared under various empires during the 17th and 18th centuries. The first one is the Trial of Faith involving Mencía de Luna, a Spanish woman who followed her husband to Perú and who was accused by the Inquisition of being a crypto-Jew. The second source, produced during the Age of Atlantic Revolution, is a petition by the Jews of Color in Suriname to be allowed the same rights as white Jews.
Sunday, March 2
The two documents we will focus on in this class will help us understand the role of Jews as they aided the relatively new nations of which they became part of in expanding their frontiers during the 19th century. The first is a photo of Julius Meyer and a group of Native Americans posing outside his store in Omaha, Nebraska; the other is a lesson plan for the Jewish schools founded on Jewish agricultural colonies in Argentina.
Sunday, March 9
In this class, we will learn about how Jews in the Americas reacted to the rise of Hitler and the efforts of Jews to commemorate heroic actions during the Holocaust. This can help us chart how Jews in the Americas reacted to the Holocaust during and afterwards. The last document, a cookbook recipe, will help us understand some of the ways through which Jews hope to keep alive traditions that immigrants had brought from their homes hundreds of years ago, and which were on the verge of being lost.
Registration is for the full series. Classes cannot be purchased individually.
Adriana M. Brodsky is Professor of Latin American and Jewish History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Her book Sephardi, Jewish, Argentine:Creating Community and National Identity, 1880-1960, appeared in 2016, and her most recent publication is a co-edited volume called Jews Across the Americas (with Laura Leibman). She has published on Sephardi food, schools, beauty contests, and Latin American Jewish History in general. She is currently finishing a manuscript on Argentine youth in Zionist movements (1940s-1970s). She is co-President of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA).