Episode 5: Before Zionism

Today's Campus Conflicts and the Future of Jewish Studies

Media and political attention are focused on college campuses, and Jews figure prominently in these debates. Jewish Studies programs now find themselves at ground zero of public debates around academic freedom, antisemitism, and the role of higher education. On March 11, 2025, philosopher Dr. Gilah Kletenik and historian Dr. Devin E. Naar engaged in a conversation moderated by Dr. Daniel Heller to reflect on key questions provoked by our current moment. The event took place on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington.

Spanish & Portuguese Citizenship Oral Histories: Colette Capriles

Spanish & Portuguese Citizenship Oral Histories: Colette Capriles by UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

Episode 5: Before Zionism

Present-day discussions of anti-Semitism often involve Israel and the Zionist movement... but before the 20th century, Jews' and Jewish scholars' understandings of anti-Semitism were completely connected with Europe and Christianity. In the final episode of the season, guest Liora R. Halperin looks at how 19th-century Jewish settlers to Palestine were influenced by the anti-Semitism they had experienced in the Russian Empire: how it shaped their perceptions of their new home (or didn't), and what we can learn from their story today.

Episode 4: Jewish Anti-Semitism?

Can Jews be anti-Semitic against other Jews? In this episode, guest Devin E. Naar looks at the history of Jewish prejudice against other Jews in the United States, from the very first American Jewish settlers in the 1600s to twentieth-century efforts to exclude Jews from the Muslim world from Jewish institutions — as the American Jewish community struggled to hold on to its "precarious whiteness."

Episode 3: Being Jewish in Medieval Spain

Has anti-Semitism always been the same, or have ideas about Jewishness, and suspicion towards Jews, changed over time? In this episode, guest Ana Gómez-Bravo explores these questions by looking at the lives of Jews and "conversos" (Jewish converts to Christianity) in medieval Spain, explaining how Catholic authorities tried to define and restrict their Jewish and converso residents, in a conversation that spans medieval medicine, forbidden breastfeeding, decoy hams, official guides to Jewishness, and the expulsion of Jews in 1492.