Midrasha Center for Adult Jewish Learning

presents Explorations in Jewish History with Professor Miriam Bodian

Midrasha Guest Scholar
Fall 5754 - 1993

All of Professor Bodian's fall classes for Midrasha are being co-sponsored and hosted by Temple Emanu-El,
14450 West 10 Mile Road, Oak Park. Members of Temple Emanu-El should contact their Education Office
for tuition information.

"SCATTERED PEARLS: THE SEPHARDIC DIASPORA"

The era of convivencia (co-existence) among Jews, Muslims, and Catholics in the Iberian peninsula came
to a violent end with the Seville pogroms of 1391. This pivotal event, followed by the decree of expulsion
from Spain in 1492, forced conversions to Catholicism in Portugal in 1497, and centuries of intimidation
and persecution by the Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal, precipitated the decision by hundreds of
thousands to leave their homes in Iberia and establish Jewish communities in strange new places like
Cochin in India, Safed in the Holy Land, Izmir and Constantinople in Turkey, Recife in Brazil, Salonika in
the Balkans, and the major European cities of Venice, London, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. This slide
lecture will survey the flow of the Sephardic diaspora as it took root in numerous new communities that
flourished, each with its own character and flavor, until World War II.

Sunday, September 26 1:00 to 3:00 PM Temple Emanu-El

$12

"WHO IS A JEW? A CASE STUDY FROM 17TH CENTURY JEWISH HISTORY'

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492• did not bring to an end a "Jewish" presence there; a large
population of converted Jews and their descendants ("conversos") remained. Then, in 1497, the entire
Jewish community of Portugal was forcibly converted to Catholicism. Some conversos chose exile, but the
majority who stayed behind were totally cut off from Jewish tradition for generations. With the opening of
Atlantic trade in the late 16th century, many conversos fled north to the mercantile centers of London,
Amsterdam, and Hamburg. When they arrived, they faced difficult encounters both with the host, non-
Iberian environment and with Ashkenazic Jews who had enjoyed an unbroken chain of tradition unaffected
by the Iberian traumas of Inquisition, exile, and conversion. The conversos did not reject their past, yet
desperately wished to be part of the Jewish world, whose ritual life was completely alien to their
experience. This slide lecture course will explore the issues of Jewish identity, bi-cultural loyalty, and the
clash of values that characterized this fascinating chapter of Jewish history.

Monday

7:00 to 8:30 PM

Temple Emanu-El

4 weeks

October 4, 11, 18, 25

$36 (*)

(*) If taken with Sect. 26 lecture. combined tuition is only $42.

ABOUT PROFESSOR MIRIAM BODIAN

Professor Miriam Bodian is Assistant Professor of
History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
(on leave this semester). From 1988 to 1990 she
was Assistant Professor at Yeshiva University in
New York. She has taught adult Jewish education
classes here and in New York and has been in the
Dept. of Jewish History at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. Prof. Bodian holds a B.A. from
Harvard University and an M.A. and Ph. D. in
Jewish History from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Watch for more information about Midrasha's
fall schedule in future issues of the Jewish News.

Midrasha Center for Adult Jewish Learning
is a division of the Agency for Jewish Education

21550 West 12 Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48076

354 - 1050 (fax 354 - 1068)

