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The Ottoman Production of Ashkenazi Identity
The grouping of Yiddish speaking Jews, of various origin countries in Central and Eastern Europe, into a single overarching identity of Ashkenazim, was meaningful particularly in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Jewish contexts. This seminar examines the shaping of the Ashkenazi community in Ottoman Jerusalem, as facilitated by Ottoman legal and political context. Ottoman recognition of Ashkenazim as a corporate identity was crucial to its emergence and continuity.
Dr Yair Wallach is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Israeli Studies, and the head of the SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies. He has written on urban and material culture in modern Palestine/Israel, and more recently on race and migration. His book A City in Fragments: Urban Text in Modern Jerusalem (Stanford University Press, 2020) won the Jordan Schnitzer book prize in 2022.
Date:
2 December 2025, 14:15
Venue:
St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details:
Seminar room 5
Speaker:
Dr Yair Wallach (SOAS Centre for Jewish Studies)
Organising department:
Oxford School of Global and Area Studies
Organiser:
Dr Davidi Borabeck (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
middle.east@area.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Dr Davidi Borabeck (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Israel Studies Seminar
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://forms.office.com/e/YxtP7b9BBA
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Charlotte Guillain
