Country houses are powerful symbols of national identity, evoking the glamorous world of the landowning aristocracy. Jewish country houses – properties that were owned, built, or renewed by Jews – tell a more complex story of prejudice and integration, difference and connection. A few are now museums of international importance, many more are hidden treasures, and all were beloved homes that bear witness to the remarkable achievements of newly emancipated Jews across Europe – and to a dream of belonging that mostly came to a brutal end with the Holocaust.

Jewish Country Houses represents a unique collaboration between renowned photographer Hélène Binet and a distinguished team of historians and curators.

Join us for a conversation involving Hélène Binet, the book’s editors Juliet Carey and Abigail Green, Berlin-based curator Ruth Ur, and architectural historians Esther da Costa Mayer and William Whyte. Binet’s Discovering Jewish Country Houses will be showing at Waddesdon Manor until 22 June.

Speakers:
Hélène Binet is an internationally acclaimed architectural photographer based in London.
Juliet Carey is Senior Curator at Waddesdon Manor (National Trust/Rothschild Foundation).
Abigail Green is Professor of Modern European History at Brasenose College, Oxford.
Ruth Ur is the founder of urKultur GmbH.
Esther da Costa Meyer is Professor Emerita in the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University and Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture.
William Whyte is Professor of Social and Architectural History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.

The talk will take place from 17:00-18:15, and will be followed by a drinks reception.