Join the Department of History, the California History-Social Science Project, and the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis as we host a free speaker series and forum aimed at improving our public understanding of Middle Eastern history.

• Our second session features Professor Orit Bashkin. Professor Bashkin is Mabel Greene Myers Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Chicago. She is the author of four books, including New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq and Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel. Professor Bashkin’s talk will focus on Arab Jews in early Israel, migration, and nationalism in the twentieth century Middle East.
  • Abstract: This talk examines the history of the Jews of the Levant and the ways they interacted with Arabs and Muslims. It begins by examining interactions between Arabic speaking Jews and Spanish speaking Jews in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to 19th centuries, focusing on the localization and Arabization of Jews in the Levant, especially as Ottoman power declined. Bashkin explores the responses of Levantine Jews to European imperialism and colonialism, paying heed to the Jews who benefited from European support, especially during moments of crisis and, concurrently, emphasizing Jewish anxieties from—and resistance to--colonial intervention. Examining the lives of Jews living in Ottoman Palestine as they celebrated holidays together with Muslims, and worshiped in the same holy sites revered by Christians and Muslims shows us how these relationships, while far from being equal or harmonious, produced a greater Arabization and identification with a place and space. 
• Reception will take place from 5:00-5:30 pm. Scholar talk and conversation will take place from 5:30-7:00 pm.
• This series aims to bring together UC Davis students, faculty/staff, K-12 teachers, and the public as we learn to contextualize current conflicts.

• This series will also lead to the production of K-12 classroom materials later in the spring.