Ethan Katz | University of California, Berkeley (original) (raw)
Papers by Ethan Katz
Colonialism and the Jews, 2017
The lively essays collected here explore colonial history, culture, and thought as it intersects ... more The lively essays collected here explore colonial history, culture, and thought as it intersects with Jewish studies. Connecting the Jewish experience with colonialism to mobility and exchange, diaspora, internationalism, racial discrimination, and Zionism, the volume presents the work of Jewish historians who recognize the challenge that colonialism brings to their work and sheds light on the diverse topics that reflect the myriad ways that Jews engaged with empire in modern times. Taken together, these essays reveal the interpretive power of the "Imperial Turn" and present a rethinking of the history of Jews in colonial societies in light of postcolonial critiques and destabilized categories of analysis. A provocative discussion forum about Zionism as colonialism is also included.
Jews and Judaism in Modern Times
The American Historical Review
Politics, Religion & Ideology, 2016
Journal of European Studies, 2005
The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus f... more The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus far to penetrate certain essential questions in French historiography. Despite its paramount importance, the memory of the French Revolution during the Occupation years has received little serious examination. This article argues that the central revolutionary commemoration of le 14 juillet assumed a critical role
The Burdens of Brotherhood, 2015
Secularism in Question (UPenn Press), eds. Katz and Joskowicz, 2015
To date, scholars have rarely talked about contemporary antisemitism and Islamophobia in France a... more To date, scholars have rarely talked about contemporary antisemitism and Islamophobia in France as part of a single story. When they have, it has typically been as part of a framework for analyzing racism that is essentially competitive: some depict Islamophobia as less a real problem than a frequent excuse to ignore antisemitism; others minimize antisemitism as an unfortunate but marginal phenomenon by comparison with the pervasive nature of anti-Muslim racism in French society. This article argues that the two are inseparable, and it focuses on a hitherto overlooked set of connections: in the era since the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher in January 2015, at key flash points that question Muslim belonging in France, the position of Jews has repeatedly been invoked in ambiguous, contradictory ways. Participants in these public debates have sometimes forcefully maintained that Jews are unlike Muslims, since they have long been fully integrated French citizens. At other moments, these discussions have raised the specter of Jewish ethnic and religious difference. By emphasizing Jewish particularity, such debates evoke, perforce, the past twenty-five years of controversies about the allegedly problematic attire, food, and beliefs of France's Muslims. The article focuses on several key moments, from the speech of Prime Minister Manuel Valls before the French parliament in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, to the kippah and burkini affairs of 2016, to the provocative comments of candidates in the 2017 presidential elections concerning Muslim and Jewish religious and ethnic markers of difference.
Typescript. Thesis (B.A. with departmental honors)--Amherst College, 2002. Includes bibliographic... more Typescript. Thesis (B.A. with departmental honors)--Amherst College, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [190]-196).
Typescript. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2005. Includes bibliographical refer... more Typescript. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89)
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2008
ABSTRACT For German-Jewish refugees, the Holocaust and its aftermath produced extremely difficult... more ABSTRACT For German-Jewish refugees, the Holocaust and its aftermath produced extremely difficult questions of identity and memory. The considerable literature on German-Jewish emigre historians has rarely addressed scholars' efforts to confront such questions, and has particularly neglected the important role of second-generation refugee historians. This article examines the connection between the experiences, memories and scholarship of two leading second-generation emigrant historians: George L. Mosse and Peter Gay. As children, Mosse and Gay lived the Goethian Germany of Bildung, and then fled as the same Germany produced the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Each went on to write important work on the life and death of the modern German-Jewish community. This article contends that Mosse and Gay thus shared a unique combination of intimacy and distance regarding German and German-Jewish history. Such a combination and a correspondent status of insider-outsider made Mosse's and Gay's lives and perspectives paradigmatic of the dialectical paths of Germany in the twentieth century.
The Journal of Modern History, 2013
Colonialism and the Jews, 2017
The lively essays collected here explore colonial history, culture, and thought as it intersects ... more The lively essays collected here explore colonial history, culture, and thought as it intersects with Jewish studies. Connecting the Jewish experience with colonialism to mobility and exchange, diaspora, internationalism, racial discrimination, and Zionism, the volume presents the work of Jewish historians who recognize the challenge that colonialism brings to their work and sheds light on the diverse topics that reflect the myriad ways that Jews engaged with empire in modern times. Taken together, these essays reveal the interpretive power of the "Imperial Turn" and present a rethinking of the history of Jews in colonial societies in light of postcolonial critiques and destabilized categories of analysis. A provocative discussion forum about Zionism as colonialism is also included.
Jews and Judaism in Modern Times
The American Historical Review
Politics, Religion & Ideology, 2016
Journal of European Studies, 2005
The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus f... more The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus far to penetrate certain essential questions in French historiography. Despite its paramount importance, the memory of the French Revolution during the Occupation years has received little serious examination. This article argues that the central revolutionary commemoration of le 14 juillet assumed a critical role
The Burdens of Brotherhood, 2015
Secularism in Question (UPenn Press), eds. Katz and Joskowicz, 2015
To date, scholars have rarely talked about contemporary antisemitism and Islamophobia in France a... more To date, scholars have rarely talked about contemporary antisemitism and Islamophobia in France as part of a single story. When they have, it has typically been as part of a framework for analyzing racism that is essentially competitive: some depict Islamophobia as less a real problem than a frequent excuse to ignore antisemitism; others minimize antisemitism as an unfortunate but marginal phenomenon by comparison with the pervasive nature of anti-Muslim racism in French society. This article argues that the two are inseparable, and it focuses on a hitherto overlooked set of connections: in the era since the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher in January 2015, at key flash points that question Muslim belonging in France, the position of Jews has repeatedly been invoked in ambiguous, contradictory ways. Participants in these public debates have sometimes forcefully maintained that Jews are unlike Muslims, since they have long been fully integrated French citizens. At other moments, these discussions have raised the specter of Jewish ethnic and religious difference. By emphasizing Jewish particularity, such debates evoke, perforce, the past twenty-five years of controversies about the allegedly problematic attire, food, and beliefs of France's Muslims. The article focuses on several key moments, from the speech of Prime Minister Manuel Valls before the French parliament in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, to the kippah and burkini affairs of 2016, to the provocative comments of candidates in the 2017 presidential elections concerning Muslim and Jewish religious and ethnic markers of difference.
Typescript. Thesis (B.A. with departmental honors)--Amherst College, 2002. Includes bibliographic... more Typescript. Thesis (B.A. with departmental honors)--Amherst College, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [190]-196).
Typescript. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2005. Includes bibliographical refer... more Typescript. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-89)
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 2008
ABSTRACT For German-Jewish refugees, the Holocaust and its aftermath produced extremely difficult... more ABSTRACT For German-Jewish refugees, the Holocaust and its aftermath produced extremely difficult questions of identity and memory. The considerable literature on German-Jewish emigre historians has rarely addressed scholars' efforts to confront such questions, and has particularly neglected the important role of second-generation refugee historians. This article examines the connection between the experiences, memories and scholarship of two leading second-generation emigrant historians: George L. Mosse and Peter Gay. As children, Mosse and Gay lived the Goethian Germany of Bildung, and then fled as the same Germany produced the Third Reich and the Holocaust. Each went on to write important work on the life and death of the modern German-Jewish community. This article contends that Mosse and Gay thus shared a unique combination of intimacy and distance regarding German and German-Jewish history. Such a combination and a correspondent status of insider-outsider made Mosse's and Gay's lives and perspectives paradigmatic of the dialectical paths of Germany in the twentieth century.
The Journal of Modern History, 2013
Headlines from France suggest that Muslims have renewed an age-old struggle against Jews and that... more Headlines from France suggest that Muslims have renewed an age-old struggle against Jews and that the two groups are once more inevitably at odds. But the past tells a different story. The Burdens of Brotherhood is a sweeping history of Jews and Muslims in France from World War I to the present. Here Ethan Katz introduces a richer and more complex world that offers fresh perspective for understanding the opportunities and challenges in France today.
Focusing on the experiences of ordinary people, Katz shows how Jewish–Muslim relations were shaped by everyday encounters and by perceptions of deeply rooted collective similarities or differences. We meet Jews and Muslims advocating common and divergent political visions, enjoying common culinary and musical traditions, and interacting on more intimate terms as neighbors, friends, enemies, and even lovers and family members. Drawing upon dozens of archives, newspapers, and interviews, Katz tackles controversial subjects like Muslim collaboration and resistance during World War II and the Holocaust, Jewish participation in French colonialism, the international impact of the Israeli–Arab conflict, and contemporary Muslim antisemitism in France.
We see how Jews and Muslims, as ethno-religious minorities, understood and related to one another through their respective relationships to the French state and society. Through their eyes, we see colonial France as a multiethnic, multireligious society more open to public displays of difference than its postcolonial successor. This book thus dramatically reconceives the meaning and history not only of Jewish–Muslim relations but ultimately of modern France itself.
For much of the twentieth century, most religious and secular Jewish thinkers believed that they ... more For much of the twentieth century, most religious and secular Jewish thinkers believed that they were witnessing a steady, ongoing movement toward secularization. Toward the end of the century, however, as scholars and pundits began to speak of the global resurgence of religion, the normalization of secularism could no longer be considered inevitable. Recent decades have seen the strengthening of Orthodox movements in the United States and in Israel; religious Zionism has grown and radically changed since the 1960s, and new and vibrant nondenominational Jewish movements have emerged.
Secularism in Question examines the ways these contemporary revivals of religion prompt a reconsideration of many issues concerning Jews and Judaism from the early modern era to the present. Bringing together scholars of history, religion, philosophy, and literature, this volume illustrates how the categories of "religious" and "secular" have frequently proven far more permeable than fixed. The contributors challenge the problematic assumptions about the development of secularism that emerge from Protestant European and American perspectives and demonstrate that global Jewish experiences necessitate a reappraisal of conventional narratives of secularism. Ultimately, Secularism in Question calls for rethinking the very terms that animate many of the most contentious debates in contemporary Jewish life and far beyond.
Jewish History Matters, 2018
Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel join us discuss Colonialism and the Jews, an edited ... more Lisa Moses Leff, Ethan Katz, and Maud Mandel join us discuss Colonialism and the Jews, an edited volume bringing together essays from a 2014 conference on the subject. Listen for our conversation about the place of Jews in the history of colonialism and the role of empire in the varied Jewish experiences of modernity, how examining these topics helps us to rethink modern Jewish history, and the question of Zionism and colonialism.
This volume, Colonialism and the Jews, is the product of a 2014 conference at Brown University which dealt with the subject. It’s great because while there were only so many people who could attend that meeting, it is part of such an important conversation — one which we will be continuing in the episode today. The essays explore colonial history, culture, and thought as they intersect with Jewish studies. Together, they consider what the “Imperial Turn” means for Jewish studies — how changes in the way in which scholars study and consider empires means for the field of Jewish history. Because it is quite important. As Maud, Lisa, and Ethan note in the introduction to the volume, modern Jewish history has often been thought of in terms of the nation-state: the effort to gain the rights of emancipation, to participate in and integrate into the wider culture, and also the effort by Jewish nationalists to attain a state in various forms. However as they argue in the introduction to the book, we need to rethink the nature of the modern Jewish experience, and colonialism provides one potential set of tools to do that. That’s because Jews have often lived in colonial settings, and certainly within empires, and the tools and practices of colonialism have sometimes been used on the Jews even within Europe. If one thinks about Jews in the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires — to name just three of them — we can understand that it is also the imperial framework and not just the western European model of the nation-state which provides a useful frame for understanding modern Jewish history.
The book contains a set of 14 essays that deal with three major issues: Jews as subjects and agents of empire, Jews in colonial politics, and the issue of Zionism and colonialism. Altogether, it presents an important contribution to the study of Jews in the modern era and a great point of departure for what I’m sure will be a great conversation about why colonialism matters for Jewish history, and why the Jewish case helps us understand colonialism and empire as a whole.