The turn of the 20th century was a moment of new national self-definitions in the Middle East. At the same time that the Young Turk movement was trying to re-define the Ottoman Empire, Zionists were attempting to establish a new Jewish homeland in Ottoman Palestine. How did the Ottoman Jewish communities, both in Palestine and elsewhere in the Empire, contend with these two sometimes opposing projects?
Mark Stein, professor of history and chair of the History Department at Muhlenberg College, will give a talk on "Imagining a Nation, Imagining an Empire: Ottoman Jews and Zionism.”
The event is part of a year-long series on Imagining Jews: From the Ancient World to the American Present. It is sponsored by the Jewish Studies program at Muhlenberg College, the Philip and Muriel Berman Center for Jewish Studies at Lehigh University, the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College and the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley.
Program is free and open to the public thanks to a generous grant from the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project, directed by the Association for Jewish Studies.