From Curacao to Jerusalem: The Americas and the Global Jewish Diaspora - With Dr. Dalia Wassner
On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies hosted a talk with Dr. Dalia Wassner About the talk: This talk will focus on Dr. Wassner's current research on the Panamanian Jewish community, centered on the memoir written by Jacob Brandon Maduro in 1954 Havana which depicts his family trajectory from Portugal to Amsterdam, then Curacao, Panama, NYC and Cuba. Focusing on the Brandon Maduro family's trajectory and identifying a unique Port Jewry legacy of the Americas, the talk will also address the memoir as offering a first-hand account of the most impactful occurrences of the first half of the 20th century, including reflections on WWII and the birth of the State of Israel, as they related to a hemispheric responsibility to safeguard Jewish identity. Dr. Wassner will put this in context of how Jewish communities in Latin America are among the most Zionistic in the world, while also speaking to the changing waves of Jewish imigration in the Americas (Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi), as they've taken place from the 17th C to the Present. About the speaker: Dalia Wassner, PhD is the director of Jews of the Americas, an initiative of Brandeis University at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. Dr. Wassner is a historian whose research and teaching is dedicated to providing more inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to the Jewish Diaspora and broadening the academic fields of Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, and Diaspora Studies. https://www.concordia.ca/azrieli
On Wednesday, October 25, 2023, the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies hosted a talk with Dr. Dalia Wassner About the talk: This talk will focus on Dr. Wassner's current research on the Panamanian Jewish community, centered on the memoir written by Jacob Brandon Maduro in 1954 Havana which depicts his family trajectory from Portugal to Amsterdam, then Curacao, Panama, NYC and Cuba. Focusing on the Brandon Maduro family's trajectory and identifying a unique Port Jewry legacy of the Americas, the talk will also address the memoir as offering a first-hand account of the most impactful occurrences of the first half of the 20th century, including reflections on WWII and the birth of the State of Israel, as they related to a hemispheric responsibility to safeguard Jewish identity. Dr. Wassner will put this in context of how Jewish communities in Latin America are among the most Zionistic in the world, while also speaking to the changing waves of Jewish imigration in the Americas (Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi), as they've taken place from the 17th C to the Present. About the speaker: Dalia Wassner, PhD is the director of Jews of the Americas, an initiative of Brandeis University at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. Dr. Wassner is a historian whose research and teaching is dedicated to providing more inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to the Jewish Diaspora and broadening the academic fields of Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, and Diaspora Studies. https://www.concordia.ca/azrieli