Session Abstract

In recent years, Jewish historians have been doing more and more to speak to important questions in the larger debates taking place among general historians, and an increasing number of general historians have begun to incorporate Jews into their larger studies.  A small minority once considered more or less irrelevant, Jews are increasingly considered of interest to general history for the way they shed light on larger issues.  To what do we owe this development and what is gained when we speak across this divide?  What methodological issues arise when we do so?  To answer these questions, an accomplished group of scholars whose work focuses on different times and places—the ancient Greek world, Ottoman Empire, early modern Poland, and the modern French empire--  will discuss the issue from their different vantage points.