Matthias B. Lehmann :: Faculty
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Associate Professor, Department of History EducationPh.D. at Freie Universität Berlin, 2002 |
Research Interests
Early modern and modern Jewish history, Sephardic studies
Personal Statement
I am a historian of early modern and modern Jewish history with a special interest in the history of the Spanish Jews and the Sephardi diaspora in the Mediterranean world. In my first book, Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture (Indiana University Press, 2005), I look at the transformation of Ottoman Jewry in the nineteenth century through the lens of popularized rabbinic literature written in the vernacular language of the Ottoman Sephardim, Ladino or Judeo-Spanish. This vernacular rabbinic literature, negotiating between perpetuating rabbinic tradition and addressing the challenges of modernity, provides a fresh perspective on the modernization of Ottoman Jewry and the complex role of the rabbis in this process. My current project, tentatively entitled Philanthropy and Identity in the Sephardi Diaspora, 1660-1860, looks at rabbinic networks and networks of support for the Jewish communities of Palestine in the Sephardi diaspora prior to the advent of European and European-Jewish international organizations in the second half of the nineteenth century. I studied at the universities of Freiburg, Berlin, and Jerusalem, and did my graduate work at Freie Universität Berlin and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Madrid. I am teaching courses on early modern and modern European and Mediterranean Jewish history.
Publication Highlights
Books
Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Articles
“A Livornese ‘Port Jew’ and the Sephardim of the Ottoman Empire.” Jewish Social Studies 11, no. 2 (2005): 51-76.
“Representations and Transformation of Knowledge in Judeo-Spanish Ethical Literature: The Case of Eli’ezer and Judah Papo’s ‘Pele Yo’ets’”, in Klaus Hermann et al., eds., Jewish Studies Between the Disciplines, (Leiden: Brill, 2003), pp. 299-324.
“The Intended Reader of Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Judeo-Spanish Reading Culture.” Jewish History 16 (2002): 283-307.
“Islamic Legal Consultation and the Muslim-Jewish ‘Convivencia’.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 6 (1999): 25-54.
Honors and Awards
- Ernst Reuter Prize for outstanding dissertation at Freie Universität Berlin (2002)
- Humboldt Foundation Fellowship (2002, offer declined)
- Maurice Amado Research Grant in Sephardic Studies (2001 and 2004)
- Yad Hanadiv Fellowship (2005, offer declined)
- Indiana University College Arts and Humanities Institute Fellowship (2005)
