David Graizbord
David Graizbord is a historian of early modern and modern Jews. To date his research has focused mostly on the Western Sephardi Diaspora of the seventeenth century. In particular, Graizbord's writing approaches questions of religious, social, and political identity as these questions shaped the lives of so-called "New Christians" or "conversos" from the Iberian Peninsula who became Jews in exile. He has also written about Judeophobia and the culture of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions; marginality and dissidence in Jewish and Ibero-Catholic societies of the seventeenth century; ethnicity and religion among Sephardim from medieval times to the 1700s; and converso trading networks in the Atlantic. More recently he has published research on Jewish ethnic identity and Zionism among American Jews (see below).
Graizbord teaches undergraduate courses on Jewish civilization, medieval and early modern Jewish history, modern Jewish history, Jewish mysticism (its history and principal phenomena), the Spanish Inquisition, and, occasionally, the history of Antisemitism. His repertoire of graduate courses--offered primarily to students in the History Department's Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies--focuses on early modern Jewish history and Ibero-Catholic history.
Graizbord serves as Program Leader of the UofA's faculty-led Summer Study Abroad Program, "Israel in Arizona" (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Jezreel Valley).
Recent publication and on-going work:
The New Zionists: Conversations About Israel and Jewish National Identity with Young North American Jews (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)
Renouncing and Denouncing the Nation: Jews and Former Jews Against the Jewish People, from The Middle Ages to the Eve of Modernity (in progress).
Graizbord teaches undergraduate courses on Jewish civilization, medieval and early modern Jewish history, modern Jewish history, Jewish mysticism (its history and principal phenomena), the Spanish Inquisition, and, occasionally, the history of Antisemitism. His repertoire of graduate courses--offered primarily to students in the History Department's Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies--focuses on early modern Jewish history and Ibero-Catholic history.
Graizbord serves as Program Leader of the UofA's faculty-led Summer Study Abroad Program, "Israel in Arizona" (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Jezreel Valley).
Recent publication and on-going work:
The New Zionists: Conversations About Israel and Jewish National Identity with Young North American Jews (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)
Renouncing and Denouncing the Nation: Jews and Former Jews Against the Jewish People, from The Middle Ages to the Eve of Modernity (in progress).
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Articles by David Graizbord
The article explores inquisitorial ideology as functionaries of the Spanish Inquisition represented and understood it in the late seventeenth century. My analysis focuses on the official account of and sermon delivered at a monumental auto de fe celebrated in Madrid in 1680. I contend that in the process of demonizing Jews and Judaism, the auto articulated a religious worldview with deep roots in a society not yet “disenchanted” by modernity. My attempt, here, however, is also to anchor an interpretation of the auto in its unique historical context—a context of anti-Portuguese persecution in late seventeenth-century Spain—and thus to historicize more sweeping, anthropological readings of auto ceremonies as forms of religious representation (for instance, in recent work by Maureen Flynn), while deepening interpretations of inquisitorial Judeophobia (such as that of Marvin Lunenfeld) that emphasize the socio-political dynamics of “scapegoating” rather than anti-Judaism’s preponderant religious dimension.
The notion that early modern “Men of the Nation,” also known as (Judeo-) Conversos and New Christians, were in essence suffering Jews who yearned to “return” to Judaism, and that they did so naturally whenever circumstances allowed it, has dominated scholarly treatments of that group. This article proposes an alternative approach to the interpretation of Conversos’ social and religious identity-formation. Based in part on the work of Carlo Ginzburg, the work first proposes ways of reading
inquisitorial evidence of New Christians’ self-perceptions that avoid an all-too-common, naïve positivism. Second, the work explores ethnicity and religion as categories of analysis in light of anthropological insights in order to render a complex picture of the role of these two factors as intertwined yet sometimes dissonant elements in the historical construction of Jewish, Sephardi, and New Christian identities.
Key words: Conversos, ethnicity, Sephardim, identity
RESUMO
O presente ensaio argumenta que estudos de sociedades ibéricas modernas têm muitas vezes sido insuficientemente aterrados no estudo da cultura judaica pré-moderna, e que, consequentemente, estudos históricos sobre os judeoconversos tem reproduzido noções de judaicidade medievais cristãas cuando eles abordam a questão chave da identidade. O artigo ilustra este fenómeno de errada categorização através de um exemplo medieval tardio, bem como exemplos modernos que o ecoam e o complicam. Finalmente, o artigo descreve aspectos dominantes da cultura judaica tradicional, como fenómeno coletivo, público e abrangente, que impedem o uso fácil da categoria de "[cripto-] Judaísmo" para explicar as identidades novo-cristãs.
Key words: Crypto-Judaism; conversos; historiography; Iberian Jews.
Plavras-chave: Cripto-judaísmo; conversos; historiografia; Judeus ibéricos.
Book Chapters in Refereed Anthologies by David Graizbord
Book Reviews by David Graizbord
The article explores inquisitorial ideology as functionaries of the Spanish Inquisition represented and understood it in the late seventeenth century. My analysis focuses on the official account of and sermon delivered at a monumental auto de fe celebrated in Madrid in 1680. I contend that in the process of demonizing Jews and Judaism, the auto articulated a religious worldview with deep roots in a society not yet “disenchanted” by modernity. My attempt, here, however, is also to anchor an interpretation of the auto in its unique historical context—a context of anti-Portuguese persecution in late seventeenth-century Spain—and thus to historicize more sweeping, anthropological readings of auto ceremonies as forms of religious representation (for instance, in recent work by Maureen Flynn), while deepening interpretations of inquisitorial Judeophobia (such as that of Marvin Lunenfeld) that emphasize the socio-political dynamics of “scapegoating” rather than anti-Judaism’s preponderant religious dimension.
The notion that early modern “Men of the Nation,” also known as (Judeo-) Conversos and New Christians, were in essence suffering Jews who yearned to “return” to Judaism, and that they did so naturally whenever circumstances allowed it, has dominated scholarly treatments of that group. This article proposes an alternative approach to the interpretation of Conversos’ social and religious identity-formation. Based in part on the work of Carlo Ginzburg, the work first proposes ways of reading
inquisitorial evidence of New Christians’ self-perceptions that avoid an all-too-common, naïve positivism. Second, the work explores ethnicity and religion as categories of analysis in light of anthropological insights in order to render a complex picture of the role of these two factors as intertwined yet sometimes dissonant elements in the historical construction of Jewish, Sephardi, and New Christian identities.
Key words: Conversos, ethnicity, Sephardim, identity
RESUMO
O presente ensaio argumenta que estudos de sociedades ibéricas modernas têm muitas vezes sido insuficientemente aterrados no estudo da cultura judaica pré-moderna, e que, consequentemente, estudos históricos sobre os judeoconversos tem reproduzido noções de judaicidade medievais cristãas cuando eles abordam a questão chave da identidade. O artigo ilustra este fenómeno de errada categorização através de um exemplo medieval tardio, bem como exemplos modernos que o ecoam e o complicam. Finalmente, o artigo descreve aspectos dominantes da cultura judaica tradicional, como fenómeno coletivo, público e abrangente, que impedem o uso fácil da categoria de "[cripto-] Judaísmo" para explicar as identidades novo-cristãs.
Key words: Crypto-Judaism; conversos; historiography; Iberian Jews.
Plavras-chave: Cripto-judaísmo; conversos; historiografia; Judeus ibéricos.
Published Description:
The rise of the State of Israel has seen a transformation in the way that many Jews in the Diaspora regard their identity as Jews and as citizens of their respective countries. Yet the content of Jewish Identity and the opinions and behaviors that follow from that content have varied, sometimes dramatically, according to context.
Graizbord will identify and explain some key differences in Jewish (self-)perception and behavior relating to Israel in the United States, versus the same phenomena in other places in the Jewish Diaspora. Specifically, the talk will examine how American Jews tend to relate to Israel and how that informs their self-concepts. The talk will then draw a comparison and contrast with the ways in which Jews in Latin America and Europe regard themselves in relation to the Jewish nation-state. Then, the talk will show how the key to explaining the contrast lies in history.
Professor David Graizbord is the Associate Director of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies. A historian of early modern and modern Jews, recently he has begun to research Jewish ethnic identity and Zionism among American Jews. Graizbord serves as Program Leader of the University of Arizona's faculty-led Summer Study Abroad program, "Arizona in Israel".
The State of Israel and its underlying political ideology, Zionism, are sources of political and cultural identification among many young Jewish adults in the US. Recent surveys,however, suggest that increasing numbers of those young American Jews who are not religiously Orthodox tend to display a weak attachment to Israel, or even disaffection, at least until they marry and build families. Bucking this possible trend, some non-orthodox American Jews of "Generation Y" (18-30 year-olds) display a strong attachment, even identification with Zionism and Israel even when they have no familial connections to the country. What accounts for this phenomenon of strong attachment? What do Zionism and Israel mean to these subjects, and why? This talk will address these questions on the basis of on-going qualitative research among Jewish-American "millenials" from the Conservative, Reform, non-denominational, and other non-Orthodox streams of American Jewish life.
Lecture at the Fractured Faiths Symposium by David Graizbord, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies. September 9, 2016. New Mexico History Museum.
Each chapter explores key factors that shaped both distinctive early modern Jewish communities and a remarkably coalescent and far broader community-of-communities. The contributors engage and answer the following questions: What do historians mean by “early modernity,” and to what extent does the concept illuminate the history and culture(s) of Jews from the end of the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment? What were the general demographic contours of the Jewish diaspora over this period and how did they change? How did culture, politics, technology, economics, and gender shape diasporic Jewish communities across eastern and western Europe and the New World over the course of some 400 years? Ultimately, the work renders a portrait of coherence and diversity, continuity and discontinuity, in early modern Jewish life within and across temporal and geographic boundaries.
Early Modern Jewish Civilization is essential reading for all students of Jewish history and civilization and early modern history more broadly.
Early Modern Jewish Civilization
Unity and Diversity in a Diasporic Society. An Introduction
Edited By David Graizbord
Copyright 2024
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$39.19
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ISBN 9780367767235
470 Pages 99 B/W Illustrations
Published September 18, 2024 by Routledge
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This collection is an introductory historical survey and selective cultural analysis of the development, coalescence, and eventual waning of a diasporic civilization—that of the Jews of the early modern period (ca. 1391–1789) in Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and key nodes of the Iberian Empires in the Americas.
Each chapter explores key factors that shaped both distinctive early modern Jewish communities and a remarkably coalescent and far broader community-of-communities. The contributors engage and answer the following questions: What do historians mean by “early modernity,” and to what extent does the concept illuminate the history and culture(s) of Jews from the end of the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment? What were the general demographic contours of the Jewish diaspora over this period and how did they change? How did culture, politics, technology, economics, and gender shape diasporic Jewish communities across eastern and western Europe and the New World over the course of some 400 years? Ultimately, the work renders a portrait of coherence and diversity, continuity and discontinuity, in early modern Jewish life within and across temporal and geographic boundaries.
Early Modern Jewish Civilization is essential reading for all students of Jewish history and civilization and early modern history more broadly.