“The Jewish Exodus from the Muslim Middle East: Is 1948 rightfully taken as the breakpoint?”

Summary: This talk examines the history of the Jewish communities in the Middle East throughout the 20th century. It explores the recorded history of Jewish participation in national movements, responses to Zionism, and decolonization. At the core of the talk, we will examine the convention that 1948 was the breakpoint of Jewish history in the Middle East and North Africa and juxtapose it with the unfolding of decolonization. Additionally, we will discuss the existence of a Jewish community in Iran in the 21st century, Turkey, Morocco, and Jewish memory across the region.

Bio: Lior Sternfeld is the William J. and Charlotte K. Duddy University Endowed Fellow in the Humanities and Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University.

Sternfeld is a social historian of the modern Middle East with an emphasis on Iran and the Jewish communities of the region.

He is the author of Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth Century Iran (Stanford University Press 2018) and the co-author of Jews of Iran: A Photographic Chronicle (Penn State University Press 2022).

His current research focuses on the Iranian-Jewish diaspora communities in the US and Israel.