Professor of Jewish History Glenn Dynner Delivers Colloquium on Formative Violence

At the first Jewish Studies Colloquium of the year, Glenn Dynner, the new Jay Berkowitz Professor of Jewish History, presented on his current work-in-progress about Polish Jewish responses to anti-Jewish violence from medieval through modern times. Countering the argument, associated with the historian Salo Baron, that those who tell the story of the Jewish people should break with its “lachrymose history” and tell a more positive story, Dynner argued that this is an overly sanguine way to look at the past and one that erases the real dangers and violence that Jews experienced in Europe over the centuries. To tell a true story of the Jewish past, Dynner argued, means confronting the violence that Jews faced as one part of the multi-faceted, complex, and rich history of Jewish life.