The Centre for German-Jewish Studies, University of Sussex; The Centre for Research on Antisemitism, TU Berlin; The Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg; The Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London; Jewish Museum Berlin (Web)

Venue: Jewish Museum Berlin
Time: 15.-17.12.2016
Proposals by: 26.02.2016

Just decades after intense persecution and the struggle for recognition that marked the second half of the 19th century, Jewish leaders and ordinary Jews found themselves at an unprecedented social and political crossroads. The frenzied military, social, and cultural mobilisation of European societies from 1914 onwards, along with the outbreak of revolution in Russia and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East had a profound impact on Jewish communities worldwide. From the outset, the First World War was seen as a watershed in Jewish history. Early in 1917, the Hebrew language daily newspaper ‘Hatzfira’, published in Warsaw, expounded to its readers: “the Great Commonwealth War that confused the world had put the Jewish world under one star. From the time the Hebrew people went into exile there was no one single historical event which could include and encompass the entire Jewish people in all places of dispersion, as this global war did.” One of the most fascinating findings to emerge from seeing the Great War as a turning point in Jewish history is the question of Jewish loyalties. Read more and source … (Web)