Context brings the brightest minds to your living room with perspective-shifting online lectures.

Jews and Muslims: The Long View with Dr. Emily Gottreich

Jews and Muslims: The Long View with Dr. Emily Gottreich


No events are scheduled at this time. Want to be notified when it’s back? Click the blue button to the right and we’ll notify you.

Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

In this seminar, we will go beyond the headlines to look at the deeper historical and theological foundations of this millenium-plus relationship, starting with Muhammad and the Jews of seventh century Arabia and continuing through Al-Andalus, the Ottoman Empire, and the resurgence of Jewish culture in many parts of the Islamic world today.
How did the new religion (Islam) deal with the pre-existing religions it encountered as it spread outward from Arabia, as far as Spain in the west and India and Indonesia in the east? What roles did Jews play in the various Islamic societies that developed? Are all Jews in the Islamic world Sephardic? And finally, how central is the Israel-Palestine conflict to this broader history?
Led by a Harvard-trained historian of the Middle East and North Africa, Dr. Emily Gottreich, this seminar will introduce participants to the lived history of Muslim-Jewish relations in a variety of rich contexts. Relying on historical documents, scripture, videos, and a wealth of images, we will survey a history that is as complex as it is fascinating. This is a unique opportunity to go beyond the polemics on both sides and try to understand the historical record on its own terms.

Emily Gottreich is an expert in Moroccan Jewish history and Muslim-Jewish relations in the Arab-Islamic world more broadly. She is the author of The Mellah of Marrakech: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco's Red City, published in French translation by the University of Mohammed V Press in Rabat in 2016, and co-editor with Daniel Schroeter of Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa (Indiana University Press: 2011). Her most recent book is Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic Times to the Present. She currently serves as Adjunct Professor in Global Studies and the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where from 2014-2020 she also served as the Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Prof. Gottreich received her BA in Middle Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley, and her MA and PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History from Harvard University. She is a three-time Fulbright awardee, a past president of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and a winner of the Phi Beta Kappa award for Excellence in Teaching.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 13 reviews
85%
(11)
0%
(0)
15%
(2)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
A
A. (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment

N
N. (New York, US)
A clear-headed explanation of a tough situation

This lecture is about a tough situation clarified. A lecture delivered with elegance and simplicity with a real appeal to modernity. Someone who has done her legwork as well as all the sweat of being a scholar. I only hope that it will be followed up by many more by this professor.

K
K.B. (Crockett, US)
Excellent class!

The course was well-designed and consistently interesting. Dr. Gottreich is very knowledgeable and responsive to questions. I recommend this one and look forward to taking her class on the Jews of Morocco.

C
Cynthia Futter (Santa Monica, US)
A great session.

I enjoyed this presentation very much. Dr. Gottreich really challenged some of the things that I have understood over the years from some of my friends who grew up in Israel. I especially liked the two videos she shows at the beginning as they are particularly good at pointing out how similar these two groups are. The session is very thorough and provocative and interesting. I would highly recommend it.

D
Debra B. (Cheyenne, US)
Muslims and Jews

This is a lifetime discussion, but within the hour of presentation we covered history and geography and language, nuance, and so much more…

Customer Reviews

Based on 13 reviews
85%
(11)
0%
(0)
15%
(2)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
A
A. (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment

N
N. (New York, US)
A clear-headed explanation of a tough situation

This lecture is about a tough situation clarified. A lecture delivered with elegance and simplicity with a real appeal to modernity. Someone who has done her legwork as well as all the sweat of being a scholar. I only hope that it will be followed up by many more by this professor.

K
K.B. (Crockett, US)
Excellent class!

The course was well-designed and consistently interesting. Dr. Gottreich is very knowledgeable and responsive to questions. I recommend this one and look forward to taking her class on the Jews of Morocco.

C
Cynthia Futter (Santa Monica, US)
A great session.

I enjoyed this presentation very much. Dr. Gottreich really challenged some of the things that I have understood over the years from some of my friends who grew up in Israel. I especially liked the two videos she shows at the beginning as they are particularly good at pointing out how similar these two groups are. The session is very thorough and provocative and interesting. I would highly recommend it.

D
Debra B. (Cheyenne, US)
Muslims and Jews

This is a lifetime discussion, but within the hour of presentation we covered history and geography and language, nuance, and so much more…