From proposals and galas to James Bond and Uncut Gems, diamonds hold an indelible place in our culture. In A Brilliant Commodity: Diamonds and Jews in a Modern Setting historian Saskia Coenen Snyder shows how diamonds travelled from South African mines to processing factories in Amsterdam to the necks of high society women in New York. She reveals the contributions made by Jewish buyers, brokers, cutters, financiers and retailers to modern and global industrial enterprise, highlighting how it sparked labour movements, increased consumer demand for luxury goods and formed the basis of harmful stereotypes that persist today.

In Association with the Rabin Chair Forum of The George Washington University.

Saskia Coenen Snyder is Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of Building a Public Judaism: Synagogues and Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century Europe, which was a finalist for the Grawemeyer Award in Religion.