Acclaimed historians Simon Schama, Jonathan Brent and Miri Rubin explore the importance of studying Jewish history.

Few of us study Jewish history, yet so many of us would like to know more. Where and how is Jewish History to be taught?

Most teaching of Jewish History in Europe and the United States concentrates on calamities – such as the pogroms and the Shoah – and these are often taught without context. How might we teach Jewish history better, not only to Jewish students, but as part of the shared school curriculum? Can Jewish History become part of a diverse and inclusive general history curriculum? Historians Jonathan Brent, Miri Rubin and Simon Schama discuss with educator and Etgar co-founder Adam Taub.

The event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval.

About the Speakers:

Sir Simon Schama‘s award-winning books, include The Embarrassment of Riches, Citizens, Landscape and Memory, Rembrandt’s Eyes, A History of Britain, The Power of Art, Rough Crossings, The American Future, The Face of Britain and The Story of the Jews. His art columns for the New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for criticism and his journalism has appeared regularly in the Guardian and the Financial Times, where he is Contributing Editor. He has written and presented more than fifty films for the BBC on subjects as diverse as Tolstoy and American politics, and he co-presented the landmark series on the history of world art, Civilisations. Most recently, his History of Now series aired on BBC2 in November–December 2022. Schama lives in New York and is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University. Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations is his twentieth book.

Miri Rubin is an historian of the religious cultures of Europe with special interest in social relations, and attitudes to Jews.

Jonathan Brent was editorial director of Yale University Press (1991-2009) where he established the Annals of Communism series in 1992. His books include Stalin’s Last Crime (2003); and Inside the Stalin Archives (2008). He teaches history and literature at Bard College.

Brent became Executive Director and CEO of The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research In 2009 and initiated The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections Project in 2014 which digitized YIVO’s pre-WW II collections in New York City and Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2019 Brent received the Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.

Adam Taub studied Natural Sciences and Law. He practised in the field of Intellectual Property before giving up the Law, much to his grandmother’s concern. He now coaches senior executives for key presentations. He has been a lecturer at the London School of Jewish Studies for 20 years and is the co-founder of a charity called Etgar that aims to inspire a love of Jewish learning in young Jewish students.