This workshop, scheduled for July 2019, will focus on the Jewish experience in “new” cities, urban centers founded after (or around) 1800, such as Lodz or Chicago, as well as cities that underwent dramatic transformation following political and economic upheavals such as Petrograd/Leningrad.
We speculate that a variety of structural and social factors related to the newness of these cities presented particularly opportunities for Jews, but also challenged traditional concepts of Jewish communities and families in distinct ways.
Though each presenter will focus on a single city, the workshop will enable us to collectively hone our thinking about new cities, and provide space for comparison between contexts. Urban sociologists, literary scholars, and migration scholars will provide feedback and present comparative perspectives.
The purpose of the workshop is to lay the groundwork for an edited volume about Jews in new cities.