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Missed it? Watch the lecture here anytime:

Wednesday, October 12 at 8pm ET
Free on Zoom with suggested $12 donation

Join us online as we welcome Dr David S Koffman for the first of two lectures focused on the historical intersections and relationships between Indigenous and Jewish American communities. In this first lecture, Dr Koffman will highlight significant moments in history that helped shape the dynamics of these relationships from the colonial Atlantic world to the Civil Rights era. It touches down on the fur trade routes in Indian Territories  of the “Old West” in the late 19th century, in the curio shops of the Pacific Northwest, Southwest and Plains, the frontier newspaper and memoirs of Jewish western pioneers, and the New York and Washington offices of policy makers, lobbyists and anthropologists of the New Deal era. Based on his award winning book, The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism and Belonging in America, professor David S. Koffman will host a lively discussion about a largely unknown, complex and fascinating history of an interpersonal and intercommunal meeting. 

Return for the next lecture where Koffman concludes with the second half of the 20^th century highlighting the transition to a new kinship between the communities.

More About David S Koffman

David S. Koffman is the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry and an Associate Professor in the Department of History. His undergraduate courses include “Worry & Wonder: Jewish Politics, Culture & Religion in Canada”, “A Convenient Hatred: Antisemitism Before, During and After the Holocaust”, “God/USA: Religion in America Since 1491”, “Making Money,” and “History of Me: The Genealogy Seminar.”

He is the author of The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America (Rutgers University Press, 2019), winner of an Association for Jewish Studies’ Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, and the editor of, and a contributor to No Better Home? Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging (University of Toronto Press, 2021). He has published work in journals including the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Journal of Jewish Education, Canadian Jewish Studies, American Jewish History, Contemporary Jewry, and the Journal of American Ethnic History.

He serves as the editor-in-chief of the journal Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes, and on the editorial boards of Directions, The Journal of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and AJS Review: The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies. He is also the Acting Director of York’s Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies.

Additional Events Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Month:

• November 1 (online) – Members of Two Tribes with Emily Bowen Cohen – Click here
• November 9 (online) – Jewish and Indigenous Interactions with David S Koffman Part 2 – Click here
• November 10 (in-person) – Conversation with Star of FX’s Reservation Dogs Sarah Podemski – Click here

This program is presented by the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in partnership with the JCC of Greater Baltimore.