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Jews, Race, and the British Empire.

Tue, December 19, 10:45am to 12:15pm PST (10:45am to 12:15pm PST), San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Lower B2 (16) Nob Hill A

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

This panel will explore the ways in which Jews continued to be racialised after the Second World War and the Holocaust. We will use the British empire as a lens to understand how Jewish communities and individuals, as well as non-Jewish people, responded to evolving ideas of racial difference in the climate of decolonisation. How were Jews understood as a people vis-à-vis Africans and Asians in different locales around the empire? Did they remain as “the Other” or were they accepted as part of White society? This roundtable reflects on increased scholarly interest in the “empire turn” in Jewish history, remapping the world into empires rather than nation-states. This approach revisits old questions and creates new ones analysing the nuances in ideas, communication, and experience between people in the metropole and those in the imperial sphere. By applying this approach at the intersection of modern Jewish history, Holocaust Studies, and imperial history, we will explore evolving thinking on race and racism, and specifically on the place of Jews within constructions of racial difference.
Each discussant will use their areas of research to unpick the question of “race” and racialisation within a post-war British context. Australia & Shanghai (Halpern), Canada (Menkis), Kenya (Hadjisavvas) and Britain (Schaffer) will serve as case studies for the discussion. We will consider how society, politics, and culture in each place formed attitudes and visions of Jews as migrants and potential settlers. Beyond this, we will consider to what extent immigration reforms in the post-1945 period prioritized different racial groups and where Jewish people stood within this hierarchy. Finally, we will ask how “whiteness” might be a useful category of analysis in understanding the parameters of Jewish experiences.

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