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Professor Aron Rodrigue

Ina Levine Invitational Scholar
"Ideas of Race and Antisemitism in France"

Professional Background

Professor Aron Rodrigue received a Ph.D. and an M.A. in history from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree with First Class Hounours from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. During his fellowship at the Museum, he was Professor of History, Eva Lokey Professor of Jewish Studies, and Co-Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University. For his Ina Levine Invitational Scholar Fellowship, Professor Rodrigue conducted research for his project “Ideas of Race and Antisemitism in France.”

Professor Rodrigue has significantly contributed to the field of Jewish Studies with his in-depth research and writing on the history and culture of the Sephardim, utilizing Turkish, Ladino, German, French, and Hebrew sources. He has published several books examining the westernization of Sephardic communities, including the acclaimed Jews and Muslims: Images of Sephardi and Eastern Jewries in Transition, 1860-1939 (University of Washington Press, 2003), which received both an Honor Award in Sephardic Studies from the National Jewish Book Council as well as the Toledano Prize. His book Sephardi Jewry: A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th-20th Centuries (University of California Press, 2000) has been translated into French, Hebrew, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Romanian, and Bulgarian as well as other languages, and his book French Jews, Turkish Jews: The Alliance Israélite Universelle and Politics of Jewish Schooling in Turkey, 1860-1925 (Indiana University Press, 1990) has been translated into Turkish. At the time of his fellowship he co-edited both Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, and Society and Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture Series with Steve Zipperstein, 2002-2003 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in Residence at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He also served on the Academic Advisory Board of the American Sephardi Federation (Center for Jewish History, New York) and the fellowship selection committee for the Maurice Amado Foundation at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Rodrigue is the recipient of such prestigious awards a fellowship at the American Academy of Jewish Research, American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, the Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship, and two Summer Faculty Fellowships and the Outstanding Young Faculty Award at Indiana University.

Fellowship Research

During his residency at the Museum, Professor Rodrigue conducted a seminar for staff and fellows on, “The Ottoman-Empire: Non-Muslim Minorities and the Mass Destruction of Armenians, 1890-1915” and “The Mass Destruction of Armenians and Jews in Historical Perspective.” Professor Rodrigue also presented his work on the history of Sephardic Jewry at the Ina Levine Annual Lecture on February 19, 2004.

Professor Rodrigue was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 1, 2003 to June 1, 2004.