Monday, May 16th, 2011
Dr. Frances Malino, Sophia Moses Robison Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Wellesley College and Chair of the Jewish Studies Program will examine how the Alliance Israélite Universelle created a network of schools in the 19th century to modernize Jews living in Islamic lands. Using personal letters and archival records, Professor Malino will explore the goals, self-identity, struggles and accomplishments of the young women who directed these schools in North Africa and the Middle East.
Frances Malino
Frances Malino is the author of The Sephardic Jews of Bordeaux: Assimilation and Emancipation in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France (1978), and A Jew in the French Revolution: The Life of Zalkind Hourwitz (1996). These works have also been published in French editions. She is also co-editor of Essays in Modern Jewish History: A Tribute to Ben Halpern (1982), The Jews in Modern France (1985), From East and West: Jews in a Changing Europe 1750-1870, republished as Profiles in Diversity: Jews in a Changing Europe (1998) and Voices of the Diaspora: Jewish Women Writing in Contemporary Europe. She is presently working on a book length project tentatively titled Teaching Freedom: Jewish Sisters in Muslim Lands.
Program sponsored by the Concordia University for Canadian Jewish Studies with support from the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and with co-operation from ALEPH - Centre d'Études Juives Contemporaines.