U of M Center for Jewish Studies Lecture SeriesRowan Dorin Presents: Before 1492: Expelling Jews and “Jews” in Medieval Europe

Vilified for their supposed usury, condemned by church leaders, and expelled by opportunistic rulers—such was the fate not only of medieval Europe’s Jewish communities, but also of the many Christian moneylenders in their midst. (That’s right, Jews were not the only moneylenders in the Middle Ages!) By recovering the forgotten existence of those who were frequently denounced as “Jew-ish” by hostile contemporaries, this lecture asks what we can learn about Jewish history from the experiences of those who came to share not only a language of exclusion but also the reality of expulsion.

Rowan Dorin is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Stanford University, as well as core faculty of Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies. His research and teaching focus on the history of premodern Europe and the Mediterranean, in particular Jewish-Christian relations, religious law, and digital humanities. His recent book, No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe (Princeton UP, 2023) won multiple awards, including the 2024 Baron Prize from the American Academy for Jewish Research, awarded annually for the best first book in Jewish Studies.

Cosponsors: Center for Premodern Studies, Department of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures, Department of History, Institute for Global Studies