Transmitting Jewish History – Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in Conversation with Sylvie Anne Goldberg

Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (1932–2009) was one of the most eminent Jewish historians of the twentieth century. He was the Jacob E. Safra Professor of Jewish History and Sephardic Civilization at Harvard University, and from 1980, the Salo W. Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society at Columbia University. His publications include From Spanish Court to Italian Ghetto; Haggadah and History; The Lisbon Massacre of 1506 and the Royal Image in the Shebet Yehudah; Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory; and Freud’s Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable.Sylvie Anne Goldberg is associate professor at the Center for Historical Research, L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, where she heads the Jewish Studies Program. She is the author of several books, including Crossing the Jabbok: Illness and Death in Ashkenazi Judaism in Sixteenth- through Nineteenth-Century Prague and Clepsydra: Essay on the Plurality of Time in Judaism. Benjamin Ivry is the author of biographies of Francis Poulenc, Arthur Rimbaud, and Maurice Ravel, as well as a poetry collection, Paradise for the Portuguese Queen. He has also translated books from the French by André Gide, Jules Verne, Witold Gombrowicz, and Balthus, among others, and has written extensively about culture for numerous media.

“[Yerushalmi's] profound insights into what it means to be a Jew in modern times comes out in these fascinating interviews.”

• Foreword to the English Edition by Alexander KayeNote to the French Edition by Ophra YerushalmiIntroduction – Sylvie Anne GoldbergI. Zakhor, From Memory to Reading HistoryII. Choosing HistoryIII. Back to ChildhoodIV. The Path to CardosoV. The Melody of HistoryVI. From Zakhor to FreudVII. DerridaVIII. New York: 1939-1945IX. Who Makes History?: Questions of InterpretationX. A Jewish Kid from the Bronx at Harvard and ColumbiaXI. Professor YerushalmiXII. Questions of History and HistoriographyXIII. The CollectorXIV. Gershom ScholemXV. The Ritual ExperienceXVI. Truth in History and Its AvatarsXVII. Messianism and ZionismXVIII. The State of Israel and Messianic SignificanceXIX. An American JewXX. From Yesterday to TomorrowWith “Clio and the Jews: Reflections on Jewish Historiography in the Sixteenth Century”Index