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François Guesnet

Dr François Guesnet - Sidney and Elizabeth Corob Reader in Modern Jewish History.

Dr Guesnet received his PhD from Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) with a thesis on Jewish communal structure and associations in 19th century Kingdom of Poland.

He held fellowships at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Pennsylvania, UCL, and Oxford University. He was part of the team establishing the Simon-Dubnow-Institute for Jewish History and Culture in Leipzig and held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Potsdam.

Dr Guesnet’s current courses cover the history of Jews in Eastern Europe, European Jewish history in the early modern and modern period, and Jewish political culture. His ongoing research includes a project on Jewish intercession in Europe in a comparative perspective (18th and 19th centuries), a project on Jewish self-government in Poland from its inception until the present (in collaboration with colleagues from Poland, Israel, and North America), and a comparative project on anti-semitism in Eastern Central Europe after 1989.

Books

• Polnische Juden im 19. Jahrhundert. Lebensbedingungen, Rechtsnormen und Organisation im Wandel [Polish Jewry in the 19th Century. Changes in living conditions, legal norms and self-organisation] (Böhlau: Köln, Wien 1998).
• Lodzer Juden im 19. Jahrhundert. Ihr Ort in einer multikulturellen Stadtgesellschaft [The Jews of Lodz in the 19th Century and their position in a multicultural urban setting] (Leipziger Universitätsverlag: Leipzig 1997).

Edited Volumes

• Der Fremde als Nachbar. Polnische Positionen zur jüdischen Präsenz. Texte seit 1800 [The Foreign Neighbour. Polish Views on the Jewish Presence, 1800-today]. Ed. Francois Guesnet. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main 2009
• Zwischen Graetz und Dubnow: Jüdische Historiographiegeschichte in Ostmitteleuropa im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Geschichtswissenschaft und Geschichtskultur im 20. Jahrhundert; Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsanstalt, 2009)
• Hinterlassene deutsche Schriften eines polnischen Juden. The writings of Louis Meyer (1796-1869) (Olms: Hildesheim, 2009)
• John D. Klier: Southern Storms: Jews, Russians and the Pogrom Crisis of 1881-2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), edited together with Lars Fischer and Helen Mingay-Klier. 
• Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: Mobilisation and Agenda-Setting in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, East European Jewish Affairs 39 (2009), 2, together with J.Verbickiene und D.Staliunas.
• Juden und Armut in Mittel- und Osteuropa [Jews and Poverty in Central and Eastern Europe] (Koeln, Wien: Simon-Dubnow-Instituts, 2005), together with Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Gertrud Pickhan, Andreas Reinke und Desanka Schwara. .

Articles

• "Between Permeability and Isolation: Ezriel Natan Frenk as Historian of the Jews of Poland," in Israel Bartal, Antony Polonsky, and Scott Ury (eds.): Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry, vol. 24: Jews and their Neighbours in Eastern Europe since 1750 (Oxford, Portland, Oregon: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2012), 111-131.

• Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Joel Wegmeister and Modern Hasidic Politics in Warsaw, in "Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History. Journal of Fondazione CDEC", N.2 october 2011, URL: www.quest-cdecjournal.it/focus.php?id=222

• "Agreements between neighbours. The “ugody” as a source on Jewish-Christian relations in early modern Poland", Jewish History 24 (2010), pp. 3-4, 257-260.
• "Sensitive travelers: Jewish and non-Jewish visitors from Eastern Europe to Palestine between the two World Wars", Journal of Israeli History, Politics, Society, Culture, 27 (2008), 2, 171-189.
• "The Turkish Cavalry in Swarzedz, or: Jewish Political Culture at the Borderlines of Modern History", Simon-Dubnow-Institute Yearbook 6 (2007), pp. 227-48.
• "Textures of Intercession: rescue efforts for the Jews of Prague, 1744/48", Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts 4 (2005), pp. 355-75.
• "A Tumel in the Shtetl: Haim Becalel Grinberg's Di khevre kedishe side", Polin. Studies on Polish Jewry 16 (2003), pp. 93-106.
• "Politik der Vormoderne—Shtadlanut am Vorabend der polnischen Teilungen" [Premodern Jewish Politics—Jewish Intercession on the Eve of the Partitions of Poland], Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts 1 (2002), pp. 235-55.
• "Migration et stéréotype. Le cas des Juifs russes au Royaume de Pologne à la fin du XIX siècle", Cahiers du Monde russe 41 (2000), pp. 505-18.

Chapters in Books

• "‘These are German Houses’: Polish Memory Confronting Jedwabne", in Dan Diner and Gotthard Wunberg (eds.), Restitution and Memory. Material Restoration in Europe (New York and London: Berghahn Books, 2007), pp. 141-60.
• "Moses Mendelssohns Tätigkeit als Fürsprecher im Kontext jüdischer politischer Kultur der frühen Neuzeit" [Moses Mendelssohns Activities as an Intercessor in the Context of Jewish Political Culture in the Early Modern Period], in Julius H. Schoeps u.a. (eds.), Menora. Jahrbuch für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte 16 (2005/2006), pp. 115-37 [Bd. 16: Moses Mendelssohn, die Aufklärung und die Anfänge des deutsch-jüdischen Bürgertums].
• "Die Politik der Fürsprache—Vormoderne jüdische Interessenvertretung" [Politics of Intercession. Speaking up for Jewish Communities in the Premodern Era], in Dan Diner (ed.), Synchrone Welten. Zeitenräume jüdischer Geschichte (Göttingen 2005), pp. 67-92.
• "Bilder von Leben und Zerstörung. Schicksale jüdischer Familien 1900-1945", in Materialien zum Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas (Berlin: Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, 2005), pp. 94-121; simultaneously published as , "Images of Life and Destruction. The Fates of Jewish Families 1900-1945", in Materials on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Berlin: Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, 2005), pp. 94-121 (together with Ulrich Baumann). 
• "Hanuka and Its Function in the Invention of a Jewish-Heroic Tradition in Early Zionism (1880-1900)", in Michael Berkowitz (ed.), Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilisation of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2004), pp. 227-46.
• "Strukturwandel im Gebrauch der …ffentlichkeit. Zu einem Aspekt jüdischer politischer Praxis zwischen 1744 und 1881" [Structural Change in the Use of the Public Sphere. Reflexions on Aspects of Jewish Political Practice from 1744 to 1881], in Jörg Requate, Martin Schulze Wessel (eds.), Europaeische Öffentlichkeit. Transnationale Kommunikation seit dem 18. Jahrhundert [The Europaen Public Sphere. Transnational Communication since the 18th Century] (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2002), pp. 43-62.
• "Juden aus dem östlichen Europa in Mittel– und Westeuropa" [Jews from Eastern Europe in Central and Western Europe], in Elke-Vera Kotowski et al. (eds.), Handbuch zur Geschichte der Juden in Europa. Bd. 2: Religion, Kultur, Alltag [A Manual on the History of the Jews of Europe. Vol. 2: Religion, Culture, Every day life] (Darmstadt 2001), pp. 69-78.
• "Khevres and Akhdes. The Change in Jewish Self-organization in the Kingdom of Poland before 1900 and the Bund", in Jack Jacobs (ed.), Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe. The Bund at 100 (London 2001), pp. 1-12.
• "Jüdische Armut und ihre Bekämpfung im Königreich Polen: Grundzüge und Entwicklungen im 19. Jahrhundert" [Jewish Poverty and the Fight Against it: Key Elements and Developments in Congress Poland in the 19th Century], in Stefi Jersch-Wenzel et al. (eds.), Juden und Armut (Köln and Wien, 2000), pp. 185-208.
• "‘Wir müssen Warschau unbedingt russisch machen.’Die Mythologisierung der russisch-jüdischen Zuwanderung ins Kšnigreich Polen zu Beginn unseres Jahrhunderts am Beispiel eines polnischen Trivialromans" [‘We have to Turn Warsaw into a Russian Place’. The Immigration of Russian Jews into Congress Poland as Myth in Polish Popular Literature], in Eva Behring et al. (eds.), Geschichtliche Mythen in den Literaturen Ostmittel- und Suedosteuropas [Historical Myths in National Literatures of Eastern Central and Southern Europe] (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1999), pp. 99-116.
• Multiple entries for the YIVO Encyclopedia on Jews in Eastern Europe (Yale University Press: New Haven, London 2008), among others on Banking, Mathias Bersohn, Jacques Calmanson, Eastern Prussia, Epstein family, Gdansk/Danzig, Ezriel Natan Frenk, Yaacov Gesundheit, Leon Hollaenderski, Judyta Jakubowiczowa, Berek Joselewicz, Kaliningrad/Königsberg, Izaak Kramsztyk, Louis Lubliner, Dov Berush Meisels, Orgelbrand family, Mathias Rosen, Isaak RŸlf, Abraham Stern, Szereszewski family, Joel Wegmeister