The Dark Side of Gefilte Fish
09 October 2024, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm

Jewish Organizations in the Emerging Jewish Metropolis of Lodz, 1850-1914
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All | UCL staff | UCL students | UCL alumni
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Sara Benisaac
Location
-
Zoomvia zoomzoomWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
This talk will focus on the variety of Jewish organizations in Lodz in the second half of the 19th century point, a period when the Jewish population grew from a few thousand to one hundred thousand people. Looking at a range of religious, communal, philanthropic and commercial endeavours, it argues that Łódź was an arena of a burgeoning Jewish social life which functioned with only modest control from the Russian administration or the Jewish community leadership, both being unable to impose their authority. The point of departure of this short excursion to the emerging metropolis of Lodz will be an examination of the Old Market, where a group of Jewish traders established a fish racket enforcing inflated prices and subjecting their fellow fishmongers to threats and harassment. It will further look at the emergence of uncontrolled heders (primary schools), of communal structures in the northern neighborhood of Bałuty, of Jewish places of worship ahead of holidays, as well as philanthropic institutions.
About the Speaker
François Guesnet
Professor of Modern Jewish History at University College London
François Guesnet is Professor of Modern Jewish History in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London. He holds a PhD in Modern History from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau, and specializes in the early modern and 19th century history of Eastern European, and more specifically, Polish Jews. He has held research and teaching fellowships at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), the University of Oxford and Dartmouth College and is co-chair of the editorial board of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry