What's Love Got to Do With It? Jewish War Brides, Soldier Spouses, and the Making of Postwar Jewish Communities

Tanenbaum Family Lecture

After the Holocaust, thousands of survivors made their way to the US, Canada, and Britain as the spouses and fiancées of Allied soldiers and officers. This lecture examines what it was like for these Jewish war brides to create new homes in the aftermath of trauma and considers the ways in which this subset of survivors found themselves moving between two communities: that of other war brides and their veteran-spouses and that of other Holocaust survivors.

Robin Judd is a professor of History at The Ohio State University where she teaches courses in Holocaust studies, the history of antisemitism, and the history of leadership. She is the author of Contested Rituals: Circumcision, Kosher Butchering, and German-Jewish Political Life in Germany, 1843-1933 and Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides After the Holocaust, which has garnered two National Jewish Book Awards and was named a finalist for the 2024 Ohioana non-fiction award. Since Fall 2021, Robin has served as the director of the Hoffman Leaders and Leadership Program in History. She serves as past President of the Association for Jewish Studies and the Chair of the Leo Baeck Institute’s Faculty Advisory Board. In recognition of her work in Holocaust studies, Governor Dewine appointed her to Ohio’s Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission.

 
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This event will be delivered in-person in JHB100 (170 St. George Street) on Monday, March 24, 2025 at 4 PM.

Sponsors:    Tanenbaum Family Lecture