This lecture explores how the question of intermarriage between Jews and Christians became a revealing lens through which modern Jewish identity was debated, defined, and contested. From the nineteenth century onward, intermarriage stood at the crossroads of religious change, social integration, and racial thought—symbolizing both the promises and perils of Emancipation. By examining rabbinical responses across Reform and Orthodox traditions as well as the writings of early Jewish social scientists, the talk traces how Jews in Europe negotiated the tensions between citizenship and difference, faith and modernity, belonging and exclusion.
About the Lecturer
Geraldine Gudefin is a French-born modern Jewish historian researching Jewish migrations, family life and legal pluralism. She holds an MA in History from Yale University, and a PhD in History from Brandeis University. Dr. Gudefin has received numerous fellowships, including from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture; the Posen Foundation; and the Center for Jewish History. Her work has been published in American Jewish History and Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues, among other publications. Dr. Gudefin’s previous research explored various aspects of Jewish immigrant family life, especially the complex encounters between civil and rabbinical marriage laws in France and the United States. Shifting the focus to Southeast Asia, where she is now based, she is currently at work on a new project titled “The Penhas case: Interethnic Marriage and Legal Pluralism in Late Colonial Singapore”.
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