Fall 2026
Plagues, Famines, and Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire: An Environmental History of the Middle East
Tuesday, October 20 at 5:30 PM
Davis Auditorium, Palamountain Hall
Free and open to the public
Events such as earthquakes, floods, and epidemics provide vivid illustrations of the natural world's impact on human society, but the outcomes of natural disasters also offer a window onto aspects of social and political life in past societies. Examining epidemics, famines, and earthquakes in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th century, Ayalon will discuss how disasters affected Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities. Ayalon asserts that religious identities and communal cooperation were always present in the Ottoman Empire, but the boundaries between confessional communities were porous. Indeed, religion was βneither the sole nor the primary social divider in Ottoman society at large.β The presentation provides a historical lens into natural disasters that affected Jewish communities in the Middle East, and offers lessons on how we can approach current environmental challenges, climate change, and natural disasters.
Yaron Ayalon is a social historian of the Middle East, Ottoman Empire, Sephardic Jews, and Israel, and author of two books: (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and (Brill, 2025). He has published over 20 articles on Jewish and Muslim charity, rabbinic leadership, and natural disasters in the Ottoman Empire and Middle East. Dr. Ayalon is Director of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at Fairfield University where he also serves as the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Chair in Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies. He has taught Middle Eastern, Jewish, and Israeli history, and courses such The Arab-Israeli Conflict, Sephardic Jews in the Diaspora and Israel, and Thinking Outside the Box in the Jewish Tradition.
This presentation is part of the Jacob Perlow Series sponsored by the Office of Special Programs and co-sponsored by the departments of Environmental Studies & Sciences, Political Science, and History. Funding is provided by endowments established by Jacob Perlow and by Beatrice Troupin.
Spring 2026
Modernity and Jewish Life at the End of the Ottoman Empire: A Conversation
Tuesday, February 10 at 5 PM
Wyckoff Center in Case Campus Center
Free and open to the public
This public conversation explores Dina Danon's pathbreaking historical research in modernity, class, and Jewish life in urban centers of the late Ottoman Empire. The discussion will feature Dina Danon, Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and History at Binghamton University, and Murat C. Yildiz, Associate Professor of History at ΒιΆΉ. Together, they will discuss Danonβs book The Jews of Ottoman Izmir: A Modern History and her co-edited volume Longing and Belonging: Jews in the Modern Islamic World.
Dina Danon is Associate Professor of Jewish History and Undergraduate Director of Judaic Studies
at Binghamton University. Danonβs research focuses on the eastern Sephardi diaspora
during modern times and draws heavily on previously unexplored Ladino language archival
material. Danon is particularly interested in social history and how its tools help
revise prevailing scholarship not only on the Sephardi world but on Jewish modernity
as a whole. Capturing the voices of both destitute beggars and lay oligarchs, peddlers
and guildsmen, housewives and rabbis, her first book, (Stanford University Press, 2020) was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award
in Sephardic Culture. Danonβs co-edited volume, (Pennsylvania University Press, 2025), includes her chapter exploring the marketplace
of matchmaking, marriage, and divorce in the modern Ottoman Sephardi world.
Murat C. YΔ±ldΔ±z is Associate Professor in the Department of History at ΒιΆΉ. He is author
of (University of Texas Press, 2026). He serves as Assistant Editor of and as an Editorial Board Member of .
This presentation is part of the Jacob Perlow Series sponsored by the Office of Special Programs and co-sponsored by the departments of History, International Affairs, and Religious Studies. Funding is provided by endowments established by Jacob Perlow and by Beatrice Troupin.
About the Jacob Perlow Series: A generous grant from the estate of Jacob Perlow - an immigrant to the United States in the 1920s, a successful business man deeply interested in religion and philosophy, and a man who was committed to furthering Jewish education - supports annual lectures and presentations to the College and Capital District community on issues broadly related to Jews and Judaism.