Studia Rosenthaliana - Volume 50, Issue 1, 2024

The nineteenth century saw significant changes in the relationship between the Yishuv in Ereẓ-Israel and the European Jewish communities on whom they depended for financial support. This article examines the roles of two key figures in the conflict between these two centers regarding the function and continued existence of the institution of shadarut: Zvi Hirsch Lehren (1784-1853), head of the Amsterdam Vaad ha-pekidim ve-ha-amarkalim, and Rabbi Nathan Amram (1791-1870), a prominent rabbinical emissary from Ereẓ-Israel. Rabbi Nathan Amram’s unique voice as an emissary and as an ideological opponent of the termination of shadarut not only enables us to arrive at a broader picture of the Amsterdam Vaad and its activity, but also sheds light on the shifting relationship between European Jews and Ereẓ-Israel in the nineteenth century.

In the eighteenth century, Dutch Caribbean colonies constituted the center of Jewish life in the Americas. This work looks at questions of Jewishness and home-making in these colonial contexts. Jews and other in-between groups like free people of color, it is argued, offer crucial insights into the tensions and contradictions within colonial societies more broadly. The talk upon which this printed version is based discussed why this story of Jews making their home in colonial contexts is relevant, not only for Jewish Studies, but more broadly for contemporary scholarly and societal debates.