Sunday, February 13, 12:00pm

Laura Arnold Leibman is Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. Her work focuses on how material culture changes our understanding of the role of women, children, and Jews of color in the early Atlantic World. Leibman is the author of The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects (Bard Graduate Center, 2020).

In this presentation, she will examine five objects owned by a diverse group of Jewish women who all lived in New York between 1750 and 1850:

• a letter from impoverished Hannah Louzada seeking assistance;
• a set of silver cups owned by Reyna Levy Moses;
• an ivory miniature owned by Sarah Brandon Moses, who was born enslaved and became one of the wealthiest Jewish women in New York;
• a book created by Sarah Ann Hays Mordecai;
• and a family silhouette owned by Rebbetzin Jane Symons Isaacs.

These objects offer intimate and tangible views into the lives of Jewish American women from a range of statuses, beliefs, and lifestyles—both rich and poor, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, slaves and slaveowners.

The Art of the Jewish Family was the winner of three 2020 National Jewish Book Awards: the Celebrate 350 Award for American Jewish Studies, the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award for History, and the Barbara Dobkin Award for Women’s Studies.

Contact Linda Shivers at cantor.shivers@gmail.com

To join the Zoom event, click here at the appointed time:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6199580469?pwd=dWxwTDhEL0x0cHdKNnBEelB1TkptUT09
Meeting ID: 619 958 0469
Passcode: sisterhood