On Thursday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m., Kirsten Fermaglich, PhD, associate professor of history and Jewish studies at  Michigan State University, will deliver the 2022 Joan and Henry Katz Lecture in Judaic Studies. This virtual lecture is free and open to the public, and will be delivered as a Zoom webinar. Register to attend at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms. 

Based on her book, Dr. Fermaglich’s lecture "Too Long, Too Foreign. . . Too Jewish? The Rise, Politics, and Fall of Jewish Name Changing in 20th Century New York” will explore the history of name changing in 20th-century New York City. According to Dr. Fermaglich, “Jewish name changing was actually a broad-based and voluntary behavior: thousands of ordinary Jewish men, women, and children legally changed their names in order to respond to an upsurge of antisemitism. Rather than trying to escape their heritage or “pass” as non-Jewish, most name-changers remained active members of the Jewish community." Dr. Fermaglich will discuss how this practice ultimately caused pain and became stigmatized within the community.

Dr. Fermaglich's most recent book, A Rosenberg By Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America, was awarded the Saul Viener Book Prize by the American Jewish Historical Society in June 2019. Fermaglich is also the author of American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America, 1957-1965, and the co-editor (with Lisa Fine) of the Norton Critical Edition of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. She is a co-editor of the journal American Jewish History, with Daniel Soyer and Adam Mendelsohn. Fermaglich lives in East Lansing, Mich., with her husband, Jonathan; son, Raphael; daughter, Dalia; and their psychotic pit bull, Guinevere.

Reservations are requested for this lecture. Please contact the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or call 203-254-4000, ext. 2066. For more information about other Bennett Center events, visit fairfield.edu/bennett.