Jews and Race in the Italian Colonization of Africa, 1890-1945

FAIN: FT-286140-22

Shira Klein
Chapman University (Orange, CA 92866-1011)

Research and writing leading to a book on Italian Jewish support for Italian imperialism, 1890 – 1938.  

I am applying for an NEH Summer Stipend to write a chapter in a five-chapter book. The book as a whole examines the causes, nature, and consequences of Italian Jews’ support for imperialism. I argue that between the 1890s and 1930s, Italian Jews took an active part in racializing and controlling indigenous Libyan and Ethiopian Jews. Moreover, by promoting the empire and upholding a racial hierarchy between Europeans and Africans, Italian Jews unwittingly contributed to their own downfall, since Italy’s antisemitic campaign (1938–1945) borrowed heavily from earlier anti-black legislation and propaganda. This book breaks new ground. Whereas most studies on Jews and colonialism use the lens of intellectual and legal history, mine is a social history. Using non-traditional sources, it is the first to inquire what ordinary European Jewish women and men thought about empire and how they engaged with it in their daily life.