«This collection marks the coming of age of Irish Jewish Studies. Beautifully curated by Zuleika Rodgers and Natalie Wynn, it brings together the best of recent scholarship, covering history, politics, literature and everyday life. Taken together these essays show the complexity of both the Irish Jewish experience and responses to them.»
(Tony Kushner, James Parkes Professor of Jewish/non-Jewish relations, University of Southampton)
«A refreshingly nuanced exploration of perceptions and self-perceptions of Irish Jews. The authors interrogate political, religious, economic, social and cultural discourses from the eighteenth century to contemporary times to unravel less-familiar expressions of antisemitism, alongside occasional philosemitism, and offer critical insights on the many reimaginations of Christian Ireland¿s long-standing migrant Other minority.»
(Guy Beiner, Sullivan Chair of Irish Studies, Boston College)
Discourse, both scholarly and popular, around the Jews of Ireland has increased in recent years and this volume of essays takes up the challenge of placing it within the framework of Jewish historiography and the study of Jewish history and culture. The focus of the volume is to provide a critical re-evaluation of the study of Irish Jews looking at key areas such as Irish Jewish historiography, communal traditions, antisemitism, nationalism (Jewish and Irish) and representations in popular media. Underlying the contributions is the desire to reassess the ways in which traditional scholarship and representation of Irish Jews have been shaped by uninterrogated narratives and a lack of understanding and sensitivity to the context of Jewish history and the Jewish experience.

Contents: Zuleika Rodgers and Natalie Wynn: Introduction - Zuleika Rodgers, Natalie Wynn and Katrina Goldstone: Jews in Ireland and Multiple Invisibilities: Some Reflections on Historiography, Identity and Representation - Philip Alexander: Christian Restorationism in Ireland in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and the Image of the Jew in the Irish Imagination - Colum Kenny: Two Irish Zionists and Their Antisemitism: Michael Davitt (1846-1906) and Arthur Griffith (1871-1922) - Peter Garry: «They Thought It Was New York»: Deconstructing the Communal Narrative of the Cork Jewish Community - Barbara Lisa Hillers: Portrayals of Jews in Irish Folk Narrative - Trisha Oakley Kessler: Jews as the «Economic Other»: Negotiating Modernity, Identity and Industrial Change in the Irish Free State Commission on Vocational Organisation, 1939-1944 - Katrina Goldstone: «Where Are the Radical Irish Jews?»: Leslie Daiken and Michael Sayers, Negotiating Irish Jewish Leftist Identities in the 1930s and 1940s - Seán William Gannon: «The Old Sinister Enemies Have found a New Ally»: The Judaeo- Bolshevik Myth in Mid- twentieth- century Irish Catholic Culture - Natalie Wynn: Nine Folds Make a Paper Jew: The Representation, Identity and Legacy of Irish Jews as Reflected in the Popular Media - Bryan Cheyette: Young Turks: An Afterword.

Zuleika Rodgers
is Associate Professor in Jewish Studies in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies and Director of the Herzog Centre for Jewish and Near Eastern Religions and Culture at Trinity College Dublin.

Natalie Wynn
is a Research Associate at the Herzog Centre for Jewish and Near Eastern Religions and Culture, Trinity College Dublin.