Conveners: Paul Lerner (University of Southern California / Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies), Anne C. Schenderlein (DHI Washington), Uwe Spiekermann (DHI Washington)
Several years ago, scholars called for an "economic turn" in the study of Jewish history. Pointing to the relative absence of economic topics in broader studies of Jewish political, social, and cultural history on the one hand, and booming more general research on the history of consumption on the other, they emphasized the central role economics and particularly consumption played in the formation of Jewish identities. Shopping and consumption have been significant markers of Jewish religious and communal lives and identities for centuries as well as subjects of discussion and scrutiny among leaders. Jewish merchants were important agents in de-regionalizing markets and in creating national and "western" styles of consumption. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the products Jews bought, sold, and consumed figured prominently in broader debates on modernization, secularization, and assimilation on both sides of the Atlantic.