Ilan BenattarRobert F. & Patricia G. Ross Weis Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies & History
Biography
Ilan Benattar is a scholar of modern Jewish thought in Middle Eastern and North African contexts. His manuscript project, “A Rod of Punishment”: Ottoman Jewish Liberalism from Opposition to Establishment, 1892-1912, centers on the ideological and social formation of the La Vara journal network [“The Rod”, 1905-1908], organized from Cairo and published in Alexandria. Established and edited by one Abraham Galante (1873-1961)—an energetic teacher, activist, and future leading scholar of Ottoman Jewish history — the journal’s development and output as well as the diverse trajectories of its collaborators offers a distinctly Ottoman and broadly Mediterranean perspective on a non-Western Jewish liberal tradition, centering the pivotal role of a nascent and increasingly assertive liberal professional class. Involving primary sources from eight separate languages, “A Rod of Punishment” investigates the self-appointed role played by Galante and his pan-Mediterranean network of clandestine collaborators in organizing political opposition to Ottoman Chief Rabbi locum tenens Moshe HaLevi (1827-1910). Galante and his collaborators conceived of HaLevi as representative of a corrupt, venal, and conservative old order—a certain Jewish mirror image of Sultan Abdulhamid II himself with whom, not coincidentally, HaLevi was aligned. The La Vara network energetically polemicized against HaLevi and his allies among the rabbinic class and communal lay elites, derisively labeling them in Judeo-Spanish la banda preta [“the black gang”]. “A Rod of Punishment” traces the development of the pan-Ottoman La Vara group via a dynamic regional prosopography of leading members, investigates the key engagement of La Vara in several heated episodes of communal politics over the years of its publication, and outlines its deformation in the early years of the Second Constitutional Period. “A Rod of Punishment” will expand on recent critical trends in the study of modern Jewish thought which aim to provincialize the role of Jewish Europe by addressing key questions of religious culture, conceptual idioms, communal conflict, and the political imagination.
F&M Teaching
Robert F. & Patricia G. Ross Weis Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies &
History (August 2024-Present)
Courses: Jews in the Modern World; History of Antisemitism; Palestine/Israel: Modern
History; Arab Jewish Identities; Jewish-Muslim Relations; Medieval Jewish History
Education
New York University; Manhattan, NY
Joint Ph.D. in History/Hebrew & Judaic Studies (2023)
New York University; Manhattan, NY
M.Phil in Hebrew and Judaic Studies
CUNY Graduate Center; Manhattan, NY
Master of Arts, Middle Eastern Studies
Binghamton University; Vestal, NY
Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, History & Arabic Studies
Book Manuscript
“A Rod of Punishment”: Ottoman Jewish Liberalism from Opposition to Establishment, 1892-1912 [working title]
Academic Publications
“‘A New Project of Jewish Colonization in the Sudan’: Ashkenazi Refugees & The Ottoman Jewish Liberal Opposition (1906-1908).” Jewish Quarterly Review 115, no. 1 (2025): 69-98.
Completed Article Manuscripts
“Press Censorship and Ottoman Jewish Political Culture in the late Hamidian era (1902-1908)”
“Antimekatregista: A Judeo-Spanish Neologism and the Anti-Musar Idiom of late Ottoman Jewish Liberalism.”
Grants & Awards
(2021) American Sephardi Federation Broome & Allen Fellowship
(2020) NYU Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Torch International Research Fellowship (AY ‘20-‘21)
(2020) American Academy for Jewish Research Graduate Student Grant
(2018) Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Summer Fellowship—Turkish
(2017) Foreign Language Area Scholarship (FLAS) Summer Fellowship—Arabic
Conference Presentations
“Antimekatregista: A Judeo-Spanish Political Neologism and late Ottoman Jewish Liberalism.” International Workshop “Modern and Contemporary Jewish Translation and Multilingualism: Practices, History, and Semiotics.” Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Virtual. July 2025.
“Social Conflict over Traditions of Water Impurity in the Fin-de-Siècle Jewish Mediterranean.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. Virtual. December 2024.
“Jewish Professionals and Professional Class Culture in Late Ottoman Society (c.1900-1912).” Middle East Studies Association. Virtual. November 2024.
“Press Censorship and the Development of Ottoman Jewish Political Culture.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. San Francisco, CA. December 2023.
“‘A New Project of Jewish Colonization in the Sudan’: Abraham Galante and Ottoman Territorialism.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. Boston, MA. December 2022.
“‘They Know Classical Hebrew, the Talmud, and Nothing Else’: Abraham Galante’s La Vara and the Contest over Rabbinic Leadership in Late Ottoman Palestine.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. Virtual. December 2020.
“Between ‘Turkiya’ and ‘Togarma’: Thinking Toponyms in Late Ottoman Jewish Thought.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. San Diego, California. December 2019.
“Abraham Galante, Ottoman Jewish Diaspora, and the Opposition to Chief Rabbi Moshe HaLevi (1904-1908).” Formation of Culture in Diaspora Conference. St. Petersburg State University, Russia. September 2019 (Invited).
“#Right2Left Biblical Translations in Jewish Textual History: Case Studies in Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Spanish.” Presented at #Right2Left Workshop. Digital Humanities Summer Institute. University of Victoria, British Columbia. June 2019.
“Making a Sephardi Classic, Sephardi: Writing (and Reading) Shevet Yehudah into Ladino.” Presented at ucLadino 8th Annual Judeo-Spanish Symposium. LA, California. February 2019.
“Toward a Reinvigorated Intellectual Genealogy of Zionism and Middle Eastern Jewry: Bialik’s ‘Revival of the Sephardim’.” Presented at Columbia MESAAS Graduate Conference. NY, NY. March 2015.
Conference Panels Chaired
“Jewish Colonial Modernity in Global Perspective.” Association for Jewish Studies. Washington DC. December 2025.
“Mizrachi Jews—Boundaries and Identities.” Association for Jewish Studies. Virtual. December 2024.
“Zionist Settler Violence.” Middle East Studies Association. Virtual. November 2024.
“Between Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew: Texts and Contexts.” Association for Jewish Studies Annual Conference. Boston, MA. December 2022.
Selected Lectures/Events
“A Conversation with Rachel Cockerell, Author of Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land.” Moderator & Discussant. Jewish Community of Lancaster Alliance. Zoom. November 2nd, 2025.
“Introduction and Post-Screening Q&A: Where Are You Going Moshé? (2007).” Franklin & Marshall College, Conflict & Conflict Resolution Film Series, 2024-2025. Lancaster, PA. February 2025.
“International Holocaust Remembrance Day Event, Comments + Q&A.” Klehr Center for Jewish Life, Franklin & Marshall College. Lancaster, PA. January 2025.
“The Origins of Jewish Nationalism in late Nineteenth Century Europe.” University of Illinois-Chicago, HIST278: The Middle East since 1258. Zoom. October 2024.
“Antisemitism: Historical Roots & Contemporary Trajectories.” Occidental College, Office for Religious & Spiritual Life. LA, CA. November 2022.
“Shattered Rhymes: The Life and Poetry of Erez Bitton”. Event Moderator and Discussant. CUNY Graduate Center. NY, NY. February 2015.