Women’s Initiative for Jewish Studies (WIJS) at Young Israel of New Rochelle is proud to present Dr. Jessica Marglin on Sunday, November 19 at 10 a.m. (ET) on Zoom. Marglin will be the third speaker of the 2023-2024 season in the monthly scholarly programming offered by WIJS at YINR.

Dr. Marglin’s lecture is entitled “The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean.” In the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate. Before Shamama’s riches could be disbursed among his aspiring heirs, Italian courts had to decide which law to apply to his estate. The decision hinged on how his nationality was determined. Was Shamama an Italian citizen? A subject of the Bey of Tunis? Had he become stateless? Or was his Jewishness also his nationality? Tracing a decade-long legal battle involving Jews, Muslims, and Christians from both sides of the Mediterranean, Shamama’s case offers a riveting history of citizenship across regional, cultural and political borders.

Jessica Marglin is a professor of religion, law and history, and is the Ruth Ziegler Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California. She earned her PhD from Princeton and her BA and MA from Harvard. Her research focuses on the history of Jews and Muslims in North Africa and the Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on law. She is the author of Across Legal Lines: Jews and Muslims in Modern Morocco (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship across the Modern Mediterranean (Princeton University Press, 2022).

All WIJS programming is open to women and men. Please visit www.yinr.org/wijs to view the complete WIJS 2023-24 schedule. For more information, to be added to the WIJS email list or for Zoom information, please call 914-636-2215 or email: [email protected]. Individuals on the WIJS mailing list will automatically receive the Zoom information.