Talk by Hilit Surowitz-Israel

A graduate of the University of Florida and currently professor
at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Surowitz-Israel returns to
her alma mater to study records in the holdings of the Latin
American and Caribbean, Florida, and Judaica collections. Her
research focuses on the early modern Atlantic and scrutinizes
the institutions and regulatory practices of Portuguese Jewish
communities in the Caribbean and beyond. It also examines the
formation of diaspora consciousness among Portuguese Jews,
and the entanglement of race and religion in colonial America.
Her research as a fellow in the program “Jews in the Americas”
contributes to her forthcoming monograph “May God Enlarge Japheth”:
Portuguese Jews in the Early Modern Atlantic World.