Biography

Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University and resident faculty at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES). His research explores Jewish political and economic life in modern Europe as well as the relationship between modern Israel and diaspora Jewish societies, global nationalist movements, European colonialism, and post-colonial states.

Penslar has taught at Indiana University, Bloomington, the University of Toronto, and the University of Oxford, where he served as the inaugural Stanley Lewis Professor of Modern Israel Studies. He is president of the American Academy for Jewish Research and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Penslar's books include Zionism and Technocracy: The Engineering of Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 1870-1918 (1991); In Search of Jewish Community: Jewish Identities in Germany and Austria, 1918-1933 (1998, co-edited with Michael Brenner), Shylock’s Children: Economics and Jewish Identity in Modern Europe (2001); Orientalism and the Jews (co-edited with Ivan Kalmar, 2004), Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective (2006); The Origins of the State of Israel 1882-1948: A Documentary History (with Eran Kaplan, 2011), Jews and the Military: A History (2013), and Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader (2020). He is completing a book titled Zionism: An Emotional State for Rutgers University Press’ series on “Keywords in Jewish Studies.”

At CES, Penslar chairs the Jews in Modern Europe Seminar.

Affiliations

• William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History, Harvard University
• Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University