Simon Sibelman
Jefferson and the Jews
Summary
Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, happened to be one of Virginia’s “first families.” During the Revolutionary War and his stint as America’s second ambassador to France, Jefferson came to know and gain insight into the limited number of Jews he met and knew. Indeed, whereas some colonies had thriving Jewish communities (New York, South Carolina, Georgia, Rhode Island), Virginia’s Jewish population was miniscule. This talk will explore that relationship and how it impacted both Jews and Jefferson.
Simon Sibelman
Born and educated in Richmond, VA, Prof. Simon Sibelman received his BA from the University of Richmond where he majored in French and Russian with minors in history and art history. He taught French, Russian, and dramatic arts at the St. Christopher’s School for Boys in Richmond from 1971 through 1981 when he left to pursue his doctorate in London and Paris. His focus was on the impact of the Shoah on French literature, especially Franco-Jewish writers. His doctoral dissertation thesis was later published as his first book, Silence in the Novels of Elie Wiesel. He taught at the Sprio Institute for the Study of Jewish History and Culture, eventually also serving as the director of Adult Studies. Returning to the US in 1990, he taught until 2009 at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award (1992), the TRISS Endowed Chair for Humanities (1999–2009), and the John N. Rosebush University Professorship (2003). In 2009, he returned to Richmond to assume the position of assistant executive director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum and in 2011 as its executive director. In 2013 he assumed the position of director of the Center for Holocaust, Judaic, and Peace Studies and was named the first Leon Levine Distinguished Professorship. Upon retiring, he moved to Massachusetts where he is a freelance lecturer.