Lecture
Lyn Julius
Thursday 12.11.2026
Lyn Julius
The Alliance and the Spread of the Enlightenment
Thursday 12.11.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 12 November at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
Founded by a group of French Jews in the 19th century, the Alliance Israélite Universelle schools network was established to revolutionise the lives of Middle Eastern and Ottoman Jews. How did the Enlightenment impact their communities, and how did it redefine their identity and their relationship to tradition?
Lyn Julius
Lyn Julius was born in the UK and educated at the French Lycée in London and the University of Sussex. The daughter of Jewish refugees from Iraq, she is a journalist and founder of Harif, the UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (www.harif.org). Lyn blogs daily at Point of No Return. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, Jewish News, and Jerusalem Post. She has a regular column in the Times of Israel and JNS News. Her book Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight has been translated in to Norwegian, Portuguese and Arabic, and a Hebrew version is in progress. Lyn’s latest book Cast Out, a long-form essay is available from Jewish Quarterly.