"In Antwerp We Speak Diamond" – City Branding & the Specter of Europe's Jewish Merchant

Date: 

Thursday, March 31, 2022, 12:30pm to 1:45pm

Location: 

Zoom (registration required)

Speaker: Sam Shuman, Rabin-Shvidler Joint Post-Doctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies, Fordham University and Columbia University

Chair: Derek Penslar. William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University

 

This seminar centers around a 2017 city-branding campaign, “In Antwerp We Speak Diamond! Diamond Capital Since 1447.” Jointly engineered by PR representatives from Antwerp’s diamond industry (AWDC) and the city's government, this campaign sought to shore up Antwerp’s precarious position in the global diamond supply-chain.

Sam Shuman assesses why Antwerp’s reigning right-wing nationalist party, N-VA (the New Flemish Alliance), chose to associate its city with a luxury commodity traded by “foreign” merchant communities. What might be the relevance of the “port Jew” for Europe in the 21st century?

Please note: This Zoom event requires advance registration. Click here to register.