Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry
Subject: In Loopholes and Gray Areas. A Cross-Border History of Criminal Jewish Networks, 1820s–1914
Supervisor: Prof. Yfaat Weiss and Prof. Marcos Silber
Abstract: This PhD project will elucidate the modi operandi of Jewish criminal networks mainly in the realm of fraud, smuggling, illegal (female) migration, and counterfeiting active throughout the 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in their respective countries of immigration. It also examines cooperatives established to combat these networks, thereby highlighting the interplay between criminal actors, the political and legal systems in which they operated, and the Jewish communities that were called upon by state authorities to provide information or punish misdemeanors. By giving the protagonists and their ways of collaboration center stage, this PhD project will offer an in-depth analysis of the notorious and frequently lamented relation between Jews and criminal activity. Positioned at the interface between legality and normativity, the project opens a social and cultural understanding of trans-imperial enterprises carried out by criminal(ized) Jews.
Bio: Before beginning her PhD studies at the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2021, Margarita Lerman studied Translation (B. A.), Conference Interpreting (M. A.), and European Studies (M. A.) at the universities of Leipzig, Concepción (Chile), and Havana (Cuba). In her first MA thesis, she analyzed Cuba’s perspective on Israel from 1959 to 1973. During her second MA degree, she began focusing on East European Jewish history, and especially on Jewish men and women active outside the legal confines of the law. In her PhD dissertation, she explores Jewish criminal networks and their cross-border activities in the 19th century, focusing on their working modes and the scopes of action these networks created for Jewish men and women. Her research interests include social and gender history, the history of criminology and policing, and historical migration studies. She is an Associated Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig, Germany.
President Stipend 2021/22