Yair Mintzker: I, Wandering Jew – A Five-Century History of Our Modern Condition

The story behind the mythical figure of "the Wandering Jew" is one of the most fascinating tales in European history. In this lecture—presenting his new book—Professor Mintzker traces the tale back to its source in a mysterious 1602 pamphlet, following its many metamorphoses across five centuries and relating it to our fraught present moment. I, Wandering Jew explores crucial episodes in the story of this figure. We meet an unforgettable, Wandering Jew–like character who appeared out of nowhere in Israel in the 1950s; a nineteenth-century novelist who was the first Jew to favorably describe the Wandering Jew; an eighteenth-century German scholar who saw the Wandering Jew emerging from a devastating fire; and the man who likely inspired the 1602 pamphlet.

Join us at Tel Aviv University for a special public lecture and book presentation featuring award-winning historian Yair Mintzker, discussing his captivating book, I, Wandering Jew: A Five-Century History of Our Modern…