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"Empire, Antiquarianism & the Secularization of Exile: The Ten Lost Tribes between History and Geography", A Talk by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

    This talk offers a rare glimpse into the British frame of mind concerning the possibility of Jewish economic activity in colonial Asia. Going back three decades before the first appearance of the early Baghdadi Jewish entrepreneurs in the recently colonized India, I will present and discuss the writings of the Royal Surveyor of Bengal, Major James Rennell (1742-1830) on Jews (imagined ones). Going through Rennell’s readings in Greek and Biblical sources, this talk suggests that already before the 19th century and well before Middle Eastern Jews began playing a role in the rising of modern colonized Asia, there existed a specific frame of mind, in some corners of the British government, which considered them to be perfect candidates for such a role. Middle Eastern Jewish entrepreneurs in China and India (and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean world) are celebrated today as agents of modernity. But this talk will show that these early British ideas about Jewish presence Asia was not founded modern values or on contemporary practical observations of Jewish economic activity in Europe. Instead, Rennell’s views were based on antiquarianism and a “modern” reading of the topic of “exile” in the ancient Biblical text.

As Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Network Faculty Planning at New York University, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite is responsible for the coordination of faculty hiring at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. He is Professor in the Department of History and the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.