Deinard Inaugural Lecture: What is Jewish History and Why Does It Matter?

The establishment of the Deinard Chair in Jewish History at the University of Minnesota has ensured the continuity of research and teaching in the field of Jewish history at UMN. But why should teaching Jewish history matter here and now? In this inaugural lecture, Dr. Noam Sienna, the incoming holder of the Deinard Chair, will offer reflections on studying and teaching Jewish history, weaving together his own research, the history of Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota, and the future horizons for Jewish Studies at UMN.

Noam Sienna is a scholar of Jewish life in the premodern Islamic world, with particular interests in book history and material culture. He holds the Deinard Memorial Chair in Jewish History at the University of Minnesota; he is also a Senior Fellow with the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. His first monograph, Jewish Books in North Africa: Between the Early Modern and Modern Worlds, appeared from Indiana University Press in 2025, and received the 2025 Book Award from the Middle East Librarians Association. He is currently writing a socio-bibliographic study of the first Hebrew press in the Ottoman Empire.

The Deinard Chair in early modern and modern Jewish History was established in 2007 with a major donation from the Kelen Family Foundation and gifts from other community members. It honors Amos S. Deinard, a Minneapolis lawyer and civil rights leader, who was a founder of the Minneapolis Human Rights Commission and chairman of the Minneapolis Fair Employment Practices Commission. 

This lecture is jointly sponsored by both the Center for Jewish Studies and History Department at the University of Minnesota.