Bernard Cooperman Co-edits New Book

New Book on Jews and State Building: Early Modern Italy and Beyond

Bernard Cooperman, with Serena di Nepi and Germano Maifreda, has co-edited a book of essays that originated in a conference held at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University in May 2019. Titled Jews and State Building: Early Modern Italy and Beyond, the collection of 13 essays is published by Brill, originally in February 2025. According to the publisher's website: "This volume aims to shed new light on the history of the Jews in Italy between the early modern period and the emergence of a unified Italian state, explicitly placing Jews within the history of the state-building process. It seeks to reconsider Jewish history systematically by stressing the relation of Jews and the state and to trace how Jews and their communities were reshaped in the early modern period."

The volume was officially launched in a symposium held at the University of Maryland on March 24, 2025 where the three editors gave presentations about their work as it relates to the volume.