Different Threads: Jews and the performance of dressing

Join us online with Sydney Jewish Museum Education Officer Dr. Jonathan Kaplan and Distinguished Professor Peter McNeil FAHA (UTS) for a conversation on the relationship between Jews and clothing, from second-hand pedlars to city dandies, bohemians, grunge and beyond.

‘Clothes maketh the man,’ so the saying goes. But clothes are not static—as we know from the constant change of fashion—nor are their meanings, which are constantly remade.

Scholars of dress history and theory have long acknowledged the significance of clothing and appearance in the formation and performance of subjectivities and the fluidity of their symbolism.

Learn how this is particularly significant in the context of Jewish history and the changing patterns of Jewish identification and culture throughout the European nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Speakers: Distinguished Professor Peter McNeil FAHA and Dr Jonathan Kaplan