Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora – David Kraemer

Jewish people have always wandered. From the time of the Babylonian Exile in the early 6th century BCE, diaspora became the Jews’ normal condition, and though they may have hoped for a return to their “Promised Land” at the “End of Days,” they made sense of their many homes, defending diaspora as the realm where Jewish life could grow, and they could fulfil their obligations to God.

Embracing Exile analyzes biblical and rabbinic texts, philosophical treatises, works of Kabbalah, Hasidism, and a multiplicity of modern expressions, to show that diaspora Jews through the ages insisted that God joined them in their exiles, that “Zion” was found in Babylon, Ottoman Turkey, and Eastern Europe, and that, as citizens of the world, Jews could only live throughout the world. The result is an assertion that lament has not been the most common Jewish response to “exile” and that Zionism is not the natural outcome of either Jewish ideology or history.

David Kraemer is Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian at The Jewish Theological Seminary, where he has also served as Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics for many years. As Librarian, Prof. Kraemer is at the helm of the most extensive collection of Judaica—rare and contemporary—in the Western hemisphere. On account of the size and importance of the collection, Prof. Kraemer is instrumental in setting policy and establishing vision for projects of international importance.
Prof. Kraemer is a prolific author and commentator. His books include The Mind of the Talmud (1990), Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature (1995), The Meanings of Death in Rabbinic Judaism (2000), Jewish Eating and Identity Through the Ages (Routledge, 2007, 2009), and A History of the Talmud (Cambridge U. Press, 2019), among others. His most recent book is Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora, (Oxford U. Press, 2025).

Thursday, December 4 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM
Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora

David Kraemer (Jewish Theological Seminary)
Moderator: David N. Myers (UCLA)

Alan D. Leve Center Book Talk Series

RSVP