February 2002 David Graizbord, Ph.D. "The Inquisition: Early Modern Jewish History" Dr. David Graizbord will join the University of Arizona's Judaic Studies faculty as a specialist in Early Modern Jewish history. Dr. Graizbord's primary area of expertise is the history of Iberian Jews and conversos (the descendants of baptized Sephardim, also known as "marranos"). His research focuses on the experiences of ordinary Jews, and he expects to devote much of his future research to the history of the Jewish family and Jewish childhood in sixteenth and seventeenthcentury Europe. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Graizbord spent the greater part of his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico City, where he was a student at Di Yiddishe Shul in Mehsihe, the main school of the Mexican Ashkenazic community. David received his undergraduate education at the University of California, San Diego and spent one year studying at the Hebrew University in jenisalem. He received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and wrote his dissertation on "Conformity and Dissidence among Judeoconversos, 1580-1700." His research explores the lives of conversos who escaped their native lands in the Iberian Peninsula, embraced normative Judaism in exile, yet eventually returned to Spain and Portugal, where they re-converted to Catholicism. This past year David has served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish History at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is married to Michelle Michelson, an attorney who specializes in public interest and civil rights law. We are delighted to have David joining us this summer.