Women’s Initiative for Jewish Studies (WIJS) at Young Israel of New Rochelle is proud to present Dr. Flora Cassen on Tuesday, November 4, 2025 @ 8:15 pm (ET) on Zoom. Cassen will be the first speaker of the 2025-2026 season in the monthly scholarly programming offered by WIJS at YINR.
Dr. Cassen’s lecture is entitled, “When Myth Becomes History: The Brussels Host Desecration Accusation, 1370–Today.” The discussion will follow the remarkable afterlife of a lie: the 1370 Brussels accusation that Jews desecrated the Holy Host. From its thin medieval traces, the story grew into a grand civic myth, told through paintings, processions, and stained glass, that came to define Brussels’ religious and urban identity for centuries. Cassen will explore how this legend was used to serve both church and state, and how even after the Holocaust, efforts at reconciliation stopped short of confronting its falsehood. In tracing the evolution of one fabricated story, we’ll consider what happens when myth becomes history—and whether it is possible to undo that transformation.
Dr. Flora Cassen was born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium. She attended college in Brussels, where she studied history and law. She moved to the US to continue her studies, earning an MA in comparative history from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in Jewish History from New York University. She has taught European and Jewish history at the University of Vermont, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Washington University in Saint Louis, where she also served as chair of the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies. She is also senior faculty at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Cassen’s book, Marking the Jews in Renaissance Italy: Politics, Religion, and the Power of Symbols, published by Cambridge University Press, explores the history of the yellow badges and hats Jews were compelled to wear in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The book sheds light on the origins and implications of Renaissance anti-Judaism, examining its impact on both Italian Jews and Christians. She has also contributed numerous articles to academic journals and essay collections, creating a body of work that explores various aspects of early Modern Jewish life in Italy and the Spanish Empire, including anti-Judaism, dress, travel, espionage, and food. Flora’s forthcoming book on antisemitism is slated for publication in March with the New Jewish Press, an imprint of the University of Toronto Press.
Bridging the gap between academia and the general public, Flora also writes for broader audiences. Her articles have appeared in publications such as Haaretz, Slate, The Conversation, Psyche/Aeon, Smithsonian Magazine, and The Forward.
All WIJS programming is open to women and men. Please visit www.yinr.org/wijs to view the complete WIJS 2025-26 schedule. For more information, to be added to the WIJS email list, or for Zoom information, please call 914-636-2215 or email: wijs@yinr.org. Individuals on the WIJS mailing list will automatically receive the Zoom information.
