This article reflects on the mutual claims that history and the present make upon one another by focusing on some of the ways that histories of Israel and Jerusalem have been put to work in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It begins by observing two tendencies among modern historians: the first is to defend history’s ‘right’ not to be enlisted in the service of present interests; the second is to insist that historians cannot abdicate their responsibility to the present.
Using the histories of Israel and Jerusalem as a case study, the article highlights these opposing tendencies as tension fundamental to understanding Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as ‘historical religions.’ It concludes that, because this tension is constitutive of the traditions themselves, responsible historians should recognize and acknowledge it, but they cannot transcend it.

David Nirenberg is the tenth Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is recognized for wide-ranging scholarship in the history of ideas and on the historical interactions among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. His books include Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages and Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism — Medieval and Modern . His Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition examines how pagan, Christian, Muslim, and secular thought have construed Jews and Judaism from the ancient world to the present. His most recent book, Uncountable: A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present , co-authored with his father, Ricardo Nirenberg, seeks to understand the powers and limits of the sciences and the humanities. He is currently working on a history of racial thought in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Nirenberg is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Medieval Academy of America. The lecture was delivered on 4 August 2025.