G46.2422.001 Encounter with the West : Modernization and Secularization of the Jews in Islamic lands (XIXth-XXth centuries) Prof. Esther Benbassa This course will examine the process of modernization in which Jews of the Islamic lands were engaged during the XIXth and XXth centuries not only as a consequence of the growing influence of the West in these regions (via direct or indirect colonisation) but also as a result of the voluntarist policy of local Jewish elites. Case studies will include the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and North Africa. A special attention will be devoted to the deep transformation and secularization of Jewish culture in these countries.

1. Wednesday , September 3: The beginnings of Westernization in the Ottoman Empire and its impact on Sephardi Communities • Esther Benbassa & Aron Rodrigue, Sephardi Jewry. A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th-20th Centuries (Berkeley, 2000), pp. 65-115. • Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton, 1984), pp. 107 – 153. 2. Monday, September 8: Jewish life in Islamic lands before the colonisation • Emily Gottreich, The Mellah of Marrakesh. Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco (Bloomington, 2007), pp. 71-107. • Simon Schwarzfuchs, Les Juifs d’Algérie et la France (Jerusalem, 1981), pp. 67- 190. 3. Wednesday, September 10: French colonization in North Africa and the Jews • Michel Abitbol, Le Passé d’une discorde. Juifs et Arabes depuis le VIIe siècle (Paris, 1999), pp. 149- 211. • Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia, 1991), pp. 3-26. 4. Monday, September 15: How the European Jewish elite discovered the Jews of Islamic Lands in the era of Orientalism • M. Abitbol, op. cit., p. 212-228. • Ismar Schorsch, « The Myth of Sephardic Supremacy », Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, n° 34 (1989), pp. 47-66. • Aron Rodrigue, French Jews, Turkish Jews. The Alliance Israélite Universelle and the Politics of Jewish Schooling in Turkey, 1860-1925 (Bloomington, 1990), pp.1-24. • Edward Said, Orientalism (New York, 1979), pp.49-72. • Daniel Schroeter, “Orientalism and the Jew of the Mediterranean”, Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 4:2 (1994), pp. 183-196. 5. Wednesday, September 17: The role of European Jewish philanthropy in the Westernization of the Jews of Islamic Lands. The impact of the Western model of education. • Esther Benbassa, « L’éducation féminine en Orient : l’école de fille de l’Alliance israélite universelle à Galata, Istanbul (1879-1912) », Histoire, Économie et Société, n° 4 (winter 1991), pp. 529-559. For the shorter version in English see: Studies in Contemporary Jewry, vol. IX (1993), pp. 163-173. • Michael M. Laskier, The Alliance Israélite Universelle and the Jewish Communities of Morocco, 1862-1962 (Albany, 1983), pp. 100-147. • Aron Rodrigue, Jews and Muslims, 2nd. ed. (Seattle, 2003), pp. 7-21. • Rachel Simon, “Jewish Female Education in the Ottoman Empire”, in Avigdor Levy, ed., Jews, Turks, Ottomans (Syracuse, 2002) , pp. 127-152. 6. Monday, September 22: Entering the era of modernization: internal dynamics • Esther Benbassa, « The Process of Modernization of Eastern Sephardi Communities”, in Harvey Goldberg, ed. Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries. History and Culture in the Modern Era (Bloomington, 1996), pp. 89-98. • Joseph Chetrit, “ Discours et modernité dans les communautés juives d’Afrique du Nord à la fin du XIXe siècle, in Esther Benbassa, ed., Transmission et Passages en monde juif (Paris, 1997), pp.379-400. • David Biale, ed., Cultures of the Jews. A New History (New York, 2002), pp. 907- 927. • Norman A. Stillman, “Middle Eastern and North African Jewries Confront Modernity: Orientation, Disorientation, Reorientation”, in H. Goldberg, ed., op. cit., pp. 59-72. 7. Wednesday, September 24: The Décret Crémieux: how Algerian Jews became French citizens • Daniel Amson, Adolphe Crémieux. L’Oublié de la gloire (Paris, 1988), pp. 359-370. • Albert Memmi, Portrait du colonise, précédé du portrait du colonisateur, new edition (Paris, 2002), all the book. 8. Monday, September 29: Social, economic and cultural changes inside the communities • Esther Benbassa & Aron Rodrigue, A Sephardi Life in Southeastern Europe: The Autobiography and Journal of Gabriel Arie, 1863-1939 ( Washington, 1998), pp. 3-55. • David Biale, ed., op.cit. pp. 945-969. • Daniel Schroeter and Joseph Chetrit, “The Transformation of the Jewish Community of Essaouira (Mogador) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries”, in H. Goldberg, ed., op. cit, pp. 99-106. • Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands, op.cit., pp. 27-46. 9. Wednesday, October 1st: Jews and Muslims in the new context • Michel Abitbol, op. cit., pp. 229-345. • N. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands, op.cit., pp. 47-64. 10. Monday, October 6: Paths of politization • Joel Beinin, The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry (Cairo, 2005), pp. 1-28. • Esther Benbassa &Aron Rodrigue, Sephardi Jews, op.cit., pp. 116-158. • Yehouda Shenhav, The Arab Jews. A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion,, and Ethnicity ( Stanford, 2006), pp. 77-109, 136-183. • Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands, op. cit., pp. 65-112. 11-12. Wednesday, October 8 and Wednesday October 15: The Holocaust and Migrations • Henry Abramson, “A Double Occlusion: Sephardim and the Holocaust, in Zion Zohar, ed., Sephardic & Mizrahi Jewry (New York, 2005), pp. 285-299. • J. Beinin, op. cit., pp. 121-178. • Esther Benbassa & Aron Rodrigue, Sephardi Jews, op. cit., pp. 159-191. • Esther Benbassa, The Jews of France (Princeton, 1999), pp. 185-189. • Mark Mazower, Salonica. City of Ghosts (New York, 2004), pp. 392-428. • N. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands, op. cit., pp. 113-176. 13. Monday, October 20: North African and Oriental Jews in Israel • Gabriel Piterberg, “Domestic Orientalism: The Representation of 'Oriental' Jews in Zionist/Israeli Historiography”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 23: 2 (Nov. 1996), pp. 125-145. • Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, “The Zionist Return to the West and the Mizrahi Jewish Perspective”, in Ivan Davisson Kalmar and Derek J. Penslar, ed., Orientalism and the Jews (Waltham, Mas., 2005), pp. 162-181. • Ella Shohat, "Sephardim in Israel: Zionism From the Standpoint of Its Jewish Victims," Social Text, n° 19/20 (Fall 1988) (special issue on Colonial Discourse) pp. 1-35. • Ella Shohat, "The Invention of the Mizrahim" , Journal of Palestine Studies, n° 1 (Autumn 1999), pp. 5-20. • Zion Zohar, “Sephardim and Oriental Jews in Israel: Rethinking the Sociopolitical Paradigm”, in Z. Zohar, ed., op. cit., pp. 300-327. 14. Wednesday, October 22 Jews and Arabs in Europe at the time of the Second Intifada Term papers due • Esther Benbassa, " Jewish Moslem Relations in Contemporary France ", Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 11: 2 (Apr. 2007), pp. 189-194. • E. Benbassa, " Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Racism: Europe's Recurring Evils? ", in Matti Bunzl, ed., Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Hatreds Old and New in Europe (Chicago, 2007), pp. 77-89. Course Requirements Class attendance and active participation in discussion. Oral presentation of one session’s reading. Final paper: 15-20 pages research paper in English on individual topics. You should make an appointment to see me before October 1st to discuss your chosen topic. Books to purchase • Michel Abitbol, Le Passé d’une discorde. Juifs et Arabes depuis le VIIe siècle (Paris, 1999). • Esther Benbassa & Aron Rodrigue, Sephardi Jewry. A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th-20th Centuries (Berkeley, 2000). • Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam (Princeton, 1984). • Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia, 1991).