Mizrahi Wanderings
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The Role of Ultra-Orthodox Political Parties in Israeli Democracy
Luke Howson University of Liverpool The Role of Ultra-Orthodox Political Parties in Israeli Democracy Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy By Luke Howson July 2014 Committee: Clive Jones, BA (Hons) MA, PhD Prof Jon Tonge, PhD 1 Luke Howson University of Liverpool © 2014 Luke Howson All Rights Reserved 2 Luke Howson University of Liverpool Abstract This thesis focuses on the role of ultra-orthodox party Shas within the Israeli state as a means to explore wider themes and divisions in Israeli society. Without underestimating the significance of security and conflict within the structure of the Israeli state, in this thesis the Arab–Jewish relationship is viewed as just one important cleavage within the Israeli state. Instead of focusing on this single cleavage, this thesis explores the complex structure of cleavages at the heart of the Israeli political system. It introduces the concept of a ‘cleavage pyramid’, whereby divisions are of different saliency to different groups. At the top of the pyramid is division between Arabs and Jews, but one rung down from this are the intra-Jewish divisions, be they religious, ethnic or political in nature. In the case of Shas, the religious and ethnic elements are the most salient. The secular–religious divide is a key fault line in Israel and one in which ultra-orthodox parties like Shas are at the forefront. They and their politically secular counterparts form a key division in Israel, and an exploration of Shas is an insightful means of exploring this division further, its history and causes, and how these groups interact politically. -
Historical Memory and History in the Memoirs of Iraqi Jews*
Historical Memory and History in the Memoirs of Iraqi Jews* Mark R. Cohen Memoirs, History, and Historical Memory Following their departure en masse from their homeland in the middle years of the twentieth century, Jews from Iraq produced a small library of memoirs, in English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic. These works reveal much about the place of Arab Jews in that Muslim society, their role in public life, their relations with Muslims, their involvement in Arab culture, the crises that led to their departure from a country in which they had lived for centuries, and, finally, their life in the lands of their dispersion. The memoirs are complemented by some documentary films. The written sources have aroused the interest of historians and scholars of literature, though not much attention has been paid to them as artifacts of historical memory.1 That is the subject of the present essay. Jews in the Islamic World before the Twentieth Century Most would agree, despite vociferous demurrer in certain "neo-lachrymose" circles, that, especially compared to the bleaker history of Jews living in Christian lands, Jews lived fairly securely during the early, or classical, Islamic * In researching and writing this paper I benefited from conversations and correspondence with Professors Sasson Somekh, Orit Bashkin, and Lital Levy and with Mr. Ezra Zilkha. Though a historian of Jews in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages, I chose to write on a literary topic in honor of Tova Rosen, who has contributed so much to our knowledge of another branch of Jewish literature written by Arab Jews. -
Jewish Education in Baghdad: Communal Space Vs. Public Space
chapter 4 Jewish Education in Baghdad: Communal Space vs. Public Space S.R. Goldstein-Sabbah The Levant of the early twentieth century was a place of rapid political, social, and cultural transformation. This era ushered in a new, for lack of a more precise term, “modern” era for the region characterized, in part, by a burgeoning middle class and an increase in intercommunal dialogue that resulted from new forms of public space.1 The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the combining of three former Ottoman provinces—Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul— into a new Iraqi state led to numerous challenges in unifying an ethnically and religiously diverse population and caused decades of political instability. However the British mandate and early years of the Iraqi state are also viewed as a time of religious pluralism and an attempt to build an inclusive secular state2 with the city of Baghdad as its political, cultural, and economic center. In Baghdad, as in many other Middle Eastern cities, the modern era meant the creation of new public spaces, such as chambers of commerce, modern companies, hotels, and cinemas to name a few examples.3 One type of area not often associated with public space are schools run under the auspices of religious communities. However, in Baghdad, schools run by religious authori- ties were a key factor in forging the new national identity; they often served as public spaces and as public symbols for religious communities to demonstrate their belonging to the nation. In Baghdad the first modern schools teaching secular subjects were estab- lished under the authority of religious communities. -
Tightrope Walkers: Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff and Naïm Kattan As “Translated Men” Danielle Drori the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Tightrope Walkers: Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff and Naïm Kattan as “Translated Men” Danielle Drori The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research abstract: This article examines essays and memoirs by two multilingual writers, Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff and Naïm Kattan, who relied on different forms of trans- lation to build their literary careers during the second half of the twentieth century. It analyzes their biographical works from the perspective of “world literature studies” and the ties between literary translation, decolonization, and nation formation. Drawing on Pascale Casanova’s concept of “translated men,” the article compares Kahanoff’s and Kattan’s cases to argue that their linguistic choices reflected their political ambiv- alences, yet have never barred their readers, editors, and translators from seeing them as “belonging” to specific canons. on translated men ranslation can be as effective in effacing cultural difference as it can be in bridg- ing it. As scholars from various fields have shown, different forms of translation played a meaningful role in the long and multifaceted history of colonialism, imperialism, and Tmodern nationalism.1 In some cases, enterprises of textual exchange complemented, or simply followed, the colonization and annexation of peoples and geographical areas. In others, cul- tural colonialism manifested itself by way of establishing educational institutions in which the colonized were immersed in the language and literature of the colonizers.2 Processes of decol- onization and of gaining national independence were also often accompanied by practices of translation, with former colonies reclaiming local literatures, starting a counter-enterprise of literary translation, and reviving dormant and local languages.3 Translation may serve, in other 1 See, e.g., the anthology Sandra Bermann and Michael Wood, Nation, Language, and the Ethics of Translation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008). -
The Dynamics of Change in Jewish Oriental Ethnic Music in Israel Author(S): Amnon Shiloah and Erik Cohen Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol
Society for Ethnomusicology The Dynamics of Change in Jewish Oriental Ethnic Music in Israel Author(s): Amnon Shiloah and Erik Cohen Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 27, No. 2 (May, 1983), pp. 227-252 Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/851076 Accessed: 19/04/2010 03:04 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=illinois. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Society for Ethnomusicology and University of Illinois Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ethnomusicology. -
On Diversity and Identity Among Indian Jews by Prof. Shalva Weil
A course under MHRD scheme on Global Initiative on Academic Network (GIAN) On Diversity and Identity among Indian Jews by Prof. Shalva Weil Course Venue: Date: 23-31 January 2017 Time: 4:00-7:00 PM Overview The Jews of India represent a miniscule minority residing in harmony among Hindus, Muslims and Christians for generations. India is the only place in the world where Jews never suffered antisemitism, except during the Portuguese colonial period, as will be demonstrated in the course. The three major Jewish communities – the Bene Israel, the Cochin Jews, and the ‘Baghdadi’ Jews – retained their faith in monotheism in a polytheistic environment, whilst at the same time, being influenced by caste and religion in their daily practices. In the final analysis, Indian nationalism and global politics decided their fate. Today, most Indian Jews live in the state of Israel. However, their impact on Indian society was great, whether in the field of the arts, the military, commerce or in the free professions. The course throws new light on the diversity of India’s Jewish communities, spinning the unique narratives of each community. It includes in the discussion the temporary sojourn of 1 European Jews, who fled the Holocaust to India. In addition, it touches upon an increasing global phenomenon of weaving “Israelite” myths whereby the Shinlung of north-east India, today designated the “Bnei Menashe”, are migrating to Israel, and new Judaizing groups are emerging in India, such as the “Bene Ephraim” of Andhra Pradesh. The course provides a critical analysis of the position of the Jews in India both synchronically and diachronically. -
Israel: Finding the Levant Within the Mediterranean
The Levantine Review Volume 1 Number 1 (Spring 2012) ISRAEL: FINDING THE LEVANT WITHIN THE MEDITERRANEAN Rachel S. Harris Alexandra Nocke. The Place of the Mediterranean in Modern Israeli Identity. Brill 2010, Cloth $70. ISBN 9789004173248 Amy Horowitz. Mediterranean Israeli Music and the Politics of the Aesthetic. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010. Paper $29.95. ISBN 9780814334652. Karen Grumberg. Place and Ideology in Contemporary Hebrew Literature. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2011. Cloth $39.95. ISBN 9780815632597. Zionism as a national movement sought to unite a dispersed people under a single conception of political sovereignty, with shared symbols of flag, anthem and language. Irrespective of where Jews had found a home during 2500 years of (at least symbolic) nomadic wandering, as guests in other lands, they would now return to their ancient homeland. For such an enterprise to succeed, a degree of homogenisation was required, where differences would be erased in favour of shared commonalities. These universalised conceptions for the new Jew were debated, explored, and decided upon by the leaders of the movement whose ideas were shaped by European theories of nationalism. From the beginning of the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century and its territorialisation in Palestine, Jews faced the challenge of looking towards Europe socially and intellectually, while simultaneously attempting to situate themselves economically and physically within the landscape of the Middle East. This hybridity can be seen in a self-portrait by Shimon Korbman, a photographer working in Tel Aviv in the 1920s: Sitting on a small stool on the sand next to the sea, he faces the camera, dressed in his white tropical summer suit, an Arabic water pipe – Nargila –in his hand. -
ISSUE 73 - AUTUMN 2000 Established 1971
JOURNAL OF BABYLONIAN JEWRY PUBLISHED BY THE EXILARCH’S FOUNDATION Now found on www.thescribe.uk.com ISSUE 73 - AUTUMN 2000 Established 1971 A Happy New Year 5761 to all our Readers and Friends The procession of His Royal Highness The Exilarch on his weekly visit to the Grand Caliph of Baghdad, ALMUSTANJID BILLAH, accompanied by Benjamin of Tudela (12th Century) who wrote in his diary that the Caliph knows all languages, and is well-versed in the law of Israel. He reads and writes the holy language (Hebrew) and is attended by many belonging to the people of Israel. He will not partake of anything unless he has earned it by the work of his own hands. The men of Islam see him once a year. In Baghdad there are about 40,000 Jews “dwelling in security, prosperity and honour and amongst them are great sages, the heads of Academies engaged in the study of the Law. At the head of them all is Daniel, The Exilarch, who traces his pedigree to King David. He has been invested with authority over all the Jews in the Abbassid Empire. Every Thursday he goes to pay a visit to the great Caliph and horsemen, Gentiles as well as Jews, escort him and heralds proclaim in advance, ‘Make way before our Lord, the son of David, as is due unto him’. On arrival the Caliph rises and puts him on a throne, opposite him, which the prophet Mohammed had ordered to be made for him. He granted him the seal of office and instructed his followers to salute him (the Exilarch) and that anyone who should refuse to rise up should receive one hundred stripes.” THOUGHTS & AFTERTHOUGHTS by Naim Dangoor REFLECTIONS ON T H E as martyrs for the free world and should that G-d cannot do wrong, they try to put HOLOCAUST be remembered and honoured throughout the blame on the victims themselves. -
Conclusion-Print [Version 20170704 Date 20181203 13:40] Page 219
Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/68272 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Goldstein, S.R. Title: Baghdadi Jewish networks in Hashemite Iraq : Jewish transnationalism in the age of nationalism Issue Date: 2019-01-10 2018146 [Goldstein] 008-Conclusion-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page 219 Conclusion Three young Jewish women from Baghdad were sent to Paris in 1938 to study at the aiu teacher’s training school. Soon after their arrival, France was invaded and Paris was occupied by the Nazis. The women fled to Toulouse and spent the rest of the war in southern France using false papers provided by members of the French resistance. At the end of the war, their passports having expired, the women were unable to return to Iraq. With the assistance of the jdc they were sent, instead, to Palestine as Jewish War Refugees. Ibrahim Nahum, who happened to be in Palestine in 1945 arranged to have their Iraqi passports renewed and they were finally able to return to their families in Baghdad. These women, like most Iraqi Jews, would leave Iraq for Israel between 1949 and 1952.1 The lives of Iraqi Jews in the Hashemite period were influenced by a complex network of Jewish organizations, institutions, and ideologies.2 I have explored ways in which Iraqi Jewry connected to Jewish groups outside Iraq, arguing that these connections had important ongoing consequences not only on the organization of the community, but in the identity of its members. In the first four chapters I examined the emergence of new types of Jewish networks, including the relationship between Baghdad and the Baghdadi diaspora, global Jewish solidarity and philanthropy movements, the global Jewish press and secular Jewish education. -
Table of Contents
Table of Contents From the Editors 3 From the President 3 From the Executive Director 4 The Iraq & Iran Issue Iran and Iraq: Demography beyond the Jewish Past 6 Sergio DellaPergola AJS, Ahmadinejad, and Me 8 Richard Kalmin Baghdad in the West: Migration and the Making of Medieval Jewish Traditions 11 Marina Rustow Jews of Iran and Rabbinical Literature: Preliminary Notes 14 Daniel Tsadik Iraqi Arab-Jewish Identities: First Body Singular 18 Orit Bashkin A Republic of Letters without a Republic? 24 Lital Levy A Fruit That Asks Questions: Michael Rakowitz’s Shipment of Iraqi Dates 28 Jenny Gheith On Becoming Persian: Illuminating the Iranian-Jewish Community 30 Photographs by Shelley Gazin, with commentary by Nasrin Rahimieh JAPS: Jewish American Persian Women and Their Hybrid Identity in America 34 Saba Tova Soomekh Engagement, Diplomacy, and Iran’s Nuclear Program 42 Brandon Friedman Online Resources for Talmud Research, Study, and Teaching 46 Heidi Lerner The Latest Limmud UK 2009 52 Caryn Aviv A Serious Man 53 Jason Kalman The Questionnaire What development in Jewish studies over the last twenty years has most excited you? 55 AJS Perspectives: The Magazine of the President Please direct correspondence to: Association for Jewish Studies Marsha Rozenblit Association for Jewish Studies University of Maryland Center for Jewish History Editors 15 West 16th Street Matti Bunzl Vice President/Publications New York, NY 10011 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Jeffrey Shandler Rachel Havrelock Rutgers University Voice: (917) 606-8249 University of Illinois at Chicago Fax: (917) 606-8222 Vice President/Program E-Mail: [email protected] Derek Penslar Web Site: www.ajsnet.org Editorial Board Allan Arkush University of Toronto Binghamton University AJS Perspectives is published bi-annually Vice President/Membership by the Association for Jewish Studies. -
A Case of Two Literary Identities in Harbin and Shanghai
Kedma: Penn's Journal on Jewish Thought, Jewish Culture, and Israel Volume 2 Number 3 Spring 2019 Article 7 2020 A Case of Two Literary Identities in Harbin and Shanghai Rachel Wechsler University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/kedma Part of the Jewish Studies Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/kedma/vol2/iss3/7 For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Case of Two Literary Identities in Harbin and Shanghai Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License This article is available in Kedma: Penn's Journal on Jewish Thought, Jewish Culture, and Israel: https://repository.upenn.edu/kedma/vol2/iss3/7 A Case of Two Literary Identities in Harbin and Shanghai Rachel Wechsler When addressing identity, perhaps the greatest insight is provided in writing: authors unconsciously give clues to the complexities of their own contradictions and personal conceptions. Harbin and Shanghai, two cities in China whose people, environments, and identities are geographically and culturally distinct in myriad ways, were nonetheless the origins of two men who developed an intense love for their communities, and whose identities were manifested in both literary and textual capacities. Nissim Ezra Benjamin Ezra and Valerij Perelesin (Pereleshin) exemplify the intersectionality of cultural and literary identity. Ezra used his position as editor of Israel’s Messenger as a means to explore his own religious and internal conflict, while Perelesin’s multinational identity seeped through his translation and poetry pieces. -
Proquest Dissertations
Tradition and Modernity... What it meant to be an educated Baghdadi Jew in the late nineteenth to early-mid twentieth century Tania Korin Integrated Studies in Education; Culture and Values McGill University, Montreal August, 2007 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters in Integrated Studies in Education, Culture and Values © Copyright by Tania Korin (2007) Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-51387-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-51387-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation.