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Cover Page the Handle Holds Various Files of This Leiden University Dissertation. Author: Golds 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] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -1 Baghdadi Jewish Networks in Hashemite Iraq 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -2 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -3 Baghdadi Jewish Networks in Hashemite Iraq Jewish Transnationalism in the Age of Nationalism Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op 10 januari 2019 klokke 10.00 uur door Sasha Rachel Goldstein-Sabbah geboren te New York (Verenigde Staten) op 16 november 1981 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -4 Promotores: Prof. dr. H.L. Murre-van den Berg (Universiteit Leiden/Radboud Universiteit) Prof. dr. D.J. Schroeter (University of Minnesota) Copromotor: Dr. K.M.J. Sanchez (Universiteit Leiden) Promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. L.P.H.M. Buskens (Universiteit Leiden) Prof. dr. J. Frishman (Universiteit Leiden) Prof. dr. X. Luffin (Université libre de Bruxelles) Dr. A. Schlaepfer (Université de Genève) Prof. dr. R. Snir (University of Haifa) On the cover: AIU Archives, Paris, undated – Dining room of the Entr’aide Scolaire Society (founded in 1928) at the Laura Kadoorie School in Baghdad. The students are eating a meal they have prepared themselves in the school kitchen. The photographe comes from the album “Ecoles de Bagdad 1864- 1932”, edited in June 1932 and prepared in recognition of fifty years of service from the Ecole Normale Orientale de Paris. © 2018, Sasha Rachel Goldstein-Sabbah Printed by Ipskamp Printing, Enschede Typesetting by TAT Zetwerk, Utrecht 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -5 Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations ix Transliteration Notes xi Introduction 1 1 Scholarship on the Jews of Iraq 5 2 Methods & Sources 11 3 Jewish Transnational Networks: Modernization, Globalization, and Secularization 16 4 The Jewish Communal Organization in Iraq 21 5 Thesis Outline 33 1 Nineteenth Century Networks and Connections 35 1 Secular Jewish Identity and Transnational Jewish Solidarity 35 2 Economic and Political Reforms 39 3 Nineteenth Century European Influence: Iterations of Enlightenment 48 4 The Lay Council: Structural and Intellectual Forces of Modernity 57 5 Conclusions: Nineteenth Century Networks and Innovations 65 2 Transnational Networks and the Baghdadi Diaspora 69 1 The Satellite Communities as a Baghdadi Diaspora 70 2 Historical Background 73 3 The Baghdadi Diaspora and its connection to Baghdad 78 4 Language Use and the Baghdadi Jewish Press 88 5 Financial Support and Philanthropy 96 6 Social Status and Mitigating Poverty 100 7 Changes in the Baghdadi World, 1941–1951 103 8 Conclusions: Lasting Influences in Baghdad 106 3 Transnational Jewish Philanthropy 109 1 Foreign Partners 110 2 Communal Budgets: A Mosaic of Actors 134 3 Conclusion: Philanthropic Diversity and Continuity 138 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -6 vi contents 4 Jewish Education in Iraq 143 1 The Development of a Jewish School Network 144 2 Modern Jewish Schools 149 3 Curriculum: Multilingualism and Modernity 159 4 Linguistic Creativity and Cultural Diversity 164 5 Conclusions 169 5 Twentieth Century Networks 175 1 Theosophy: Challenging Rabbinic Hegemony 176 2 E. Levy: Zionism, Foreign Press, and Censorship 187 3 Ibrahim Nahum: The Kadoorie Agent in Baghdad 202 4 Conclusions: Multiple Networks & Connections 213 Conclusion 219 Appendix a. List of Communal Societies, Clubs, and Institutions 225 Appendix b. Baghdadi Population Numbers 229 Appendix c. Ibrahim Nahum letter to Kadoorie Family 25 December 1934 231 Bibliography 235 Summary 245 Samenvatting 249 Curriculum Vitae 253 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -7 Acknowledgements This work is the result of the help and support of many people to whom I am indebted. MysupervisorsProf.dr.HeleenMurre-vandenBerg,Prof.dr.DanielSchroeter,andDr. Karène Sanchez for supervising my work, constantly encouraging me, and guiding me on the academic path. To Heleen, who took a chance on an acquisitions editor who had been out of academia for almost a decade and has guided me from the very beginning. To Karène for her wise counsel and sympathetic ear over many espressos. To Daniel for constantly pushing me intellectually over many long skype calls and detailed emails. I am also grateful to my uncle, Douglas Goodman for his language editing expertise, to my cousin Liron Berdugo for helping me read many of the Hebrew documents I used, and to my friend Eline van Schaik for translating the summary of my thesis into the beautiful Dutch language. This research would not have been possible without the many archives and individuals that opened their doors to me over the past six years. In particular I wish to thank the Kadoorie family for allowing me to use the Kadoorie Family Archives in the Hong Kong Heritage Project and the Jewish community of Singapore for giving me access to the archives of the Jewish Welfare Board. These two archives gave me unique insight into transnational networks of the Baghdadi satellite communities. My archival trips were further enhanced by many individuals who made my travels infinitely more enriching by taking the time to meet with me or help organize my stay. To Emile Cohen for speaking with me in London about his life in Baghdad. To Rabbi Asher Oser in Hong Kong for opening his home to me and connecting me to the Jewish community of Ohel Leah. To Rabbi Mordechai Abergel, Frank Benjamin, and Jacob Robbins in Singapore who took the time to speak with me about the Baghdadi satellite communities of East Asia and India. Last but certainly not least, to my family for putting up with the emotional rollercoaster of writing a dissertation. Dalia and Rebecca who put more pressure on me to finish my thesis than anyone else I know by their persistent nagging that I am too old to be a student. And finally, to my husband, Yaniv who made this project possible by constantly reorganizing his schedule to accommodate my archival trips, conferences, many weekends at the office and his unconditional support. 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -8 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -9 List of Abbreviations Periodicals ai Al-ʿAalam al-Israʾiili (Beirut) im Israel’s Messengers (Shanghai) is Israelight (Singapore) jc Jewish Chronicle (London) ja Jewish Advocate (Bombay) jt Jewish Tribune (Bombay) jta Jewish Telegraphic Agency (New York) Archives aiu Alliance Israelite Universelle Archives, Paris. aja Anglo-Jewish Association Archives, University of Southampton, South- ampton. cahjp Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem. co Colonial Office, National Archives, Kew. dm iseas David Marshal Private Letters, Singapore National University, Singapore. fo Foreign Office, National Archives, Kew. ija Iraqi Jewish Archives, Washington. ior India Office Records and Private Papers, British Library, London. jdc Joint Distribution Committee Archives, New York and Jerusalem. jwb Jewish Welfare Board, Singapore. ka Kadoorie Family Archives, Hong Kong Heritage Project, Hong Kong. sa Sassoon Family Archives, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Other ejiw Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World yivo The yivo Encyclopedia of Eastern European Jewry 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -10 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -11 Transliteration Notes The transcription of commonly translated Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Hebrew words reflect common English language orthography (e.g. haham bashi not hakham. bāshī or hahambası, ). Less common words reflect the International Journal of Middle East Studiesstandardtransliteration.FormodernindividualswithHebreworArabicnames who have their own way of rendering them in Latin script, their spellings will be followed (e.g., Sassoon Khadduri, not Sāsūn Khad.dūrī).. Geographical names are given in their commonly used modern English form. 2018146 [Goldstein] 001-Prelims-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page -12 2018146 [Goldstein] 002-Introduction-print [version 20170704 date 20181203 13:40] page 1 Introduction Anwar Shaʾul (1904–1984), a Jew, was among the most renowned Arab writers in Iraq in the twentieth century. Much has been written about Shaʾul, considered the archetype of the Iraqi Jewish intellectual and a reflection of the Arabization of the Iraqi Jewish community. Rarely noted is that his maternal grandfather was Hermann Rosenfeld a Yiddish speaking Jewish tailor from Austria. Rosenfeld settled in Baghdad in the mid-nineteenth century, married a local Jewish woman, and became active in Jewish communal affairs working to open the first Alliance Israélite Universelle school in Baghdad in 1864.1 Like his grandfather Shaʿul was active in Jewish communal affairs, serving as secretary of the lay council for the Jewish community of Baghdad from 1929 to 1938.2 Iraqi Jewry
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