By
– October 24, 2011
This collection of scholarly articles contributes to the growing library of materials available related to the history and culture of Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jewry. Focusing on Spain, North Africa, and the central areas of the former Ottoman Empire, the studies illustrate the convergence of Spanish and indigenous Middle Eastern (Mizrahi) culture that crystallized in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The volume begins with political, linguistic, literary, rabbinic, and philosophical coverage of Spain by such specialists as Mark R. Cohen, David M. Bunis, Jonathan P. Dector, Isaac Kalimi, and Moshe Idel and an essay on the Judeo- Arab heritage by Norman A. Stillman. Four articles on culture, jurisprudence, kabbalah, and women by Annette B. Fromm, Zvi Zohar, Morris M. Faiersteine, and Pamela Dorn Sezgin examine Sephardic life in the Ottoman Empire. For the modern era, there are contributions by Mark Kligman on music and Henry Abramson on the Holocaust. Of special interest are Jonathan Schorsch’s study of early modern Sephardim and blacks — an example of the emerging field of Atlantic Studies that examines North African, European and the American connection in the early modern period — and Zion Zohar’s article on Sephardim and Oriental Jews in Israel. Index, notes.
Reeva Spector Simon is Professor of History at Yeshiva University. She is co-editor and contributor to The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times (Columbia University Press, 2003).
