The Memory Work of Jewish Spain: (Sephardi and Mizrahi Studies)

The 2015 law granting Spanish nationality to the descendants of Jews expelled in 1492 is the latest example of a widespread phenomenon in contemporary Spain, the "re-discovery" of its Jewish heritage.   In The Memory Work of Jewish Spain, Daniela Flesler and Adrián Pérez Melgosa examine the implications of reclaiming this memory through the analysis of a comprehensive range of emerging cultural practices, political initiatives and institutions in the context of the long history of Spain's ambivalence towards its Jewish past.    Through oral interviews, analyses of museums, newly reconfigured "Jewish quarters," excavated Jewish sites, popular festivals, tourist brochures, literature and art, The Memory Work of Jewish Spain explores what happens when these initiatives are implemented at the local level in cities and towns throughout Spain, and how they affect Spain's present.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Memory Work of Jewish Spain 1. The Long Journey of Sephardi Myths 2. Tourism and the Embracing of Spain's Jewish Legacy 3. Loss, Rescue, and Converso Dissonances at the Sephardi Museum of Toledo 4. Exhibiting Jewish Heritage at the Local and Regional Levels 5. Memory Entanglements: Hervás's Jewish Inheritance and the Francoist Repression 6. Returns to Sepharad Conclusion: Memory and the Future Bibliography

About the Author :
Daniela Flesler is Associate Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University. She is author of The Return of the Moor: Spanish Responses to Contemporary Moroccan Immigration and editor (with Adrián Pérez Melgosa and Tabea A. Linhard) of Revisiting Jewish Spain in the Modern Era. Adrián Pérez Melgosa is Associate Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literature at Stony Brook University. He is author of Cinema and Inter-American Relations: Tracking Transnational Affect and editor (with Daniela Flesler and Tabea A. Linhard) of Revisiting Jewish Spain in the Modern Era.

Review :
a wide-ranging book that analyzes the ways in which public imaginary has taken form in heritage sites throughout Spain. (Sephardic Horizons) The Memory Work of Jewish Spain does more than fill a crucial gap. It is a breakthrough in both Spanish and Jewish studies, modeling new paths in memory and heritage studies with its thorough and illuminating assessment of Spain's current engagement with its Jewish past. - Dalia Kandiyoti - College of Staten Island, CUNY (AJS Review) It is an extremely rich volume relating with wit and depth to the most up-to-date research, with insights and contributions nurtured by in-situ observations and encounters with some of the protagonists of the complex and elusive stories that fill out its pages. - Esra Almas - Bilkent University (Studies in Contemporary Jewry) Many of the efforts in Spain to reconnect with its Jewish past, especially focusing on the growing visibility of Jewish locations, associations, buildings, and activities, are documented and analyzed in The Memory Work of Jewish Spain. An underlying question throughout is the impact of, as the authors point out, the Jewish past which has not been forgotten on Spanish culture. Thus, the authors grapple with understanding the significance of spaces that were Jewish long ago. In addition, they illustrate how several intersecting facets, the Jewish history with the more recent and tangible impact of the Civil War/Franco years, impact the re-creation of memory. The rich text is complemented generously by the equally rich endnotes closing each chapter. Full of commentary, they also serve as a valuable source of additional information. - Annette Fromm (H-NET Reviews Humanities & Social Sciences)