Between Sepharad and Jerusalem: History, Identity and Memory of The Sephardim(1 The Iberian Religious World)

Sephardim are the descendants of the Jews expelled from the lands of the Iberian Peninsula in the years 1492-1498, who settled down in the Mediterranean basin. The identifying sign of the Sephardim has been, until the middle of the twentieth century, the language known as Jewish-Spanish. The history, identity and memory of the Sephardim in their Mediterranean dispersal are analysed by the author with a special reference to the Sephardi community of Jerusalem and to the cultural and social changes that characterized the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. However, because of the crucial changes related to modernization and the political circumstances that came into being at the turn of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, the Sephardim lost their unique identity.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Figures Introduction Jerusalem Once upon a Time Who is a Sephardi? The Language of the Sephardim Conclusion 1. From Expulsion to Revival The Expulsion from Spain To Where did the Exiled Turn to Go? Portugal Navarre North Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya Italy The Ottoman Empire Leaders of the Sephardi Communities in the Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth Century Jerusalem Safed Tiberias Hebron The Ottoman Empire Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries The Turkish Republic Conclusion 2. The Meʿam Loʿez: The Masterpiece of Ladino Literature (Eighteenth–Nineteenth Centuries) The Anthology Meʿam Loʿez Everydaylife of the Sephardim in their Mediterranean Dispersal According to the Meʿam Loʿez 3. Immigrants in the Land of Their Birth: The Sephardi Community in Jerusalem. The Test Case of the Meyuḥas Family Modernization Processes in the Ottoman Empire The Alliance Israelite Universelle A Jerusalemite Sephardi Family in the Change of Time: The Test Case of The Meyuḥas Family The History of the Meyuḥas family in the Balkans and in Istanbul (Kushta) The Meyuḥas Family in Jerusalem: The Meguilat Yoḥasin of the Rishon Le-Zion Rabbi Refael Meyuḥas and the Purim de los Meyuḥasim The Descendants of Rabbi Refael Meyuḥas Shadarim of the Meyuḥas Family The Meyuḥas Family in Kefar Ha-Shiloʾaḥ Conclusion 4. Beautiful Damsels and Men of Valor: Ladino Literature Giving Us a Peek into the Spiritual World of Sephardi Women in Jerusalem (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries) Ladino Books Kept by Nona Flor Nona Flor the Storyteller Old Readers and New Readers Conclusion 5.The Spanish Senator Dr. Ángel Pulido Fernández and the “Spaniards without a Homeland,” Speakers of Jewish Spanish 248 Dr. Angel Pulido Fernandez and the Sephardim How Did the Sephardim React to Pulido’s Ideas? Conclusion 6.The Lost Identity of the Sephardim in The Land of Israel and the State of Israel The Weekly Hed Ha-Mizraḥ and its Readers The Second World War in Greece: The Extermination of the Jews The Sephardim of the Land of Israel Facing the Holocaust Epilogue: History in the Eyes of the Beholder Bibliography Hebrew Bibliography Other Languages Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Alisa Ginio, Ph.D. (1989) in History, Tel Aviv University, is a Professor Emeritus of History at the Department of History, Tel Aviv University. Her publications deal with Christian polemics contra judaeos in the Iberian Peninsula; the Iberian conversos and the Jewish-Spanish speaking Sephardim.