New Book on Contemporary Sephardic Identity in the Americas

«Sephardic history has not received the scholarly attention that its place in Jewish history warrants. This volume is a giant step toward righting that imbalance.»—Judith Laikin Elkin, University of Michigan

The Sephardic population in the Americas is formed by a large number of small groups, divided according to the communities of origin in the Iberian Peninsula, the Middle East, and North Africa, and dispersed among English–, Spanish–, Portuguese–, and French-speaking societies. While the emigration from the Ottoman Empire that began one hundred years ago resulted in the fragmentation of Sephardic communities, their dynamism allowed them to adapt and survive, striving to retain the old yet gesturing continually to the new. On the threshold of the twenty-first century, these communities became subject to transnational migrations and globalization that called for a new definition of the boundaries between the different Sephardic groups and new interpretations of their culture.

In this pioneering collection, Bejarano and Aizenberg provide a vital contribution to the long-neglected study of the Sephardic experience in the Americas. Spanning from the 1908 revolution of the young Turks that motivated migration from the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of new Sephardic centers in South Florida, the editors draw from the fields of history, literature, musicology, and linguistics. Focusing on recent developments such as the growing participation of Sephardim in Jewish politics and the emergence of orthodox trends that challenge separate Sephardic identities, contributors highlight the growing influence of Sephardim on the culture of their respective countries.

Margalit Bejarano is a researcher at the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry and teaches history in the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies at the Hebrew University. Edna Aizenbergis professor emeritus of Hispanic studies at Marymount Manhattan College in New York. She is the author of numerous books, including Borges, the Aleph Weaver.

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Mona Hamlin

Syracuse University Press

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Syracuse, New York 13244-5290

Website: www.SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu  

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6 x 9, 272 pages, 15 tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, index More information: exam copies   desk copies   domestic orders  international orders

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