Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought

"The book is a must-read for scholars interested in the history of Oriental Jewry in the 19th and 20th centuries. It provides plentiful and useful leads for scholars who want to embark on further research of Mizrahi Jewry. . . . In addition, the volume should prove interesting for a more general readership, given its handbook-like presentation of the authors and their articles, supplemented by relevant footnotes that will assist non-specialists in appreciating the texts in a broader context."-- "Bulletin des Simon Dubnow Instituts fur Judische Geschichte und Culture" "The intellectual history of eastern Sephardim of the Arab Mediterranean and Levant in modern times (end of nineteenth to mid-twentieth century) remains largely terra incognita (except through literary writings) even in Sephardic and more recent Mizrahi studies. . . . The editors begin to remedy this deficit with an anthology of original writings (mostly translated from Arabic), by distinguished Jewish men and women of culture who were equally at home in Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus or Jerusalem/Palestine, offering a potentially distinct contribution to modern Jewish thought."-- "Sephardic Horizons" "The views of Sephardi and Mizrahi intellectuals on political, religious, cultural, and social issues are often missing in discussions regarding modern Jewish thought. In order to overcome this deficiency, Behar and Ben-Dor Benite chose samples from the writings of nineteen Jews (including two women) from the Arab East, written during 1893-1958 in Hebrew, English, French and Arabic (all provided in English) in order to familiarize scholars, students and interested readers in the diversity of opinion among Sephardim and Mizrahim. . . . Presenting the views of these thinkers is an important contribution to the field of modern Jewish thought in general and to Sephardi and Mizrahi studies in particular."-- "Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews" This anthology is a remarkable achievement and an outstanding selection of original texts written by important Jewish intellectuals in the modern period. The editors, Moshe Behar and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, look at Jewish writers from the Middle East as intellectuals, social critics, and political theorists, and not simply as chroniclers of the sociopolitical changes occurring in their societies. Sharing a wide range of approaches to politics and culture (liberalism, communism, nationalism), and selecting authors who defined themselves as Mizrahi, Sephardic, and Arab-Jewish, as well as Zionist, the editors have created a rich text that could be taught in classes about modernity and political thought, modern Jewish history, and Middle Eastern history.-- "H-Net"

Moshe Behar is Pears Senior Lecturer in Israeli and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Manchester, UK Zvi Ben-Dor Benite is professor of history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University, USA.