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| JEWS OF LEBANON, 2ND EDITION : Between Coexistence & Conflict [Kirsten E Schulze] This is the first book to tell the story of the Jews of Lebanon in the twentieth century. It challenges the prevailing view that Jews everywhere in the Middle East were second-class citizens, and were persecuted after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The Jews of Lebanon were just one of Lebanon's 23 minorities with the same rights and privileges, and subject to the same political tensions. The author discusses the Jewish presence in Lebanon under Ottoman Rule; Lebanese Jews under the French mandate; Lebanese Jewish identity after the establishment of the State of Israel; the increase of the community through Syrian refugees; the Jews' position in the first civil war; the beginning of their exodus; the virtual extinction of the Jewish community as a result of the prolonged second civil war and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon; and finally the community's memory of their Lebanese past. REVIEW: "An outstanding sociopolitical history of the Jewish community of Lebanon. Highly recommended..." -- Choice. { 224pp, 152x229mm, March 2009; PB, £22.50, 1845190572:9781845190576 , Sussex Academic Press } |
| JEWS OF LIBYA : Coexistence, Persecution, Resettlement [Maurice M Roumani] This book investigates the transformative period in the history of the Jews of Libya (1938-52), a period crucial to understanding Libyan Jewry's evolution into a community playing significant roles in Israel, Italy and in relation with Qaddhafi's Libya. Against a background of a reform conscious Ottoman administration (1835-1911) and subsequent stirrings of modernisation under Italian colonial influence (1911-43), the Jews of Libya began to experience rapid change following the application of fascist racial laws of 1938, the onset of war-related calamities and violent expressions of Libyan pan-Arabism, culminating in mass migration to Israel in the period 1949-52. By focusing on key socio-economic and political dimensions of this process, the author reveals the capacity of Libyan Jewry to adapt to and integrate into new environments without losing its unique and historical traditions. REVIEW: "Dr Roumani uses a wide range of archival and oral sources, many of which have never been used before. Throughout the book, he reveals a mastery of the social and political history, and a fine understanding of the lives, hopes, fears and aspirations of Libyan Jews. His book is a testimony to their suffering and their fortitude." -- From the Foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert. "Maurice Roumani has given us an impeccably researched, richly documented, and keenly insightful survey of Libyan Jewry's social and political evolution in the twentieth century. He brings to the study not merely the observations of a trained scholar with all of the requisite linguistic and methodological skills, but also the real life experience of someone who lived through the turbulent events of the period and was an actual witness to some of them. It is to Roumani's great credit that he is able to achieve an admirable balance of overall scholarly dispassion with the intimate poignancy of personal engagement. The Jews of Libya will surely take its place alongside the pioneer studies of Renzo De Felice and Harvey Goldberg." -- Norman A Stillman, Schusterman/Josey Professor of Judaic History, University of Oklahoma. { 320pp, 152x229mm, March 2008; HB, £59.95, 1845191374:9781845191375 , Sussex Academic Press } |