Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jss.2023.a901514
Jessica M. Marglin
Abstract: This article explores the transformation of Jewish law in the French colonial Maghrib (late nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century). Drawing primarily on Jewish newspapers in French and Judeo-Arabic and responsa in Hebrew, it explores how the perception and practice of Jewish law shifted in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. First, westernizing Jews came to think about Jewish law through the lens of French law. The status of women under Jewish law became a particular concern for many self-styled modernizers, though of course questions about women's rights were never absent from rabbinically oriented discourse. Second, Jewish law was nationalized—that is, authorities made efforts to both standardize and modernize Jewish law in a national mode, creating a Moroccan Jewish law, a Tunisian Jewish law, etc. Third, the elevation of Jewish law to a national, state-sanctioned jurisdiction imposed on all Jews—regardless of whether they believed or even whether they had converted out of Judaism—posed thorny legal problems. The legal history of Jews in twentieth-century North Africa offers an opportunity to rethink both the engagement of Jewish law with the state and the emergence of new ways of understanding Judaism and Jewish identity in the modern Middle East.
{"title":"Jews, Law, and the Modern State: Legal Nationalization in Colonial North Africa","authors":"Jessica M. Marglin","doi":"10.2979/jss.2023.a901514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jss.2023.a901514","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article explores the transformation of Jewish law in the French colonial Maghrib (late nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century). Drawing primarily on Jewish newspapers in French and Judeo-Arabic and responsa in Hebrew, it explores how the perception and practice of Jewish law shifted in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. First, westernizing Jews came to think about Jewish law through the lens of French law. The status of women under Jewish law became a particular concern for many self-styled modernizers, though of course questions about women's rights were never absent from rabbinically oriented discourse. Second, Jewish law was nationalized—that is, authorities made efforts to both standardize and modernize Jewish law in a national mode, creating a Moroccan Jewish law, a Tunisian Jewish law, etc. Third, the elevation of Jewish law to a national, state-sanctioned jurisdiction imposed on all Jews—regardless of whether they believed or even whether they had converted out of Judaism—posed thorny legal problems. The legal history of Jews in twentieth-century North Africa offers an opportunity to rethink both the engagement of Jewish law with the state and the emergence of new ways of understanding Judaism and Jewish identity in the modern Middle East.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jss.2023.a901513
Moshe Naor, Abigail Jacobson
Abstract: This article focuses on Jerusalem's Musrara—a neighborhood trapped between borders—between 1948 and 1967. Barbed wire running along the eastern side of the neighborhood divided the city of Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967. Musrara's western border separated it from West Jerusalem, thus enhancing the division between its residents—new immigrants of Middle Eastern descent—and the mainly Ashkenazi population of the western part of Jerusalem. Our analysis of a neighborhood on the margins of Jewish and Arab existence in post-1948 Jerusalem considers the perspectives of immigrants and refugees living on a double border that separated the Eastern-Arab part of the city from its Western-Jewish part, or between "old Jerusalem" and "new Jerusalem." The border also signified the boundary between "first Israel" and "second Israel," or the Jewish frontier and neighborhoods in the city center.
{"title":"Between the Border of Despair and the \"Circle of Tears\": Musrara on the Margins of Jewish-Arab Existence in Jerusalem","authors":"Moshe Naor, Abigail Jacobson","doi":"10.2979/jss.2023.a901513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jss.2023.a901513","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article focuses on Jerusalem's Musrara—a neighborhood trapped between borders—between 1948 and 1967. Barbed wire running along the eastern side of the neighborhood divided the city of Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967. Musrara's western border separated it from West Jerusalem, thus enhancing the division between its residents—new immigrants of Middle Eastern descent—and the mainly Ashkenazi population of the western part of Jerusalem. Our analysis of a neighborhood on the margins of Jewish and Arab existence in post-1948 Jerusalem considers the perspectives of immigrants and refugees living on a double border that separated the Eastern-Arab part of the city from its Western-Jewish part, or between \"old Jerusalem\" and \"new Jerusalem.\" The border also signified the boundary between \"first Israel\" and \"second Israel,\" or the Jewish frontier and neighborhoods in the city center.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"197 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.06
Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli
Abstract: In this article, I focus on two themes connected to the Jewish community of the southern Moroccan town of Oufran and its place within conceptions of Moroccan Jewishness and Jewish Moroccanness. The first theme is the story of Oufran's burned martyrs— ha-nisrafim in Hebrew—and the second, the topos of this community's antiquity. I analyze the intertextual creation, circulation, evolution, and use of the stories of Oufran by Jews, Muslims, and French-Christian colonial agents and discuss how these stories derive from and have sustained Judeo-Muslim imaginings and shared experiences. I also claim that Oufran's story and history are deeply affected by "translations" between different realms of knowledge.
{"title":"The Oufran \"Letters of Tzaddikim Burials\": Cross-Translations between Charms, Epitaphs, and Historiography","authors":"Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli","doi":"10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.06","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.06","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In this article, I focus on two themes connected to the Jewish community of the southern Moroccan town of Oufran and its place within conceptions of Moroccan Jewishness and Jewish Moroccanness. The first theme is the story of Oufran's burned martyrs— ha-nisrafim in Hebrew—and the second, the topos of this community's antiquity. I analyze the intertextual creation, circulation, evolution, and use of the stories of Oufran by Jews, Muslims, and French-Christian colonial agents and discuss how these stories derive from and have sustained Judeo-Muslim imaginings and shared experiences. I also claim that Oufran's story and history are deeply affected by \"translations\" between different realms of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"101 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135533522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.07
Achim Rohde
Abstract: The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the beginning of a protracted democratization process whose long-term success is far from secured. In this article, I discuss societal/political/cultural transformations toward democracy in Tunisia since 2011 through the prism of its tiny Jewish minority. The perceived homogeneity of Tunisian society has come under increasing scrutiny since the revolution, and this includes a heightened visibility of the country's Jewish community and a degree of public debate on related topics. I focus on three cases: the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage, the demise of an NGO designed to fight racism and antisemitism in Tunisia, and the commemoration of the German occupation of Tunisia during World War II. Addressing contemporary Tunisian history "from the margins" enables a more nuanced understanding of political struggles that accompany processes of de-/re-territorializing Tunisian collective identities.
{"title":"Resurrecting Maghreb Pluriel ?: Jews and Postauthoritarian Tunisia","authors":"Achim Rohde","doi":"10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.07","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: The Tunisian revolution of 2011 marked a partial reconfiguration of the political elite and the beginning of a protracted democratization process whose long-term success is far from secured. In this article, I discuss societal/political/cultural transformations toward democracy in Tunisia since 2011 through the prism of its tiny Jewish minority. The perceived homogeneity of Tunisian society has come under increasing scrutiny since the revolution, and this includes a heightened visibility of the country's Jewish community and a degree of public debate on related topics. I focus on three cases: the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage, the demise of an NGO designed to fight racism and antisemitism in Tunisia, and the commemoration of the German occupation of Tunisia during World War II. Addressing contemporary Tunisian history \"from the margins\" enables a more nuanced understanding of political struggles that accompany processes of de-/re-territorializing Tunisian collective identities.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135533518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.05
Molly Theodora Oringer
Abstract: By focusing on photographs pertaining to Beirut's historic Jewish neighborhood and central synagogue, I address in this article the mobilization of collective nostalgia on three Lebanese Jewish Facebook groups that provide a realm for debating, challenging, and reconstructing concepts of belonging while remembering a shared homeland from the diaspora. Furthermore, I explore how the nostalgic circulation and sharing of family photographs and anonymous snapshots of the community's pre-Civil War life privileges a particular perspective on how life once was, and by excluding other realities from both the photographic frame and historical narrative, creates a community history through which to imagine the future.
{"title":"\"It Was our Home and Sadly We Will Never Return\": Nostalgia and the Circulation of Images in Lebanese Jewish Virtual Communities","authors":"Molly Theodora Oringer","doi":"10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.05","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: By focusing on photographs pertaining to Beirut's historic Jewish neighborhood and central synagogue, I address in this article the mobilization of collective nostalgia on three Lebanese Jewish Facebook groups that provide a realm for debating, challenging, and reconstructing concepts of belonging while remembering a shared homeland from the diaspora. Furthermore, I explore how the nostalgic circulation and sharing of family photographs and anonymous snapshots of the community's pre-Civil War life privileges a particular perspective on how life once was, and by excluding other realities from both the photographic frame and historical narrative, creates a community history through which to imagine the future.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135533525","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jss.2023.a901512
Shay Hazkani
Abstract: This article reconsiders three years in the lives of Jews in Morocco and their families who chose to immigrate to Israel. Relying on private correspondence between Moroccan Jews in Israel and in Morocco that was secretly intercepted by the Israeli intelligence apparatus, I argue that Moroccan Jews in Israel underwent a major process of radicalization between Moroccan independence in 1956 and the Moroccan uprising in Israel in 1959, known as the Wadi Salib revolt. In the Moroccan-Israeli case, Moroccan Jews introduced race into the Israeli discourse, and sought to leverage this discourse for a redistribution of resources, primarily among Jews. This radicalization initially developed against the backdrop of the Moroccan struggle for independence against French colonialism; however, other anticolonial and antiracist struggles of the 1950s were also influential. Thus, the prevailing assessment of the Wadi Salib revolt solely as "an Israeli event" diminishes the longer trajectories of Moroccan radicalization.
{"title":"\"Our Cruel Polish Brothers\": Moroccan Jews between Casablanca and Wadi Salib, 1956–59","authors":"Shay Hazkani","doi":"10.2979/jss.2023.a901512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jss.2023.a901512","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article reconsiders three years in the lives of Jews in Morocco and their families who chose to immigrate to Israel. Relying on private correspondence between Moroccan Jews in Israel and in Morocco that was secretly intercepted by the Israeli intelligence apparatus, I argue that Moroccan Jews in Israel underwent a major process of radicalization between Moroccan independence in 1956 and the Moroccan uprising in Israel in 1959, known as the Wadi Salib revolt. In the Moroccan-Israeli case, Moroccan Jews introduced race into the Israeli discourse, and sought to leverage this discourse for a redistribution of resources, primarily among Jews. This radicalization initially developed against the backdrop of the Moroccan struggle for independence against French colonialism; however, other anticolonial and antiracist struggles of the 1950s were also influential. Thus, the prevailing assessment of the Wadi Salib revolt solely as \"an Israeli event\" diminishes the longer trajectories of Moroccan radicalization.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135532110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.02
Shay Hazkani
Abstract: This article reconsiders three years in the lives of Jews in Morocco and their families who chose to immigrate to Israel. Relying on private correspondence between Moroccan Jews in Israel and in Morocco that was secretly intercepted by the Israeli intelligence apparatus, I argue that Moroccan Jews in Israel underwent a major process of radicalization between Moroccan independence in 1956 and the Moroccan uprising in Israel in 1959, known as the Wadi Salib revolt. In the Moroccan-Israeli case, Moroccan Jews introduced race into the Israeli discourse, and sought to leverage this discourse for a redistribution of resources, primarily among Jews. This radicalization initially developed against the backdrop of the Moroccan struggle for independence against French colonialism; however, other anticolonial and antiracist struggles of the 1950s were also influential. Thus, the prevailing assessment of the Wadi Salib revolt solely as "an Israeli event" diminishes the longer trajectories of Moroccan radicalization.
{"title":"\"Our Cruel Polish Brothers\": Moroccan Jews between Casablanca and Wadi Salib, 1956–59","authors":"Shay Hazkani","doi":"10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.28.2.02","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article reconsiders three years in the lives of Jews in Morocco and their families who chose to immigrate to Israel. Relying on private correspondence between Moroccan Jews in Israel and in Morocco that was secretly intercepted by the Israeli intelligence apparatus, I argue that Moroccan Jews in Israel underwent a major process of radicalization between Moroccan independence in 1956 and the Moroccan uprising in Israel in 1959, known as the Wadi Salib revolt. In the Moroccan-Israeli case, Moroccan Jews introduced race into the Israeli discourse, and sought to leverage this discourse for a redistribution of resources, primarily among Jews. This radicalization initially developed against the backdrop of the Moroccan struggle for independence against French colonialism; however, other anticolonial and antiracist struggles of the 1950s were also influential. Thus, the prevailing assessment of the Wadi Salib revolt solely as \"an Israeli event\" diminishes the longer trajectories of Moroccan radicalization.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135533347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.2979/jewisocistud.28.1.07
Ilya Vovshin
Abstract:This article surveys the life and business exploits of a little-known Jewish merchant from Chernihiv, Eliazar Litman Feigin. I argue that Feigin became a wealthy, self-made, dynamic entrepreneur who exercised aggressive, high-risk economic tactics in tax farming and military supplies. He attempted to enter the new economic spheres of banking and railroad construction, but he faced the system of the old regime, which was not ready for unrestricted economic activity in the country and feared social change. This juxtaposition of modern capitalist activity alongside the old regime's institutions was unique in Europe. Feigin's business activity was instrumental in promoting Finance Minister Egor Kankrin's economic policies. It was also dependent on the minister's protection and eventually led to a clash with competitors and the highest nobility.
{"title":"Eliazar Litman Feigin and the Birth of Jewish Capitalism under Tsar Nicholas I","authors":"Ilya Vovshin","doi":"10.2979/jewisocistud.28.1.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.28.1.07","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article surveys the life and business exploits of a little-known Jewish merchant from Chernihiv, Eliazar Litman Feigin. I argue that Feigin became a wealthy, self-made, dynamic entrepreneur who exercised aggressive, high-risk economic tactics in tax farming and military supplies. He attempted to enter the new economic spheres of banking and railroad construction, but he faced the system of the old regime, which was not ready for unrestricted economic activity in the country and feared social change. This juxtaposition of modern capitalist activity alongside the old regime's institutions was unique in Europe. Feigin's business activity was instrumental in promoting Finance Minister Egor Kankrin's economic policies. It was also dependent on the minister's protection and eventually led to a clash with competitors and the highest nobility.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"28 1","pages":"179 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42677220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.2979/jewisocistud.28.1.02
Dafna Hirsch
Abstract:Dreams of good food, writes Aaron Bobrow-Strain, are powerful social forces, which "arise out of particular constellations of power and interests that can be analyzed and understood." This article focuses on a specific food item—Vitamin Bread (leḥem ḥai), developed by Moshe Wilbushewich in 1920s Palestine—as embodying notions of "good food" premised on the tenets of rational nutrition. I show how the development of the bread was informed not only by a nutritional discourse, which counted energy units and analyzed nutrients, but also by a colonial discourse about Jewish and Arab physical and mental difference, about the role of science in colonization, and by the interests of Jewish settlement. For its inventor, Vitamin Bread embodied the attempt to compensate for the physical inferiority of civilized Jewish settlers compared to indigenous Arabs by means of their intellectual advantage, namely, by recruiting science in the service of improving Jewish nutrition.
{"title":"Moshe Wilbushewich, \"Vitamin Bread,\" and Rationalizing the Jewish Diet in Mandate Palestine","authors":"Dafna Hirsch","doi":"10.2979/jewisocistud.28.1.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.28.1.02","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Dreams of good food, writes Aaron Bobrow-Strain, are powerful social forces, which \"arise out of particular constellations of power and interests that can be analyzed and understood.\" This article focuses on a specific food item—Vitamin Bread (leḥem ḥai), developed by Moshe Wilbushewich in 1920s Palestine—as embodying notions of \"good food\" premised on the tenets of rational nutrition. I show how the development of the bread was informed not only by a nutritional discourse, which counted energy units and analyzed nutrients, but also by a colonial discourse about Jewish and Arab physical and mental difference, about the role of science in colonization, and by the interests of Jewish settlement. For its inventor, Vitamin Bread embodied the attempt to compensate for the physical inferiority of civilized Jewish settlers compared to indigenous Arabs by means of their intellectual advantage, namely, by recruiting science in the service of improving Jewish nutrition.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"28 1","pages":"23 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69736135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.2979/jss.2023.a882888
Yair Mintzker
Abstract: In October 1952, a mysterious man boarded a ship sailing from Marseille to Haifa. In the previous several years he had been living in France, where he was known as "Monsieur Chouchani" and taught Talmud to Elie Wiesel and Emmanuel Levinas, among others. Once in Israel, he went by the name "Ben Shoushan." In neither country did anyone know his true identity, but all who met him were astounded: Chouchani/Ben Shoushan appeared practically omniscient, he spoke an astonishing number of languages, and he gave the impression of someone who had come from a different time in history. In this article, I reconstruct Monsieur Chouchani/Ben Shoushan's time in Israel between 1952–56. I claim that in order to understand his story fully, one needs to read it against three contexts: Israeli history of the early 1950s, the biographies of the people Chouchani/Ben Shoushan attracted, and the ancient legend of Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew.
{"title":"I, Ahasuerus: Monsieur Chouchani in Israel, 1952–56","authors":"Yair Mintzker","doi":"10.2979/jss.2023.a882888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/jss.2023.a882888","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In October 1952, a mysterious man boarded a ship sailing from Marseille to Haifa. In the previous several years he had been living in France, where he was known as \"Monsieur Chouchani\" and taught Talmud to Elie Wiesel and Emmanuel Levinas, among others. Once in Israel, he went by the name \"Ben Shoushan.\" In neither country did anyone know his true identity, but all who met him were astounded: Chouchani/Ben Shoushan appeared practically omniscient, he spoke an astonishing number of languages, and he gave the impression of someone who had come from a different time in history. In this article, I reconstruct Monsieur Chouchani/Ben Shoushan's time in Israel between 1952–56. I claim that in order to understand his story fully, one needs to read it against three contexts: Israeli history of the early 1950s, the biographies of the people Chouchani/Ben Shoushan attracted, and the ancient legend of Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew.","PeriodicalId":45288,"journal":{"name":"JEWISH SOCIAL STUDIES","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135495111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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