A Bridge or a Fortress? S. D. Goitein and the Role of Jewish Arabists in the American Academy

Abstract:In the summer of 1957, Professor S. D. Goitein (1900–85) left Israel and relocated to the University of Pennsylvania, leaving a tenured position at the Hebrew University. Although he initially planned to return to Israel, Goitein ended up remaining in the United States until his death in 1985, emerging as one of the leading medievalists of his time. This move by Goitein aroused criticism and even resentment among several of his Israeli colleagues. They were skeptical of the formal reason he gave for his move, namely, to facilitate his work on the Cairo Geniza. Using unpublished archival sources, this article sheds new light on Goitein's move as well as his activities in the US. It focuses on Goitein's efforts to combat both anti-Israel criticism within the academy and the emerging post-colonial critique of orientalism by scholars such as the British-Palestinian A. L. Tibawi, Goitein's former colleague in Mandate Palestine. By exploring both the political context and manner in which Goitein saw his own role as a "Jewish orientalist" in America in the Cold War era, the article reveals the ways in which scholars like Goitein sought to use their expertise to address ideological and political challenges in the postwar era.