'Arab Jews' in the Modern Period: Language, History and Identity Politics

This course will deal with the rather fashionable hybrid 'Arab Jews', offering an historical typology of the subject. We will deal with traditional Jewish culture in Arab lands based on the criteria of language, literature, liturgy and geo-political sphere. Subsequently we will probe the vicissitudes many an 'Arab Jew' experienced as a result of the onslaught of modernity. Hebraic men of letters will be considered alongside Jewish Modernists who were patrons of the Arab Renaissance. Both types, as shall see, faced conflicting nationalisms in the colonial and post-colonial eras.