What does an understanding of Jewish history contribute to the study of the Mediterranean, and what can Mediterranean studies contribute to our knowledge of Jewish history? Jews and the Mediterranean considers the historical potency and uniqueness of what happens when Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Ashkenazi Jews meet in the Mediterranean region. By focusing on the specificity of the Jewish experience, the essays gathered in this volume emphasize human agency and culture over the length of Mediterranean history. This collection draws attention to what made Jewish people distinctive and warns against facile notions of Mediterranean connectivity, diversity, fluidity, and hybridity, presenting a new assessment of the Jewish experience in the Mediterranean.

About the Author

Matthias Lehmann is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, where he holds the Teller Family Chair in Jewish History. He is author of Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture, Emissaries from the Holy Land, and (with John Efron and Steve Weitzman) The Jews: A History.

Jessica Marglin is Assistant Professor of Religion and the Ruth Ziegler Early Career Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California. She is author of Across Legal Lines: Jews and Muslims in Modern Morocco.

Reviews

[Jews and the Mediterranean] takes aim in part at a trope in Mediterranean studies that plays up the integration of minorities across communities, with character types of cosmopolitanism, fluidity, and diversity. The papers examine what made Jews and Jewish communities distinctive, even as they interacted with their Muslim and Christian neighbors and business partners.

* Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews *

Studious, erudite, and highly recommended.

* Midwest Book Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253047984
Author Matthias B. Lehmann
Format Paperback
Page Count 238
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 354g