Modern Spain and the Sephardim (eBook)

Legitimizing Identities

Maite Ojeda-Mata (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
285 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
9781498551755 (ISBN)

Infos

This book scrutinizes the hitherto-unchallenged idea of the Sephardic identity as a mix of Spaniard and Jew. Ojeda-Mata examines the processes by which this conceptualization of the Sephardim developed from the nineteenth century onward and the consequences of this conceptualization for Sephardic Jews during World War II and in the present day.

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Modern Spain and the Sephardim: Legitimizing Identities addresses the legal, political, symbolic, and conceptual consequences of the development of a new framework of relations between the Spanish state and the descendants of the Jews expelled from the Iberian kingdoms in 1492 from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to its unexpected consequences during World War II. This book aims to understand and explain the unchallenged idea of the Sephardim as a mix of Spaniard and Jew that emerged in Spain in the second half of the nineteenth century. Maite Ojeda-Mata examines the processes that led to this ambivalent conceptualization of Sephardic identity, as both Spanish and Jewish, and its consequences for the Sephardic Jews.

Autor

Maite Ojeda-Mata is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/Non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton.

Inhalt

Introduction: On Legitimizing Identities 1. The Legacy of Modernity for the Jews in Spain 2. The Sephardim and Spanish Colonialism in Morocco and the Eastern Mediterranean3. Sephardic Jews in Spain4. The Management of Socio-Religious Differences5. Persecution and Expulsion during the Early Years of the Franco Dictatorship6. Spain and the Sephardim during World War II7. Epilogue: The 2015 Law Granting Spanish Citizenship to Sephardic Jews of “Spanish Origin”Conclusion

Rezensionen

Starting from two small and local cultural spaces, the Sant Antoni market in Barcelona and the Jewish community of Melilla, this anthropological study takes its readers on a journey that has its origins in the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. What might appear as a story long past, turns out to be of the highest relevance for a discussion of contemporary Spanish and European identities. The book discusses the relationship between Spain and the Sephardic Jewish diaspora since the nineteenth century, including the attitude of the Franco regime during World War II, and reaches out to the present day when Spain—hesitatingly—offers citizenship to Jews of Spanish origin. Based on thorough archival research both in Spain and its former colony Morocco, Maite Ojeda-Mata’s work offers an innovative insight into the important role of Jewish/non-Jewish relations for the development of European memory and identity.

Jewish, Spanish, or both? Ojeda-Mata reveals the ambivalent images of the Sephardim and its political consequences in contemporary Spain, challenging dominant ideas about identity in a very well documented piece of historical anthropology.

A fascinating and superb book of obvious interest not only to scholars interested in Jewish studies but also to those who study the construction of the social and political categories of ‘Jewish,’ ‘Sefardi,’ ‘race,’ and ‘nation’ from a historical and anthropological perspective.

An in-depth, well-documented, and well-argued work of critical research that challenges the poor and uncritical accounts on the idea of Sephardic identity in modern Spain. It is packed with a lot of data and information from several archival and ethnographic sources, which are carefully analyzed and critically interpreted. It is essential reading that is already a classic in the field.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.12.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Lexington Studies in Modern Jewish History, Historiography, and Memory
• Zusatzinfo: 12 Illustrations including: - 6 Tables; - 6 Graphs.
• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• Schlagworte: Antisemitism • Colonialism • Franco • historical anthropology • Identity • Identity politics • Jewish History • Jewish Studies • Nationalism • Sephardic history • Sephardim • Spain • Spanish History • Spanish Morocco • Spanish Studies
• ISBN-13: 9781498551755 / 9781498551755