A significant number of Sephardic Jews, tracing their remote origins to Spain and Portugal, immigrated to the United States from Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans from 1880 through the 1920s, joined by a smaller number of Mizrahi Jews arriving from Arab lands. Most Sephardim settled in New York, establishing the leading Judeo-Spanish community outside the Ottoman Empire. With their distinct languages, cultures, and rituals, Sephardim and Arab-speaking Mizrahim were no… More >>
Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History
There are many popular books on Sephardic Jews in America, mostly memoirs or community histories. But there is very little comprehensive history.
Does this book fill the gap? Not entirely, as it spends lots of time and space on how other historians of Jews in America neglect Sephardim. It also covers the topic of Ms. Ben-Ur’s dissertation, the adoption of Sephardic rather than Ashkenazic Hebrew in US schools and synagogues, at greater length than this reader thought it deserved. i would rather have seen more on Sephardic communities around the country.
Also, as Ms. Ben-Ur notes, the book has very little about Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab nations), who are often considered Sephardic. Here’s hoping someone fills the gap within the gap.
The book has plenty of useful notes, but it lacks a bibliography or source list. This makes following the references in the notes difficult. The index is good.
So if you want a serious history of Sephardic Jews in America that is accessible to general readers, this is it. It’s a good start. Ms. Ben-Ur expresses her hope that others will follow. I join her in that hope.
Rating: 4 / 5