This article was downloaded by: [American University Library] On: 25 March 2014, At: 21:01 Publisher: Routledge

Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Modern Jewish Studies

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cmjs20

Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa

Yolande Cohen
a a

UQAM (University of Quebec, Montreal), Canada Published online: 06 Dec 2013.

To cite this article: Yolande Cohen (2013) Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 12:3, 519-520, DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2013.853395 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2013.853395

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions

BOOK REVIEWS

519

Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa E MILY B ENICHOU G OTTREICH & DANIEL J. S CHROETER (Eds) Indiana University Press, 2011 386 pp., $29, ISBN 978-0-25-335509-6

This volume focuses on the study of contemporary North African Jewish culture. It aims to develop a shared historical space for the study of Jewish and Muslim culture as an area in and of itself. Aomar Boums essay on southern Moroccan Jewry calls for the critical use of both European narratives and nationalist post-colonial ones. Underlining the racial paradigm French Colonial power has produced first in Algeria and then in Morocco, he integrates this bulk of knowledge to fill the silences left by contemporary nationalist historiography on the question of the Jews. Boums essay echoes in a different way Schroeters call for emancipation from national frontiers in the study of North African history. In an illuminating shorter piece, Yaron Tsur explores the transnational ties that were established by North African Jews with what he calls the western Sephardi diaspora. This superb analysis of the multiple sectors of North African Jewry underlines the demise of the western Sephardi Jewish diaspora, while the New Levantine one is thriving. Susan Miller presents the multifaceted aspects of Jewish life in Tangier at the turn of the 20th century. She shows how many communities, together but separately, had built a cosmopolitan city, where everyone knew their specific space and worked within those boundaries: the navigation of borders was especially pronounced in the economic sphere, where a native capitalism that brought Jews into lucrative partnerships with Muslim and Europeans was born (146). New data concerning gender, colonialism and the Alliance Isralite Universelle present another narrative regarding the controversial role of the Alliance. Studying the correspondence of female institutrices of the Alliance, Joy A. Land introduces us to these European-born teachers and headmasters (directrices dcoles) who shaped the first schools that opened in Tunisia in 1882. As the first secularizing women teachers in the region, they were both the mediators of European culture to their students, but also had to face the difficulties of feeling deeply isolated in their own personal lives. The role of AIU in the westernization of Maghribi Jews is also achieved for Jewish girls by the transition to the French language. Keith Walter shows that it was the equal number of girls and boys attending those schools that allowed the language shift to happen in the community. The adoption of French represents a shift in their conception of individual and communal identity, which provided a cultural and social capital to the Jews. It was the prerequisite of their internal exile, and of their possible departure to France, even if it did not lead them to acquire French citizenship. Jonathan Katz tackles this very question of the failure of AIUs lobbying to award Moroccan Jews French citizenship. A detailed analysis of AIU School in Marrakech shows the tensions within the Jewish community concerning its Westernization. Several factors explain the rise of this tension, including the experience of colonialism, the rising tide of nationalism and the Palestine question. Faycal Cherif analyses the shifts that occurred in Jewish-Muslim relations in Tunisia during World War II.

Downloaded by [American University Library] at 21:01 25 March 2014

520

JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES

Downloaded by [American University Library] at 21:01 25 March 2014

Jamaa Badas short piece on the first wave of Moroccan Jews emigration (1948 1956) attests to the ideological battle that major political parties represented in their publications, from their clandestine departure to Israel, called for by zealous Zionists (Le jeune Maghrbin), to the reassuring voice of the community, which professed its love of Mohamed V (La voix des communauts). The essays gathered in this volume have succeeded in renewing our approach to this historical sub-field. The authors refer to the Jews of North Africa as North African Jews, not as Sephardi, Maghribi, or Mizrahi Jews. Their multi-faceted relations with the dominant Muslim cultures is well identified, while we can also see the many transformations European colonial powers have provoked. All these elements confer an immense value to the volume, which will retain an important place in the construction of this area of study. YOLANDE COHEN UQAM (University of Quebec, Montreal), Canada 2013, Yolande Cohen http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2013.853395
Jews and the Making of Modern German Theatre J EANETTE M ALKIN & F REDDIE ROKEM (Eds) University of Iowa Press, 2010 304pp., 43.50, ISBN 978-1-58-729868-4

This edited collection of essays traces, discusses and evaluates the Jewish influence on German theatre with a particular focus on the early twentieth century. One of the strengths of this volume and one of the underlying threads is that it discusses the Jewish contribution not as a separate entity but as part of a theatrical co-creation. In fact, Jeanette Malkin poignantly remarks that in this volume Jews are not seen as contributors but as part of the fabric (3). At the same time, some of the contributors make it clear that this co-creation was not necessarily seen as such by contemporary gentile commentators and practitioners who only rarely appreciated the Jewish contribution. Instead they often subscribed to anti-Semitic sentiments and claimed some sort of domination by the Jews. And almost all Jewish practitioners discussed here felt a distinct pressure to assimilate in order to fit in. In fact it seems that the less Jewish they became the more likely they were to succeed in a theatre world which in retrospect seems much more cosmopolitan and liberal than it was actually being perceived by its contemporaries. In her introduction Jeanette Malkin maps out the territory of this volume and provides a useful list of Jewish practitioners (2). The sheer number of actors, directors, stage designers, dramaturges, etc. on this list is testament to the fundamental Jewish influence. Steven Aschheim then argues that the performance of identity was crucial for an aspiring Jewish middle class that wanted to disassociate themselves from the eastern European ghetto life of the past. It was all about blending in with the German Bildungsbrger (22). Peter Jelavich discusses the variations in Jews involvement across the spectrum of theatrical performance by assessing their perspective on German Bildung (39), linking it to an enlightened understanding of Bildung