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According to tradition Caucasian Jews descended from the Ten Tribes exiled from the Kingdom of Israel in the first millenium BCE, making them one of the oldest communities of Jewish people anywhere. This remarkable population preserved its Jewish identity and developed a culture of its own in a region inhabited by a host of different peoples and plagued by ethnic tensions. The term "Mountain Jews" (they call themselves "Juhur") dates back to Imperial Russia's occupation of the Caucasus in the early nineteenth century, when the tsar's visiting representative referred to "Mountain Jews" living mainly in the east and north of the Caucasus range, in what is today the largely Muslim areas of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. After their emigration to Israel, Caucasian Jews continued to resist integration, sharing in Israel's upbuilding without losing touch with their roots in and ties to the Caucasus. Along with her fellow essayists Mordechai Altshuler, Moshe Yosifov, Michael Zand, Ariella Amar, Boris Khaimovich, Anatoly Binyaminov, and Tyilo Khizghilov, author Liya Mikdash-Shamailov, a Jew of Caucasian origin, successfully blends her scientific interest in the community with her own special affinity with its culture. The fruit of many years of field work and extensive research, Mountain Jews presents, in words and striking pictures of this people and its practices, the history, spiritual life, language and literature, daily life, material culture, and decorative arts which together define the rich and extraordinary cultural heritage of Caucasian, "Mountain" Jews.
The stories of vibrant eastern European Jewish communities in the Appalachian coalfields Coalfield Jews explores the intersection of two simultaneous historic events: central Appalachia’s transformative coal boom (1880s-1920), and the mass migration of eastern European Jews to America. Traveling to southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southwestern Virginia to investigate the coal boom’s opportunities, some Jewish immigrants found success as retailers and established numerous small but flourishing Jewish communities. Deborah R. Weiner’s Coalfield Jews provides the first extended study of Jews in Appalachia, exploring where they settled, how they made their place within a surprisingly receptive dominant culture, how they competed with coal company stores, interacted with their non-Jewish neighbors, and maintained a strong Jewish identity deep in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. To tell this story, Weiner draws on a wide range of primary sources in social, cultural, religious, labor, economic, and regional history. She also includes moving personal statements, from oral histories as well as archival sources, to create a holistic portrayal of Jewish life that will challenge commonly held views of Appalachia as well as the American Jewish experience.
Yosef and Estrella have spent their whole lives in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. When they move to the city, they face a strange, unfamiliar world. Will their love survive the surprises of their new home? A funny and charming folktale-like story of mistaken identities.
The Jews of Khazaria chronicles the history of the Khazars, a people who, in the early Middle Ages, founded a large empire in eastern Europe (located in present-day Ukraine and Russia). The Khazars played a pivotal role in world history. Khazaria was one of the largest-sized political formations of its time, an economic and cultural superpower connected to several important trade routes. It was especially notable for its religious tolerance, and in the 9th century, a large portion of the royal family converted to Judaism. Many of the nobles and commoners did likewise shortly thereafter. After their conversion, the Khazars were ruled by a succession of Jewish kings that began to adopt the hallmarks of Jewish civilization, including the Torah and Talmud, the Hebrew script, and the observance of Jewish holidays. In this thoroughly revised edition of a modern classic, The Jews of Khazaria explores many exciting new discoveries about the Khazars' religious life, economy, military, government, and culture. It builds upon new studies of the Khazars, evaluating and incorporating recent theories, along with new documentary and archaeological findings. The book gives a comprehensive accounting of the cities, towns, and fortresses of Khazaria, and features a timeline summarizing key events in Khazar history.
A sweeping chronicle of Jewish life in the Tar Heel State from colonial times to the present, this beautifully illustrated volume incorporates oral histories, original historical documents, and profiles of fascinating individuals. The first comprehensive social history of its kind, Down Home demonstrates that the story of North Carolina Jews is attuned to the national story of immigrant acculturation but has a southern twist. Keeping in mind the larger southern, American, and Jewish contexts, Leonard Rogoff considers how the North Carolina Jewish experience differs from that of Jews in other southern states. He explores how Jews very often settled in North Carolina's small towns, rather than in its large cities, and he documents the reach and vitality of Jewish North Carolinians' participation in building the New South and the Sunbelt. Many North Carolina Jews were among those at the forefront of a changing South, Rogoff argues, and their experiences challenge stereotypes of a society that was agrarian and Protestant. More than 125 historic and contemporary photographs complement Rogoff's engaging epic, providing a visual panorama of Jewish social, cultural, economic, and religious life in North Carolina. This volume is a treasure to share and to keep. Published in association with the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, Down Home is part of a larger documentary project of the same name that will include a film and a traveling museum exhibition, to be launched in June 2010.
This is a comprehensive and topical history of the Jews in the Soviet Union and is based on firsthand documentary evidence and the application of a pioneering research method into the fate of national minorities. Within a four-part chronological framework, Professor Pinkus examines not only the legal-political status of the Jews, and their reciprocal relationship with the Soviet majority, but also the impact of internal economic, demographic and social processes upon the religious, educational and cultural life of Soviet Jewry. A second layer of analysis describes in depth the complex linkages between the Jews of the Soviet Union, the Jews in other diasporas and the state of Israel itself. The Jews of the Soviet Union marks a major contribution to the historiography and social analysis of its subject and provides a worthy companion to Professor Pinkus's acclaimed documentary study The Soviet Union and the Jews 1948-1967.
"The first book in English to deal with the Carpathian Jewish communities in a systematic fashion, the author traces their historical developments and describes their political, social and economic conditions, their institutions, movements and personalities. He follows the paths of survivors as they rebuild their lives and institutions in the United States."--Book Jacket.
Jewish Communities in Exotic Places examines seventeen Jewish groups that are referred to in Hebrew as edot ha-mizrach, Eastern or Oriental Jewish communities. These groups, situated in remote places on the Asian and African Jewish geographical periphery, became isolated from the major centers of Jewish civilization over the centuries and embraced some interesting practices and aspects of the dominant cultures in which they were situated.