Reimagining Jewish Life in the Modern Middle East, 1800-Present: Culture, Society, and History

Preparation for print publication of a multi-authored monograph on the history of Jewish life in the Middle East from 1800 to the present, for preparation of a special journal issue, and a website. (36 months)We propose a large-scale collaborative project to rewrite the histories, narratives, and memories of and by Jews in the Middle East in the 19th-21st centuries. Drawing on original primary sources in numerous languages, diverse interdisciplinary approaches, and creative synthesis of the recent scholarship, we reframe Jews at the center of the modern Middle East and globe rather than on its margins. By analyzing, historicizing, and contextualizing the multifaceted processes of minoritization and sectarianization that took place in different contexts (imperial, colonial, national) beginning in the mid-19th century, we examine the overlapping ways that Jews were both incorporated into and excluded from Middle Eastern polities and societies. These varying trajectories across the region impacted the changing and ongoing political salience of remembering and erasing Jewish presence in the Middle East. We will publish a journal special issue, a multi-authored book, and a robust, dynamic website.