The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry

by Beinin, Joel

• ISBN13: 9780520211759
• ISBN10: 0520211758
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

In this provocative and wide-ranging history, Joel Beinin examines fundamental questions of ethnic identity by focusing on the Egyptian Jewish community since 1948. A complex and heterogeneous people, Egyptian Jews have become even more diverse as their diaspora continues to the present day. Central to Beinin's study is the question of how people handle multiple identities and loyalties that are dislocated and reformed by turbulent political and cultural processes. It is a question he grapples with himself, and his reflections on his experiences as an American Jew in Israel and Egypt offer a candid, personal perspective on the hazards of marginal identities.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
1. Introduction	1	(30)
The Jews of Egypt
Authenticity and Cosmopolitanism
Interdisciplinary Renegotiation of History, Diaspora, and Memory
The Neo-Lachrymose Conception of Jewish-Arab History
Alternatives to Neo-Lachrymosity
Operation Susannah
From Pillars of the Community to Compradors
Middle Eastern Jews (Mizrahim) and the Zionist National Narrative
Encountering Egypt
PART ONE: DISCOURSES AND MATERIALITIES OF IDENTITY	31	(90)
2. Communitarianisms, Nationalisms, Nostalgias	31	(29)
Between Two Homelands: Egyptian Jewish Representations of Egypt
Millet, Minority, and Citizenship
The Karaites: An Arab Jewish Community
Cosmopolitanism and Egyptianism: The Jewish Haute Bourgeoisie
French Culture, Radical Politics, and Middle-Class Jewish Youth
Nostalgias: Beyond Nationalism?
3. Citizens, Dhimmis, and Subversives	60	(30)
The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Jews of Egypt
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Emigration/`Aliyah
Status Ambiguities
The Jewish Presence
Layla Murad: Popular Culture and the Politics of Ethnoreligious Identity
Denouement
4. Nazis and Spies: The Discourse of Operation Susannah	90	(31)
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the "Discovery" of Egyptian Nazism
The Israeli and Anglo-American Jewish Discourse
The Official Egyptian Story
The International Campaign for the Defendants
After the Executions
Marginalizing the "Heroes of the Affair"
Can the Perpetrators of Operation Susannah Speak?
PART TWO: DIASPORAS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY	121	(86)
5. The Graduates of ha-Shomer ha-Tza`ir in Israel	121	(21)
Ha-Shomer ha-Tza`ir and Egyptian Zionism
Kibutz Nahshonim
Ha-Shomer ha-Tza`ir and the Underground in Egypt
The Egyptian Gar`in and Kibutz `Ein-Shemer
Autobiography and Ethnography
6. The Communist Emigres in France	142	(37)
The Palestine Question and the Jewish Communists
Emigre Politics and Reterritorialization
Exile and Communist Politics
The Suez Crisis and Aftermath
Political Nomadism
Egyptian Jews as Intermediaries in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Egyptian Jews in Paris and the Arab-Israeli Conflict after the 1967 War
Henri Curiel, the PLO, and the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
7. The Karaites of the San Francisco Bay Area	179	(28)
The Karaite Emigration from Egypt
The Karaite Jews of Egypt in Baghdad by the Bay
Assimilation and Estrangement from the Jewish Community
Organizing the Karaite Jews of America
The San Francisco and Daly City Synagogues
Reform Karaites
On the Perils of Ethnography
PART THREE: EGYPTIAN-ISRAELI PEACE AND EGYPTIAN JEWISH HISTORIES	207	(62)
8. The Recovery of Egyptian Jewish Identity	207	(34)
Rewriting the History of Zionism
The Assertion of Egyptian Jewish Identity
Peace and Victimhood
A Native Daughter
Harat al-Yahud (The Jewish Quarter): An Arab Jewish Neighborhood
The Ambiguous Legacy of Levantine Culture
Post-Zionism
9. Opposing Camp David and Remembering the Jews of Egypt: Trends in Recent Egyptian Historical Writing	241	(28)
Can Jews Be Egyptians?
Jewish Capitalism in Egypt
Colonial Capitalism
The Egyptian Sugar Company
Was There a Jewish Bourgeoisie?
Contention and Dialogue across the Borders
Appendix: Interview with Jacques Hassoun: "I am Jewish because I am Egyptian. I am Egyptian because I am Jewish."	269	(6)
Notes	275	(32)
Bibliography	307	(16)
Index	323
Illustrations appear after page 118