CJS440H1

The Arab Jew: A History of a Concept

This course invites students to explore the debates around the term “Arab Jews.” A cultural, historical, and historiographical designation, the term encompasses a range of experiences for Arabic-speaking Jews. These Jews lived in diverse cultural worlds across the Middle East and North Africa, where they developed deep and enduring relationships with non-Jews, and were instrumental in shaping local, regional and national cultures and politics. By engaging with the term “Arab Jews” in its various incarnations, the course offers new perspectives on questions of Zionism and nationalism, colonialism and geography, religion and secularization, as well as historiography and memory.