Unwitting Zionists

Auteur :

Éditeur : Wayne State University	Date & Lieu : 2010, Paris
Préface :	Pages : 440
Traduction :	ISBN : 978-0-8143-3366-2
Langue : Anglais	Format : 160x235 mm
Code FIKP : Liv. Fre. Gav. Unw. N° 3002	Thème : Religion

Présentation

Table des Matières

Introduction

Identité

PDF

Unwitting Zionists

Haya Gavish

Wayne State University

Unwitting Zionists examines the Jewish community in the northern Kurdistan town of Zakho from the end of the Ottoman period until the disappearance of the community through aliyah by 1951. Because of its remote location, Zakho was far removed from the influence of the Jewish religious leadership in Iraq and preserved many of its religious traditions independently, becoming known as “Jerusalem of Kurdistan,” the most important Jewish community in the region. Author Haya Gavish argues that when the community was exposed to Zionism, it began to open up to external influences and activity. Originally published in Hebrew, Unwitting Zionists uses personal memoirs, historical records, and interviews to investigate the duality between Jewish tradition and Zionism among Zakho’s Jews.
Gavish consults a variety of sources to examine the changes undergone by the Jewish community as a result of its religious affiliation with Eretz-Israel, its exposure to Zionist efforts, and its eventual immigration to Israel. Because relatively little written documentation about Zakho exists, Gavish relies heavily on folkloristic sources like personal recollections and traditional stories, including extensive material from her own fieldwork with an economically and demographically diverse group of men and women from Zakho. She analyzes this firsthand information within a historical framework to reconstruct a communal reality and lifestyle that was virtually unknown to anyone outside of the community.
Gavish also addresses the relative merits of personal memoirs, optimal interviewer-interviewee relationships, and the problem of relying on the interviewees’ memories in her study. Biographical details of the interviewees are included for additional background. Folklore, oral history, anthropology, and Israeli studies scholars, as well as anyone wanting to learn more about religion, community, and nationality in the Middle East will appreciate Unwitting Zionists.

Haya Gavish is lecturer in Hebrew language and literature at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem.

Identité

Haya Gavish

Unwitting Zionists

Wayne State University

Wayne State University Press
Jewish studies - Folklore studies
Unwitting Zionists
The Jewish Community of Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan I
Haya Gavish

Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology

General Editor
Dan Ben-Amos
University of Pennsylvania

Advisory Editors
Jane S. Gerber
City University of New York

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
New York University

Aliza Shenhar
University of Haifa

Amnon Shiloah
Hebrew University

Harvey E. Goldberg
Hebrew University

Samuel G. Armistead
University of California, Davis

© 2010 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

14 13 12 11 10 – 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gavish, Haya.
[Hayinu Tsiyonim. English]
Unwitting Zionists : the Jewish community of Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan /
Haya Gavish. p. cm. — (Raphael Patai series in Jewish folklore and anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8143-3366-2 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Jews—Iraq—Zakhu—History—20th century. 2. Zionism—Iraq—Zakhu—History.
3. Zakhu (Iraq)—Ethnic relations. I. Title.
DS135.I712Z353513 2010
305.892’405672—dc22
2009028350

The Hebrew edition of this book, Hayyinu Zionim, was published by the Ben-Zvi Institute of Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The English edition was translated from the Hebrew by Yohai Goell.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Werner Weinberg Fund of the Hebrew Union College Press and the Ben-Eli Honig Fund at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for support of this book.

Typeset by Maya Rhodes
Composed in Adobe Garamond Pro and Walbaum

Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology

On jacket: Delale Bridge-Ruah Bridge.
Courtesy of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, M57.9.
Jacket design by Maya Rhodes

Wayne State University Press Detroit,
Michigan

“In a study both painstaking and creative, Haya Gavish brings the story of a community in Iraqi Kurdistan as it evolved from ‘remembering Zion’ through actual migration to modern Israel. Combining personal narratives and archival sources, she conveys the complexity of the transformation as experienced by its participants.”

—Harvey E. Goldberg, Professor Emeritus and Sarah Allen Shaine Chair in Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University

“Gavish has done remarkable work, collecting data from a large number of informants then studying it carefully and very ably reworking it from the point of view of three different disciplines: folklore, history, and anthropology.”

- Yona Sabar, professor of Hebrew at University of California, Los Angeles