Editor's Note
Dear readers of Sephardic Horizons,
The momentous tenth year of Sephardic Horizons closes with this edition (Volume 10, Nos. 3-4). Plans are already underway for the eleventh and more. You will find that the articles in the issue have a particular focus, multiple stories of the Jews of Greece.
Three articles examine different aspects of Greek Jewish history. Two address different facets of the complexities of the Holocaust in Greece. Paul Hagouel delves into the role of the Italians during World War II. The Greek Jewish presence in the demolition of the Warsaw Ghetto is documented by Stefania Zezza with contemporary eye-witness reports. Yitzchak Kerem chronicles the checkered relationship between Greek Jews and the Greek Orthodox population during the first hundred years of the modern Greek nation. A fourth article, contributed by Maria Sideropoulou, casts light on identity among present-day members of the Greek-Jewish community. Our associate editor, Annette B. Fromm takes a long look at a number of shorter works about the Jewish community of Ioannina, the most significant Greek-speaking community in the country.
Volume 10, No. 3 also includes one contribution in Ladino/Judeo-Spanish by Sharope Blanco. This volume is rich in reviews, which is a statement about the growth of publications about Sephardim in general. Recent books written by Devin Naar of the University of Washington and Sarah Abrevaya Stein of UCLA bring to light communal and familiar histories related to Salonika. The final book written by the late Isaac Jack Lévy, z"l shares narratives of Holocaust experiences collected from Sephardic survivors. As fellow folklorists, I had the pleasure of meeting Jack at numerous conferences and I benefited from his guidance and advice numerous times. Additional reviews are of works that touch on other pieces of the broad Sephardic world.
Sephardic Horizons is deeply saddened to mark the passing of two pillars of Sephardic scholarship and creativity in the previous months, José Faur and Albert Memmi. Prof. Faur was a descendant of the Damascus Jewish community, born and raised in Argentina. He was educated at the University of Barcelona in the late 1950s, where he was said to be one of the first Jewish students since 1492. He continued his studies after coming to the United States before joining faculty at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Faur was emeritus professor of Law at Netanya Academic College and part-time professor of Talmud at Bar Ilan. He introduced his students and others, including me in my student days, to the wealth of Sephardic history and culture as well as rabbinic Judaism and Talmudic tradition. Faur published numerous books and articles about Sephardic Studies, Maimonides, Jewish Law and much more.
Albert Memmi was born into a poor family in Tunis on Dec. 15, 1920. He graduated from the prestigious Lycée Carnot de Tunis in 1939. Memmi spent the months of German occupation of Tunisia during World War II in a labor camp. After the war, he continued his studies at the Sorbonne. In 1951, he returned to Tunis with his family where he taught high school. Memmi and his family returned to Paris and the Sorbonne after independence in 1956, where he continued his studies, then became a professor there. In 1975, he was named a director of the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences.
Memmi is best known for nonfiction books and novels that addressed his identity as an ardent anti-imperialist, an unapologetic Zionist, and a self-described “Jewish Arab.” Among his best-known books, all of which were later translated into English, were The Pillar of Salt (1953) and Strangers (1955), both autobiographical novels; The Scorpion (1969), the fictionalized account of the disappearance of a writer much like himself; and the nonfiction The Colonizer and the Colonized (1957). His essays on colonialism, dominant behavior, and racism are sociological classics inspired by his own personal struggles. Memmi was one of the first of a generation of Maghreb novelists writing in French. Sephardic Horizons has been privileged to bring readers some of his previously unpublished works in 2011, Volume 1, Issue 3 and 2015, Volume 5, Issue 3-4.
We extend deepest condolences to their families.
This issue of Sephardic Horizons would not have been possible without the hard work of Editor Judith Roumani and Webmaster, Altan Gabbay, and all who contributed to the issue.
We hope you find both interest and distraction in our current offerings, and do send us your responses! Also, if you enjoy Sephardic Horizons, please remember that there are expenses involved in publishing it online several times a year. If you would like to make a donation to help us continue, please click on the Donations tab on our homepage, which takes you to a secure Paypal link. Sephardic Horizons is a program of the Jewish Institute of Pitigliano, which is a 501(3)(c) organization, allowing all donations to be tax-deductible for US taxpayers.
Annette B. Fromm, Associate Editor