Jews Among Muslims: Communities in the Precolonial Middle East, edited
by Walter P. Zenner, professor in the Department of Anthropology and
the Department of Jewish Studies, together with Shlomo Deshen of Tel-Aviv
University.
This collection of analytical and graphic descriptions of Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East in the 19th and early 20th centuries is written by anthropologists and historians. The introductory chapters set Middle Eastern Jewry in comparative setting while particular chapters are devoted to most of the major communities, such as those in Morocco, Yemen, Iraq and Iran. Among the topics treated are community autonomy, religious life and leadership, women and family life, education, and social etiquette.
"Clearly, traditional Jewry is a coat of many colors," write the authors. "Jewish life and society were different in Morocco from what they were in Iraq, in Germany from Tripolitania. Presently in America, however, and indeed elsewhere, this is not generally realized. All too often, one encounters persons, who, while concerned with matters of Jewry and Jewish culture, conceive of this subject in an ethnocentric European-oriented framework."
The editors published in 1982 a volume of essays that shone light upon the lives of Jews in traditional Middle Eastern societies. Though well received at that time, said Zenner, "since then much has been published on the Jews of North Africa and Southwest Asia, both by professional historians and anthropologists."
He added that anthropological thinking has become more critical of earlier theoretical approaches, and the perspectives of scholars has been affected by political changes among Israel and her Arab neighbors. The new work responds to these developments.
The authors of each chapter are leading researchers on the communities they describe, their expertise being either that of textual historians or of historical anthropologists. Descriptions are filled with events and actions, so that the actual life of the people who are the subjects of this book are reconstructed clearly and honestly.
Zenner past works include Persistence and Flexibility,: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, and Minorities in the Middle: A Cross-Cultural Study.
James Hargett's article "Song Dynasty Local Gazetteers and Their Place in the History of DIFANGZHI Writing" appears in the December 1996 issue of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (Vol. 65, No. 2).
Carlos Santiago Writes Book on Critical Issues in Relationship Between U.S. and Puerto Rico
Carlos Santiago of the Departments of Latin American and Caribbean Studies and of Economics has a newly released book titled ISLAND PARADOX Puerto Rico in the 1990's. Co-written by Columbia University's Rivera-Batiz, it engages a critical contemporary issue and has shed light on the complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. The book will be a resource for Caribbean area, history, and demographic scholars and their students, as well as public policy professionals.
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, written by William D. Danko of the Department of Marketing along with former Albany faculty member Thomas J. Stanley, debuts on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list today, Jan. 22, in 14th position. The book was featured in the Update's InPrint section on Oct. 30 of last year.