Lebanon's Jewish Community

This book mines the early history of modern Lebanon, focusing on the country's Jewish community and examining inter-Lebanese relations. It gives voice to personal testimonies, family archives, private papers, recollections of expatriate and resident Lebanese Jewish communities, as well as rarely tapped archival sources. With unique access to the Jewish communities in Lebanon and the Greater Middle East, the author presents both history and memory of Lebanon's Jews, considering what, how, and why they choose to remember their Lebanese lives. The work retells the history of Lebanon by placing Lebanese Jews into the country's narrative from the 1920s to 1970s, including an examination of the role they played in the construction of Lebanon's multi-sectarian system.

Utilizes sources such as personal testimonies, archives, private papers and recollections, in order to explore the lesser-examined history of Lebanon's Jewish community Sheds light on how and why Lebanon's Jewish community grew while it tended to dwindle and ultimately disappear in Middle Eastern states outside of Israel post-1948 Shows the place Lebanese Jews played in the construction of Lebanon's multi-sectarian system and the reasons for which they eventually left Lebanon in the 1950s-60s

Autorentext

Franck Salameh is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures at Boston College, USA.

Inhalt

1. Prolegomenon: When Lebanon Loved the Jews.- 2. Lebanon of the Jews: An Introduction.- 3. Lebanese Jewry: Memory Fragments.- 4. Rootedness and Exile: Holocaust and Aftermath.- 5. Lebanese Jewish Memory and Memorial: Personal Recollections.- 6. Through the Eyes of Others: History's Reckoning.- 7. On Lebanese Jewish History and Memory: A Conclusion