Cities of Splendour in the Shaping of Sephardi History
Published on 30. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
332 pages
978-1-83553-997-2 (ISBN)
Description
Sephardi identity has
meant different things at different times, but has always entailed a connection
with Spain, from which the Jews were expelled in 1492. While Sephardi Jews have
lived in numerous cities and towns throughout history, certain cities had a
greater impact in the shaping of their culture. This book focuses on those that
may be considered most important, from Cordoba in the tenth century to Toledo,
Venice, Safed, Istanbul, Salonica, and Amsterdam at the dawn of the seventeenth
century. Each served as a venue in which a particular dimension of Sephardi
Jewry either took shape or was expressed in especially intense form.
Significantly, these cities were mostly heterogeneous in their population and
culture-half of them under Christian rule and half under Muslim rule-and this
too shaped the Sephardi world-view and attitude. While Sephardim cultivated a
distinctive identity, they felt at home in the cultures of their adopted lands.
Drawing upon a variety of both primary and secondary sources, Jane Gerber
demonstrates that Sephardi history and culture have always been multifaceted.
Her interdisciplinary approach captures the many contexts in which the life of
the Jews from Iberia unfolded, without either romanticizing the past or
diluting its reality.
meant different things at different times, but has always entailed a connection
with Spain, from which the Jews were expelled in 1492. While Sephardi Jews have
lived in numerous cities and towns throughout history, certain cities had a
greater impact in the shaping of their culture. This book focuses on those that
may be considered most important, from Cordoba in the tenth century to Toledo,
Venice, Safed, Istanbul, Salonica, and Amsterdam at the dawn of the seventeenth
century. Each served as a venue in which a particular dimension of Sephardi
Jewry either took shape or was expressed in especially intense form.
Significantly, these cities were mostly heterogeneous in their population and
culture-half of them under Christian rule and half under Muslim rule-and this
too shaped the Sephardi world-view and attitude. While Sephardim cultivated a
distinctive identity, they felt at home in the cultures of their adopted lands.
Drawing upon a variety of both primary and secondary sources, Jane Gerber
demonstrates that Sephardi history and culture have always been multifaceted.
Her interdisciplinary approach captures the many contexts in which the life of
the Jews from Iberia unfolded, without either romanticizing the past or
diluting its reality.
Reviews / Votes
Reviews'Highly readable and enlightening... Gerber paints an illuminating picture of a vivid Jewish sub-culture always in contact with the non-Jewish, Christian and Muslim, surroundings... Cities of Splendour will be of great value for many scholars and students of Sephardic and Jewish history.'Carsten Schapkow, Sephardic Horizons 'This book is a gem. It is an appetizer, the main course, and the dessert, depending on the reader's choice and level of knowledge. There are sufficient footnotes supporting the facts to allow the serious researcher to go beyond the text... There is something delicious here for all our readers, and the book will leave you well informed and satisfied.'Claudia Hagadus Long, Ha Lapid 'Cities of Splendour weaves a wonderfully rich tapestry of Sephardic history, and offers, like Gerber's earlier Jews of Spain, an accessibly written resource for teaching on a diaspora, whose self-fashioning in relation to Spain, and to its various diasporic contexts, was an ever-evolving process.' Matthias B. Lehmann, Medieval Encounters "This is a refreshing, encompassing, and fascinating study, penned by an experienced and knowledgeable researcher, and supported by a rich bibliography. It offers a new look and an original interpretation of the story of Sephardi Jewry from the medieval period to the eighteenth century. Moreover, the author's flowing prose and the book's careful editing make it a suitable choice for skilled researchers, as well as for students seeking to study the chapters of a long and painful history, but one that is also full of the glory and splendor of one of the most prominent diasporas of the Jewish people." Nimrod Gaatone, Journal of Modern History 'This is a refreshing, encompassing, and fascinating study, penned by an experienced and knowledgeable researcher, and supported by a rich bibliography. It offers a new look and an original interpretation of the story of Sephardi Jewry from the medieval period to the eighteenth century. Moreover, the author's flowing prose and the book's careful editing make it a suitable choice for skilled researchers, as well as for students seeking to study the chapters of a long and painful history, but one that is also full of the glory and splendor of one of the most prominent diasporas of the Jewish people.' Nimrod Gaatone, Journal of Modern History
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Liverpool University Press
Illustrations
22 Plates, color
Dimensions
Height: 169 mm
Width: 240 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
694 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83553-997-2 (9781835539972)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jane S. Gerber is Professor Emerita of History and director of the Institute for Sephardic Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is a past president of the Association for Jewish Studies. She is author of Jewish Society in Fez: 1450-1700 (1980), The Jews of Spain (1992), winner of a National Jewish Book Award, and Sephardic Studies in the University (1995), and editor of The Jews in the Caribbean (also published by the Littman Library). She has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Hebrew University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and has lectured widely in the United States and elsewhere. She headed the Advisory Board of the American Sephardi Federation and served on the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History and the Academic Board of the Rothberg School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Content
Introduction
1. Poetry and Politics in the Caliphate of Cordoba, 950-1150
2. Crossing the Borders of Art and
Society: Toledo as a Meeting Place of Cultures, 1150-1350
3. The Search for Redemption in
Safed, 1500-1600
4. The Jews of Venice between
Toleration and Expulsion, 1516-1648
5. Reconstructing Sepharad in
Istanbul and Salonica, 1492-1600
6. Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam and the Formation of the Western Sephardi Diaspora,
1579-1700
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
1. Poetry and Politics in the Caliphate of Cordoba, 950-1150
2. Crossing the Borders of Art and
Society: Toledo as a Meeting Place of Cultures, 1150-1350
3. The Search for Redemption in
Safed, 1500-1600
4. The Jews of Venice between
Toleration and Expulsion, 1516-1648
5. Reconstructing Sepharad in
Istanbul and Salonica, 1492-1600
6. Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam and the Formation of the Western Sephardi Diaspora,
1579-1700
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index