The Possibility of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought

Moshe Behar, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    While the vast scholarly fields of modern Jewish thought and modern Jewish intellectual history effectively include no texts by Jews who are of non-European origin, the domain of modern Middle Eastern intellectual history includes no writings by native Middle Eastern Jews. Aiming to help remedy this dual void, this article presents the core premises and argumentation of several pre-1936 Middle Eastern Jewish intellectuals. In filling in some of the contours and details of this rich-but significantly underexplored-history, it posits that a distinct Jewish intellectual school that unambiguously understood itself to be quintessentially Middle Eastern has been present since the beginning of European Zionism in the late nineteenth century. What contemporary scholars commonly recognise as post-1970s Mizrahi (Eastern) thought is thus better understood as an outgrowth of a Middle Eastern Jewish intellectual formation predating 1948.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)43-61
    Number of pages19
    JournalBritish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
    Volume41
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jan 2014

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Geography, Planning and Development
    • History
    • Earth-Surface Processes

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'The Possibility of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this