On the Mediterranean and the Nile

Aimée Israel-Pelletier

Description

Aimée Israel-Pelletier examines the lives of Middle Eastern Jews living in Islamic societies in this political and cultural history of the Jews of Egypt. By looking at the work of five Egyptian Jewish writers, Israel-Pelletier confronts issues of identity, exile, language, immigration, Arab nationalism, European colonialism, and discourse on the Holocaust. She illustrates that the Jews of Egypt were a fluid community connected by deep roots to the Mediterranean and the Nile. They had an unshakable sense of being Egyptian until the country turned toward the Arab East. With Israel-Pelletier's deft handling, Jewish Egyptian writing offers an insider's view in the unique character of Egyptian Jewry and the Jewish presence across the Mediterranean region and North Africa.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Jacques Hassoun: Return to Egypt

2. Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff's Egypt: A View from the Nile

3. Edmond Jabès: Egypt Recovered

4. Paula Jacques, Resistance and Transmission: Transplanting Egypt on the Soil of France

5. André Aciman and the Mediterranean: The Staging of Egypt as Elsewhere

Epilogue

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Jewish Studies
• Jewish
• Middle Eastern
• Jews
• Middle East

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 12 mars 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253025784
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

ON THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE NILE
INDIANA SERIES IN SEPHARDI AND MIZRAHI STUDIES
Harvey E. Goldberg and Matthias Lehmann, editors
Aim e Israel-Pelletier
ON THE MEDITERRANEAN
AND THE NILE
THE JEWS OF EGYPT
Indiana University Press
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2018 by Aim e Israel-Pelletier
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Israel-Pelletier, Aim e, author.
Title: On the Mediterranean and the Nile : the Jews of Egypt / Aim e Israel-Pelletier.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2018] | Series: Indiana series in Sephardi and Mizrahi studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017046402 (print) | LCCN 2017047382 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253025784 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253025296 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253031921 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Jews-Egypt-Intellectual life. | Egyptian literature, Modern-Jewish authors-History and criticism. | Jews, Egyptian-Identity. | Egypt-In literature.
Classification: LCC DS135.E4 (ebook) | LCC DS135.E4 I87 2018 (print) | DDC 305.892/4062-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017046402
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In memory of my grandmothers
Emma Sasson Israel and Solange Dayan Cohen ,
of my grandfathers
Israel Ezra Israel and Solomon Cohen ,
and in loving memory of my parents
Saul Israel and Pauline Cohen Israel .
To the future and to the light of my eyes
Luke Philippe Agopsowicz, my first grandchild ,
my daughters Pauline Marietta Pelletier
and Chlo Madeleine Pelletier ,
and my nieces Rebecca Mintz ,
Leah Mintz, and Sarina Israel .
C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Jacques Hassoun: Return to Egypt
2 Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff s Egypt: A View from the Nile
3 Edmond Jab s: Egypt Recovered
4 Paula Jacques, Resistance and Transmission: Transplanting Egypt on the Soil of France
5 Andr Aciman and the Mediterranean: The Staging of Egypt as Elsewhere
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
T HIS BOOK OWES so much to the support and friendship of Norman A. Stillman. Both Noam and Dinah Assouline Stillman made Jewish Sephardic and Mizrahi Studies a second home for me. They cheered me on as I tried to bring Egypt into the fray from my place in French Studies. I thank them sincerely for making that crossing an amazing adventure that I expect has just begun.
The idea for this book would have been inconceivable were it not for Elie Patan. I owe him my unqualified gratitude for helping me recognize that the cultural heritage of the Jews of Egypt is rich and deep. I also thank him for introducing me to Ada Aharoni and Levana Zamir. They made it possible for me to participate in a small way in their efforts to make known the heritage of Egyptian Jewry. Their energy and dedication on behalf of this community cannot be overstated. Their work has been collaborative, appealing to broad interests, and restorative.
I want especially to thank Paula Jacques for welcoming me in Paris on many occasions. Her warmth and hospitality have touched me and our discussions of her work and her perspective on Egyptian Jewry have enriched my understanding of both. I also want to thank Pascale Hassoun, Jacques Hassoun s spouse, for sharing with me her insights on his work and his life, and for providing me with materials not easily available.
The library staff at the University of Texas at Arlington, Diane Shepelwich, Ava Nell Harris, Rachel H. Robbins, and Dean Rebecca Bichel, provided the institutional support I needed to undertake a project that had me examine works across various disciplines: History, Social Sciences, Literature, French, Jewish, and Arabic Studies. They have been there for me, supporting this effort. I am most grateful to them. I want to also thank Mark A. Cichock and the Charles T. McDowell Center for Critical Languages and Area Studies for needed assistance and collegial support. I want to also express my gratitude to Mary Edna Fraser for giving me permission to use her artwork Nile Delta Desert Islands for the cover of this book.
Writing this book took me at times to the happy places of my childhood in Cairo and Alexandria. But it also took me to some difficult ones. I want to thank Carol Rogers for her guidance in getting me out of these places with speed, richer for having been there. I am lucky to have a sister who has been a friend all my life. Solange Israel-Mintz has been on the same journey with me inside and outside Egypt. I owe her so much for the laughter we shared and for shouldering some of the adversities our family has faced. I thank Paul S. Mintz for his constant devotion and warmth, and my brother Solomon Israel for his abiding love. I am indebted to others who, at different times in my life, have made an impact on my life. My parents, Saul and Pauline, have shown me what love really is and what courage looks like, in Egypt and long after we left. They are present in me and beside me every day; my beloved aunt Clemence Israel Saphir who has always been an inspiration to me from the time I was a little pest in Cairo to this day when we mull over the past we shared, a past she faces with frankness and generosity. I also want to recognize my aunt Germaine Stoliar Israel for her strength, her warm heart, and her teasing sense of humor. My love and sincere thanks to Arlette Romano Cohen and the late Edwin Cohen. They set the tone for how I would experience the New World for years by introducing me to its splendid variety. I want to express my love to those who grew up beside me outside Egypt, keeping memories alive, and providing vital continuity: Esther Rakib Captan and Nader Captan, Pierre (Moni) and Joseph Rakib, Jenny Rakib Brous, Ilana Israel Moas, Rena Israel Laniado, Miriam Israel Klechevsky, Israel Israel, Joe and Laurette Eliahou, C line and Elie Eliahou, Chaoul Eliahou, Leon and Israel Bonan, and Allen, Nadine, and Leon Israel. Their love and friendship has mattered a great deal to me.
I am fortunate to have supportive friends who kept me grounded during the writing of this book and who made our time spent together utterly sweet. My gratitude and love, as always, to Ruth V. Gross, the best of friends, and to the luminous Ellen Shapiro Pincus, to Lillian Mizrahi Gilbert, Klila and Brian Caplan, Judy Pelusi, Fran and Ben Weiger, Shirley and Elias Sassoon, Ken Licker, Danielle Snailer, and Richard Allen. I want to express my affection and appreciation to Cantor Sheri Allen and to Stuart Snow who have created around them a beautiful circle of caring, spirituality, and fun at Congregation Beth Shalom in Arlington, Texas. I thank them for inspiring me during Shabbat services to always remember the place of Egypt in Judaism and not to forget the legacy transmitted to our ancestors and to us.
I would never have been able to complete this book without the support, patience, and unqualified love of Philippe Andr Pelletier, always my first and finest reader. My true love. I want to thank Philippe for overseeing many of the translations in this book, sometimes overhauling them, always bringing to them additional clarity and stylistic polish. I thank him dearly for that.
Finally, I want to address directly my daughters Pauline and Chlo , the loves of my life whose brilliance and energy have kept me and continue to keep me on my toes. I thank you both for your love and the faith you place in me and in my work. I am, and always will be, your most ardent cheerleader. It is for you, and also for Rebecca, Leah, Sarina, and for Luke that I wrote this book. I wanted to shine a light on the legacy passed on to you by Saul and Pauline Israel, your grandparents and Luke s great-grandparents. My angle is narrow and my speak is academic. I apologize for that. But my hope is that this won t stop you from looking inside.
About the Cover Art
The cover art is Nile Delta Desert Islands , batik on silk by Mary Edna Fraser, 52 in. 36 in.
The batik is based on an infrared aerial image of the Nile Delta where the fertile vegetation appears red. The shape of the delta suggests the lotus flower, an Ancient Egyptian symbol of rebirth. The greenish blue color at the mouth is caused by the flow of sediment from the Nile into the Mediterranean and visually highlights their intermingling. www.maryedna.com .
ON THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE NILE
We Egyptian Jews, we were there with the Pharaohs, and with the Persians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans; and when the Arabs came, we were still there and also with the Turks, the Ottomans. We are natives, like the ibises, like the water buffalos, like the kites. Today, we are not there anymore. Not one of us is left. How can they live without us these Egyptians? And in my head, the divine Asmahane, Farid s sister, is singing: Come to me, my love, come!
Tobie Nathan
Nous autres, Juifs d Egypte, nous tions l avec les pharaons, puis avec les Perses, les Babyloniens, les Grecs, les Romains; et lors