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Jewish Studies

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Selected Works

Aviva Ben-Ur

Articles 1 - 19 of 19

Full-Text Articles in History

Ben-Ur, "The Absorption Of Outsiders: Gibraltarians And North Africans In London's Portuguese Jewish Community" (First Page Only).Pdf, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2017

Ben-Ur, "The Absorption Of Outsiders: Gibraltarians And North Africans In London's Portuguese Jewish Community" (First Page Only).Pdf, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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"The ‘Spanish Jewish Project:’ Reciprocity In An Age Of Westernization”, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2015

"The ‘Spanish Jewish Project:’ Reciprocity In An Age Of Westernization”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur


This chapter explores the historical origins and development of the "Spanish Jewish Project," a movement to recast Jews of Iberian origin as "Spanish Jews" (judíos españoles). The movement emerged during the Hispano-African War (1859-1860) and sparked the imagination of a small but influential group of Ladino-speaking Jews and Spanish Christian liberal politicians, journalists, and intellectuals critical of their country's history and politics and eager to recapture the economic ascendancy of the Spanish Empire. Although the "Spanish Jewish Project" could not have materialized outside this political and economic context, the connective power of language was at the heart of …

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“Kabbalistic Pharmacopeia: Wellbeing In The Atlantic Jewish World”, Aviva Ben-Ur May 2015

“Kabbalistic Pharmacopeia: Wellbeing In The Atlantic Jewish World”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This article describes and analyzes a rare manuscript bearing the lead title Ta‘alumot Hokhmah and purchased at auction in 2013. The document was composed by many hands and in many lands, largely in Portuguese and Dutch, with significant portions in French and Italian, and a smattering of Spanish, English, German, and Yiddish. Most manifestly, it is a receipt book, a compendium of medical, culinary, and housekeeping recipes, sometimes mingled with kabbalistic directives; it also incorporates memoirs and biographical annotations. The multiple layers of text collectively represent the transmission of knowledge within a single family and mark the major transitions that …

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“Archival Practices: The Creation Of A Portuguese Jewish Identity", Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2014

“Archival Practices: The Creation Of A Portuguese Jewish Identity", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This article discusses the relationship of Caribbean Jews to their communal archives, focusing on the Dutch colonies of Curaçao and Suriname, homes to the largest Jewish communities in the eighteenth-century Americas.

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"Identity Imperative: Ottoman Jews In Wartime And Interwar Britain", Aviva Ben-Ur Apr 2014

"Identity Imperative: Ottoman Jews In Wartime And Interwar Britain", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

By the onset of World War I, hundreds of Ottoman immigrants, including a significant proportion of Jews, were living and trading in Britain. During wartime and through much of the interwar period, these multi-ethnic Ottomans were automatically classified as enemy aliens, subject at times to internment and deportation, stripped of their freedom of movement, and uniformly barred from citizenship. Drawing on nearly sixty recently declassified naturalization applications of Ottoman Jews, this article discusses the prosopography of Middle Eastern newcomers, nativism and xenophobia, and the role of the state in shaping national and ethnic identities, focusing on the British government’s invention …

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“Atlantic Jewish History: A Conceptual Reorientation”, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2013

“Atlantic Jewish History: A Conceptual Reorientation”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This chapter explores the radical implications of an Atlantic perspective on American Jewish history, based on an analysis of select primary sources from The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica, housed at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Such an Atlantic perspective allows us to revise the national interpretation of “American” Jewish history, commonly taken to mean the United States, reminding us of its plural hemispheric meaning (Americas) and allowing us to envision an Atlantic Jewish world connecting four continents: Europe, Africa, South and North America. Adopting a chronological-thematic approach, this chapter identifies three key areas for analysis: …

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Ben-Ur, %22when Spanish Is No Longer A Jewish Language%22.Pdf, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2013

Ben-Ur, %22when Spanish Is No Longer A Jewish Language%22.Pdf, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This is a translation (improved thanks to the feedback of Julia Phillips Cohen) of a 1928 installment of the popular advice column "Postemas de Mujer," published in the U.S. Ladino newspaper La Vara by the Salonikan-born journalist Moïse Soulam, who wrote under the pen name of Bula Satula. The installment demonstrate that Ladino and Spanish were for the most part mutually intelligible languages, but Sephardim did not always welcome the overtures of the Puerto Ricans who overheard their conversations. This translation previously appeared in Aviva Ben-Ur, "We Speak and Write This Language Against Our Will’: Jews, Hispanics, and the Dilemma …

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Purim In The Public Eye: Leisure, Violence, And Cultural Convergence In The Dutch Atlantic, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2012

Purim In The Public Eye: Leisure, Violence, And Cultural Convergence In The Dutch Atlantic, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

In its public and ecumenical nature, the celebration of Purim in Suriname and Curaçao in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was unparalleled in the Atlantic world. White Christians and slaves actively participated in the revelry and by the early 1800s, Purim showed signs of having become the colony’s carnival, a non-sectarian festivity with strong Afro-Creole attributes. This small corner of the social fabric, manifested in shared cultural performance, more approximates latticework than the separate spheres, ordered upon hierarchy and violence, that most obviously undergirded daily life in Caribbean slave societies. This public prominence of Purim reflects the three major …

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“The Cultural Heritage Of Eurafrican Sephardi Jews In Suriname”, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2012

“The Cultural Heritage Of Eurafrican Sephardi Jews In Suriname”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“Architecture Of Autonomy: The Blessing And Peace Synagogue Of Suriname”, Aviva Ben-Ur, Rachel Frankel Dec 2009

“Architecture Of Autonomy: The Blessing And Peace Synagogue Of Suriname”, Aviva Ben-Ur, Rachel Frankel

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“A Matriarchal Matter: Slavery, Conversion, And Upward Mobility In Colonial Suriname”, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2008

“A Matriarchal Matter: Slavery, Conversion, And Upward Mobility In Colonial Suriname”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“A Bridge Of Communication: Spaniards And Ottoman Sephardic Jews In The City Of New York (1880-1950)", Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2006

“A Bridge Of Communication: Spaniards And Ottoman Sephardic Jews In The City Of New York (1880-1950)", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“Sephardim In America,” In Stephen H. Norwood And Eunice G. Pollack, Eds., Encyclopedia Of American Jewish History, 2 Vol., Vol. 1, Pp.1-9, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2006

“Sephardim In America,” In Stephen H. Norwood And Eunice G. Pollack, Eds., Encyclopedia Of American Jewish History, 2 Vol., Vol. 1, Pp.1-9, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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‘Distingués Des Autres Juifs:’ Les Séfarades Des Caraïbes ('Distinguished From Other Jews:' Sephardim In The Caribbean), Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2005

‘Distingués Des Autres Juifs:’ Les Séfarades Des Caraïbes ('Distinguished From Other Jews:' Sephardim In The Caribbean), Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“Still Life: Sephardi, Ashkenazi And West African Art And Form In Suriname’S Jewish Cemeteries”, Aviva Ben-Ur Feb 2004

“Still Life: Sephardi, Ashkenazi And West African Art And Form In Suriname’S Jewish Cemeteries”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“Funny, You Don’T Look Jewish!: ‘Passing’ And The Elasticity Of Ethnic Identity Among Levantine Sephardic Immigrants In Early Twentieth Century America”, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2001

“Funny, You Don’T Look Jewish!: ‘Passing’ And The Elasticity Of Ethnic Identity Among Levantine Sephardic Immigrants In Early Twentieth Century America”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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“The Exceptional And The Mundane: A Biographical Portrait Of Rebecca Machado Phillips, 1746-1831”, Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 2000

“The Exceptional And The Mundane: A Biographical Portrait Of Rebecca Machado Phillips, 1746-1831”, Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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We Speak And Write This Language Against Our Will’: Jews, Hispanics, And The Dilemma Of Ladino-Speaking Sephardim In Early 20th Century New York", Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 1997

We Speak And Write This Language Against Our Will’: Jews, Hispanics, And The Dilemma Of Ladino-Speaking Sephardim In Early 20th Century New York", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

This article explores interactions of Puerto Ricans and Spanish expats with Ladino-speaking Ottoman Jews (Sephardim) in New York during the first half of the twentieth century, as reported in the U.S. Ladino press. These immigrant periodicals demonstrate that Ladino and Spanish were for the most part mutually intelligible languages. Yes, Sephardim did not always welcome the overtures of Puerto Ricans or Spaniards,

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"The Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) Press In The United States, 1910-1948", Aviva Ben-Ur Dec 1997

"The Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) Press In The United States, 1910-1948", Aviva Ben-Ur

Aviva Ben-Ur

No abstract provided.

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