History Commons^™

"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 …

"Adultery Here And There: Crossing Sexual Boundaries In The Dutch Jewish Atlantic",, Aviva Ben-Ur, Jessica Vance Roitman

Aviva Ben-Ur

This article uses real and imagined cases of adultery to explore the social status and experiences of individuals and groups often overlooked in the historiography of the Dutch Atlantic world: women, Jews, and enslaved and free peoples of African ancestry. The adulterous act, the trials that ensued, and the offspring sometimes produced from these liaisons, touch on some key discussions about the Atlantic world now current in scholarly circles: the transmission of rumors, the roles enslaved and manumitted peoples played in shaping white-dominated societies, the development and inter-communal use of Caribbean Creole languages, racialized sexual double standards, notions of public …

“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: …

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

Aviva Ben-Ur