"Are You an Arab or a Jew?" (Sami Shalom Chetrit) the Jewish-Arabic Position in Hebrew Literature (original) (raw)

The Integration of Arabo-Islamic Culture into the Emergent Hebrew Culture of Late Ottoman Palestine

Jewish Quarterly Review , 2019

This essay explores the ways in which Abraham Shalom Yahuda (1877–1951) mobilizes Arabo-Islamic culture for the construction of Hebrew culture as manifested in his writings that treat Arabic literature. The essay's argument comprises two parts: first, that Yahuda's production of Arabic poetical literature endeavored to familiarize Jewish communities, in particular European Jews, with Arabic culture. As such, I argue that Yahuda did not Hebraize Arabic poetical texts nor he Judaize Arab figures that he treated. Rather, he preserved essential characteristics that were intended to acquaint European Jews with the otherness of Arabs and simultaneously with the Jewish self. Second, Yahuda's efforts also sought to draw a connection between contemporary Jews and their "Israelite brethren"—in Yahuda's words—as Yahuda concurrently urged his Hebrew-reading audience to embrace spiritual and moral values that characterized the Jewish forefathers. Prominent Arab figures, particularly poets, represented the perfect example to transmit moral values that Jews needed in order to restore their relation with the land of their ancestors. In advocating for embracing moral values such as bravery, loyalty, and hospitality, Yahuda's noble Arabs and heroes represented the Orientalism of Arabic culture and its relevance to the Jews of his time, highlighting the common denominators between Arabs and Israelites.

Arab-Jewish Literature

Arab-Jewish Literature, 2019

Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. My heart beats with love for the Arabs, My mouth proudly speaks their language. Do they and I not share a common source? The distant past drew us together, When al-Samaw'al set in the book of faithfulness An emblem to the Arabs in al-Ablaq. Anwar Shā'ul (1904, al-Ḥilla-1984, Kiryat Ono) Contents Preface ix Transliteration (Arabic) xvii Transliteration (Hebrew) xviii Historical Background 1 1 Jews and Modern Arab Culture 13 2 First Literary Attempts 36 3 The Realistic Stage 49 4 After the Immigration 77

THE INFLUENC OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC CULTURE ON THE WRITINGS OF MODERN HEBREW PROSE WRITERS (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE WORKS OF SMILANSKY, ARICHA, SHAMI AND SHAMOSH

Prof. Dr. Talib Al-Quraishi, 2021

The turn of our century brought about a 'miraculous' revival of Modern Arabic and Modern Hebrew cultures and literatures. Scholarly opinions tend to observe that both cultures witnessed a parallel and independent development. This Work endeavours to analyze, by means of literary criticism, Arabic and Islamic influences upon Modern Hebrew literature. Since literature is a reflection of life and simultaneously a way to mould societies and cultures, this important field of research may throw light on the impact of Arabic and Islamic culture on Hebrew culture. Cultural influences, no doubt, are conditioned by many factors, most important amongst them are the cultural level of the peoples and the quality of the relationships between them. The contact between Arabs and Jews in modern times had a precedent in the 'middle ages'. Hence it is primary task of this work to establish the precise contribution of each epoch. The historical background summarizes the relevant facts, in order to gain a better view of the various layers and dimensions of these impacts. The gulf existing between the two cultures (in matters of religions and national aspirations etc.) are much depicted in literature. The literary background serves to gain a deeper insight into the separate developments of these two literatures. The personal outlook of the individual writers, their respective environment, their mentality, upbringing and individual literary approach are all part and parcel of their mature work. In evaluating the impact of Arabic culture upon their belles' lettress it is essential to deal with their biographies. Arabic linguistic influence, whether natural or artificial employed as a literary device in order to represent the authentic speech of the Arab characters is the theme of chap. IV. The image of the Arab and that of the Islamic world depicted in Modern Hebrew literature is the theme of Chap. V. The writers' encounter with the novel setting of Jewish settlement in the midst of the Arab world inevitably influenced their attitude towards their characters. In the (conclusion), we have also touched upon the writers' approach to creating a ground for mutual understanding. Introducing the Arabs as a new theme in Modern Hebrew literature, without creating stereotypes, is in itself a significant step in widening its scope.

YOCHAI OPPENHEIMER The Arab in the Mirror : The Image of the Arab in Israeli Fiction Severed Language

2010

THE STATUS OF THE ARAB in Hebrew fiction is an interesting test case for a cultural and cognitive maturation process. To be explored here is the extent to which Hebrew literature recognizes the Arab's independence and otherness: to what extent does it allow him to have a separate identity, which is not subservient to the Zionist one and to its accepted scheme of values? I shall examine the ability of Hebrew literature to produce a heterogeneous scheme of values and to live in a self-conscious world, which not only acknowledges the existence of the Arab as an independent entity, but also searches for a language that would represent him.

Journal of Arabic Literature 47 "When the Safras Met the Dajānīs Arabic in Hebrew and the Rethinking of National Ideology"

This paper explores how readers can hear Arabic voices within Hebrew novels written by Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries or who were born in Israel to Arabic-speaking parents.1 I look at the ways in which the Arabic language itself, as well as Arabic literature and Islamic religious texts, are mediated in these novels. The inclusion of Arabic voices within the Hebrew texts, I argue, acts powerfully against national monolingualism and generates a new understanding of Arab-Jewish relations and of Mizrahi Diasporic identities.

“If I Forget Thee, O Baghdad”: The Demise of Arab-Jewish Identity and Culture

Asian and African studies, 2021

This article examines the emergence of the modern Arabic literary writing of the Jews of Iraq and, after only a few decades, the start of its demise, in both Iraq and outside it, and then the switch to writing in Hebrew in Israel. The high point of such writing in Arabic was during the 1920s when Iraqi-Jews started to produce literary works that “were Arabic in essence and expression.” It was a secular literature, inspired by a cultural vision whose most eloquent dictum was “religion is for God, the fatherland is for everyone.” However, during recent decades the Arabic literature that 20-century Iraqi-Jews have produced has been totally relegated to the margins of Arabic culture. This development was due not only to political and national circumstances but also to the aesthetic and cultural norms of both Arabic-Muslim and Hebrew-Jewish cultural systems. The vision embedded in the aforementioned dictum was the product of a very limited period, a very confined space, and a very singul...

The Arab Jew: A History of a Concept

This course invites students to explore the debates around the term " Arab Jews. " A cultural, historical, and historiographical designation, the term encompasses a range of experiences for Arabic-speaking Jews. These Jews lived in diverse cultural worlds across the Middle East and North Africa, where they developed deep and enduring relationships with non-Jews, and were instrumental in shaping local, regional and national cultures and politics. Their identities and histories, which vary according to their place of origin, are presented, assessed, and debated in scholarly articles and monographs, political statements, personal testimonies and memoirs, poetry and fiction, music and cinema, as well as on websites and in blogs. This surge in research, which has become a prominent subfield of Jewish studies and Middle Eastern studies, is the result of regional changes on the one hand, and growing interest in the history and culture of the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa on the other. By engaging with the term " Arab Jews " in its various incarnations, the course offers new perspectives on questions of Zionism and nationalism, colonialism and geography, religion and secularization, as well as historiography and memory.

Reading the Arabian Nights in Modern Hebrew Literature: Judaism, Arabness and the City, Philological Encounters 5:2 (2020): 223-253

Philological Encounters, 2020

The discourse about the Arabian Nights illustrates the ways through which hegemonic poetic and literary discourses crystallized themselves, while developing a set of distinctions as a yardstick for the estimation of literary works, as well as the connections between these various distinctions—namely ‘realistic’ and ‘fantastic’, East and West, and oral storytelling and folklore versus written literature. This article focuses on the discourse about the Arabian Nights in the field of modern Hebrew literature. In turning towards the collection, discussing it and translating some of its sections, the various characters who dealt with it expressed and promoted a cultural and political narrative which saw cultural affinities as a potential basis for broader political cooperation between Arabs and Jews. I will argue, however, that the discourse about the collection illustrates a process of modern Hebrew literature adopting a definition of itself as European and secular literature. I will also argue that the discourse on the Arabian Nights reveals the various directions taken by those who resisted the construal of modern Hebrew literature as a vector in the European- secular tradition. These counter-hegemonic assertions particularly took the form of arguments that the collection was a multifaceted cultural treasure that includes Hebrew layers, or, alternatively, representing it as a model of a modern literary genre, the city-centered anthology.

Henshke, Y. "The Mizrahi Sociolect in Israel: Origins and Development", Israel Studies, 20: 163-182, 2015

This article examines the Hebrew of a bilingual female speaker, a native of Morocco, who recounts a folktale in Hebrew on the theme “charity rescues from death”. Analyzed here are features from her native Judeo-Arabic, both overt and covert, that appear in the text. Clearly discernible influences of Judeo-Arabic on her Hebrew are found in the spheres of lexicon and semantics, syntax, and phonology. Seen as the first stage in the development of a distinct Israeli Hebrew sociolect, these features have parallels in the speech of native Israelis, the second-, third-, and fourth-generations of the immigration to Israel from Morocco who reside mainly in the Israeli periphery, and mark their spoken Hebrew as a separate Israeli Hebrew sociolect.