This bibliography offers a sample of histories written by scholars, often from these communities, who pioneered the field. The list gives all the titles in English, with the language(s) of the book in parenthesis at the end if unavailable in English translation.

While by no means uniform in approach, these works falsify any notion that until now MENACA Jewish history has never been told in a fashion that respects the richness, complexity, and fullness of Jewish life. The approach of these books speaks to the diverse experiences and memories of our communities because each of these books:

1. Examines MENACA Jews as subjects of their own transnational history and culture as well as participants in the histories of their surrounding societies and cultures.  

2. Analyzes both instances of Arab, Persian, and (Ottoman)Turkish imperialist and later nationalist oppression of Jewish and other ethnic and religious minorities as well as periods of coexistence.

3. Considers the attitudes of the surrounding Muslim and later colonial European states and peoples to Judaism, Jewish culture, and Jewish politics in the region as well as Jewish views of the ruling states and majority societies.  

4.  Analyzes Jewish responses to imperial, colonial, and national state powers in the context of the responses of other regional ethnic and religious groups.  

Regional Collections

• Shmuel Trigano ed. The Sephardic World 2 Volumes (Paris : Éd. du Seuil, 2006) (French only)

• Paul B. Fenton and David Littman, Exile in the Maghreb: Jews under Islam, Sources and Documents, 997-1912, trans. David Littman (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2016)

• Georges Bensoussan, Jews in Arab Countries the Great Uprooting: 1850-1975 (Indiana: Indiana University, 2019)

• Joseph Tobi, Y. Barnay, Shalom Bar-Asher and Samuel Ettinger, History of the Jews in Islamic Lands (Jerusalem: Merkaz Zalman Shazar, 1981-1986) (Hebrew only)

• Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003)

• Amnon Netzer and Shaul Shaked, Irano-Judaica: Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian culture Throughout the Ages II (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East, 1990).

• Bernard Dov Cooperman and Tsevi Zohar eds. Jews and Muslims in the Islamic World (Bethesda: University Press of Maryland, 2013)

• Tudor Parfitt and Yehuda Nini eds., Israel and Ishmael: Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations (Richmond: Curzon, 1998).

• Albert Memmi, Jews and Arabs (Eleanor Levieux trans., Chicago: J. Philip O’Hara 1975)

Exodus

• Shmuel Trigano ed. The End of Judaism in Muslim Lands (Paris: Denoël, 2009) (French and Hebrew only)

Turkey

• Rifat N. Bali, A Turkization Adventure (1923-1945): the Jews of Turkey in the years of the republic (Istanbul: Communication, 2000) (Turkish only)

• Rıfat N. Bali, Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey During the Multi-Party Period. trans. Paul Bessemer (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2014)

Iraq

• Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s (London: Routledge, 2004)

• Zvi Yehuda, The New Babylonian Diaspora: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Community in Iraq, 16th-20th centuries C.E. (Leiden: Brill, 2017)

• Carole Basri, The Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: An Examination of Legal Rights – A Case Study of the Human Rights Violations of Iraqi Jews (New York, Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 26, Issue 3, 2002)

Egypt

• Aimée Israel-Pelletier, On the Mediterranean and the Nile: The Jews of Egypt (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, cop. 2018)

• Michael M. Laskier, Jews of Egypt, 1920-70 : In the midst of Zionism, anti-Semitism and the Middle East Conflict,  (New York: New York University Press, 1992)

• Shimon Shamir, Egypt from Monarchy to Republic: A Reassessment of Revolution and Change (London: Routledge, 2021)

Libya

• Jacques Roumani, Judith Roumani, and David Meghnagi eds., Jewish Libya: Memory and Identity in Text and Image (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2018)

• Maurice Roumani, The Jews of Libya: Coexistence, Persecution, Resettlement (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2008)

• Yaacov Haggiag-Liluf, History of the Jews of Libya (Or-Yehuda : Center for the Study of Lybian Jewry, 2005) (Italian and Hebrew only)

Tunisia

• Jacques Taïeb, To be Jewish in the Maghreb on the Eve of Colonnization (Paris : A. Michel, 1994). (French only)

Algeria

• Yossef Carvit, The Jews of Algeria, Methodology, Tradition, and Modernity (1750-1914) (Sarrebruck : Editions Universitaires Européennes, Sarrebruck, 2019)  (French only)

• Richard Ayoun, The Jews of Algeria : From Dhimma to Naturalization (Paris, Publications du Centre Rachi : Centre Universitaire d’Etudes Juives, 1979) (French only)

Morocco

• Haïm Zafranim, Two thousand years of Jewish life in Morocco (New York: Sephardic House, 2005)

• Shalom Bar-Asher, The Jews in Sharifian Morocco: Aspects of Jewish life in Morocco from the 16th Century to Modern Times (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 1977)

Yemen

• Yehuda Nini, The Jews of the Yemen, 1800-1914 (New York: Routledge, 2016

• Yosef Ṭobi, The Jews of Yemen studies in their history and culture (Leiden: Brill 1999)

Syrian and Lebanon

• Yaron Harel, Syrian Jewry in transition, 1840-1880 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021)

Iran

• David Yeroushalmi, The Jews of Iran: Chapters in their History and Cultural Heritage (Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2017)

• Amnon Netzer, Pādyāvand (Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1997-1999)

• David Yeroushalmi, The Jews of Iran in the Nineteenth Century: Aspects of History, Community, and Culture (Leiden: Brill, 2009)

Central Asia

• David Yeroushalmi, Threads of silk: The Story of Bukharian Jewry (Tel Aviv, Diaspora Museum, 2013) (Hebrew)

• Avraham Klevan, On the history of the Jews in Central Asia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1989) (Hebrew)

• Zeev Levin, Collectivization and Social Engineering: Soviet Administration and the Jews of Uzbekistan, 1917-1939 (Leiden: Brill, 2015).