Books

A scholarly history of Iraq's Jewish community from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, tracing its revival in Baghdad and Basra, its economic and cultural life, and the events leading to its end.

Through Esther, an Israeli teenager sent to stay with her uncle in Cameroon, and an album of family photographs and captions, the novel reconstructs the scattering of a Cairo Jewish family across Israel, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Albert Memmi's semiautobiographical novel about Alexandre Mordekhai Benillouche, a poor Jewish boy from the Tunis hara who struggles to reconcile his Jewish, Arab, and French identities under colonial rule and during World War II.

During World War II, the rising threat of Nazi power begins to encroach on the peaceful coexistence of two families living in Morocco. Two boys — Jacob, who is Jewish, and Hassan, who is Muslim — are close friends with sensitive souls. They spend their mornings helping their families before coming together to play in Jacob’s magnificent family garden. Both of their families tell them that “a garden is a prayer” and “also a promise.”

A graphic novel set in 1930s Algeria in which a rabbi's cat gains the power of speech and questions faith, love, and Jewish life among Algiers' Jews, Arabs, and French colonists.

A history of Yemenite Jews between 1900 and 1950, examining their lives under the Imams, the Orphans Decree, waves of emigration to Palestine, and the 1949 to 1950 airlift known as Operation Magic Carpet.

An anthology of twentieth century writing by Sephardic and Mizrahi authors from Turkey, the Balkans, the Arab world, Israel, Europe, and the Americas, including fiction, poetry, essays, and memoir translated into English.

A picture book set in sixteenth century Barcelona about a converso boy who secretly sounds the shofar for Rosh Hashanah, hidden within a public concert, inspired by a Sephardic legend.

A question and answer guide by Rabbi Ilan Acoca explaining Sephardic customs and their sources, covering daily rituals, Shabbat and holidays, life cycle events such as the henna ceremony, and Sephardic culture.

A Passover Haggadah for children following Sephardic custom, with the Hebrew text alongside English instructions, explanations, and illustrations to help young people take part in the seder.

A French language overview edited by sociologist Shmuel Trigano, gathering scholars to survey Sephardic history, culture, languages, and communities from medieval Spain through the Ottoman lands, North Africa, and the modern diaspora.

A novel set after the 1979 Iranian revolution, following Isaac Amin, a Jewish gem dealer in Tehran who is imprisoned by the new regime, and his wife and children as they face fear and possible exile.