JST 605/805 - SU25B - History of the Jews of Islam
For six centuries, the vast majority of the world’s Jews lived under Islam. Over 1 million Jews continued to live in Islamic lands until the mid-twentieth century. Students in this class delve into the 1300-year saga of these Jewish communities from the age of the Qur’an through the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands following Israel's Independence War in 1948. The class interrogates the ongoing role of "Eastern Jews" (Mizrahim) in Israeli society (where they constitute the plurality of the country's Jewish population) and in Jewish-Muslim relations.