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ISO Sephardic nonfiction (or excellent historical fiction)
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 05 2019, 7:30 am
If you have FB go to Jewish groups for books there are many!

Sefardi
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-.....xiuE8

https://www.amazon.com/World-S.....tC-tg

https://www.sup.org/books/titl.....3tPnQ

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.....XUqmM

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocky.....i3cwk

https://www.goodreads.com/book.....C6LLc

http://www.jewish-history.com/.....eQVrs

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-W.....YyMyc
https://www.goodreads.com/shel.....-jews
https://www.babelio.com/livres.....86267

"not Ashkenazi"

https://www.goodreads.com/book.....D6Atg


If I had to choose, I'd go for
the Resistant Sefardic woman https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.....XUqmM

The memoirs (they are VERY Sefardic as in SEFARD, stoic and can be hard to stomach) https://www.sup.org/books/titl.....3tPnQ

If if ok with not fully historical, Catherine Clement Senora is gorgeous but caveat, it's NOT historical in the personal facts

Last, I wrote a novel and a cookbook if you are interested, in pm


Last edited by Ruchel on Fri, Jun 07 2019, 12:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Fuchsia


 

Post Wed, Jun 05 2019, 7:39 am
Haim Sabato's novels From the Four Winds and Aleppo Tales. (He's an interesting person - I don't know of another Rosh Yeshiva novelist.)

Lucette Lagniado, The Man in the Sharkskin Suit, is a memoir about assimilated Egyptian Jews. Very well written.

If you want historical fiction, also see Rachel Kadish, The Weight of Ink.
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amother
Mint


 

Post Wed, Jun 05 2019, 8:18 am
The memoirs written by Lucette Lagnado. 2 volumes. Bittersweet books, but fascinating. And very well written (I think currently she writes for the WSJ. She wrote some very positive pieces about the frum community as human interest stories).
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dragoneye126




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 05 2019, 8:28 am
I highly recommend The Jews of Islam by Bernard Lewis. It’s an academic book, but easy to read and really fascinating.

Also check out Diarna.org, a website that captures oral histories of Jews from North Africa and uses the info to re-create maps and guides to now-extinct towns and villages.
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mommy9




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jun 05 2019, 8:46 am
Chayalle wrote:
there was a book I read a year or two ago, had alot about life in Bagdad and then Syria, but now I can't remember the title. Nori, or something like that. About a man who is the patriarch of a large Sephardi clan.


Nouri. It's VERY good.
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gingertop




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 10 2019, 2:09 pm
Thanks all for your suggestions! Checking them out. I will update with my thoughts as I get my hands on these books and read.
Any further suggestions welcome!
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amother
Bronze


 

Post Mon, Jun 10 2019, 3:00 pm
The ghost of Hannah Mendes -- fiction
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SuperWify




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 10 2019, 10:17 pm
mommy9 wrote:
Nouri. It's VERY good.


Pronounced Noo-di. It’s a common Syrian nickname. I remember hearing it as a child laughing and saying he must like noddles. Can't Believe It
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b.chadash




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jun 10 2019, 11:48 pm
Check out From East to West. I happen to have just reread it over Shavuos. It is similar to the pomegranate pendant.
It's about a Yemenite family that is forced to travel to the West. Very rich in historical info and details of yemenite tradition. A very interesting read.
I also enjoyed my Footsteps echo by Yaacov Sapir.
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devo1982




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jun 13 2019, 5:55 pm
I thought this book was interesting - it's not written from a frum perspective, but it did give me really fascinating insights into a group of Jews I knew NOTHING about - and he goes back to the village his father came from after the Iraq War. Bonus points for learning about how his father became an expert translator and foremost authority on Aramaic.

https://www.amazon.com/My-Fath.....29334
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amother
Pewter


 

Post Thu, Jun 13 2019, 9:37 pm
amother [ Rose ] wrote:
Ooh my grandmothers book! Though I highly recommend it (obviously) it’s not really what op is looking for. The beginning is about life in Tunisia but it’s mostly about her move to Gateshead and then Jerusalem.

I agree OP, sadly there aren’t too many books focusing on Sephardic heritage.


Hi! Another relative here...(by marriage, rather than blood, in my case). We loved Maman! She was a truly special woman.

With regard to this topic, I thought the book actually did give some flavor of life in North Africa, at least to an extent...
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gingertop




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 5:10 am
Thanks amothers fuchsia and mint for recommending "Man in the White Sharkskin Suit". It is probably the best book I read this year. Beautiful, heartbreaking, conflicted, memorable. This books is so vivid. It starts with the epigraph of the passuk that we remembered the fish we ate in Egypt. It's the first time I could comprehend what that passuk means. I'm jingoistic about being Jewish and never understood nostalgia for countries that turned on us. This book was a graphic horror book of exile, even when that exile is from the increasingly militant Egypt to the welcoming shores of the United States. I've always known how the 1950's Egyptian government stole everything from desperate emigrants. It was different to actually read one family's story of this being done to them.

Lucette doesn't brush the misogyny, dysfunction, and disloyalty under the rug. She describes her life and her parents' lives in all of their heartbreaking moments.

I'm so happy I bought this book. It was both enlightening and moving.
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amother
Rose


 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 7:45 am
amother [ Pewter ] wrote:
Hi! Another relative here...(by marriage, rather than blood, in my case). We loved Maman! She was a truly special woman.

With regard to this topic, I thought the book actually did give some flavor of life in North Africa, at least to an extent...


Hello cousin!! Wave
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amother
Pink


 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 7:59 am
Rappel wrote:
Mizrachim whom long to return to their birth lands??? Nah...

As for feeling the history:

Watch Salach Shebati



Salach Shabbati is a classic, but there are many people who believe it reinforces stereotypes. I would not use it to glean info on mizrachi communities, but more to see what ashkenazim thought of mizrachim (if I am not mistaken, Ephraim Kishon wrote the movie, and he was definitely Ashkenazi).

As an aside, I see the mistaken use of 'whom' repeats itself on this site. 'Whom' is very rarely called for (it usually comes after a word like 'for' or 'to'). For whom the bell tells. To whom does this belong.
When in doubt, better to use 'who' , it's usually the right choice and sounds far less awkward.

Sorry, dont mean to offend, it's my English teacher genes.
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amother
Teal


 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 8:12 am
I enjoyed reading Musawi
It’s fiction but depicts life in Syria in the 60s/70s
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amother
Fuchsia


 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 8:33 am
gingertop wrote:
Thanks amothers fuchsia and mint for recommending "Man in the White Sharkskin Suit". It is probably the best book I read this year. Beautiful, heartbreaking, conflicted, memorable. This books is so vivid. It starts with the epigraph of the passuk that we remembered the fish we ate in Egypt. It's the first time I could comprehend what that passuk means. I'm jingoistic about being Jewish and never understood nostalgia for countries that turned on us. This book was a graphic horror book of exile, even when that exile is from the increasingly militant Egypt to the welcoming shores of the United States. I've always known how the 1950's Egyptian government stole everything from desperate emigrants. It was different to actually read one family's story of this being done to them.

Lucette doesn't brush the misogyny, dysfunction, and disloyalty under the rug. She describes her life and her parents' lives in all of their heartbreaking moments.

I'm so happy I bought this book. It was both enlightening and moving.


She just passed away.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.....1/amp
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gingertop




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 8:41 am
amother [ Fuchsia ] wrote:
She just passed away.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.....1/amp


What! BDE Crying I was reading and rereading her book over the past two days and was planning on writing to her to tell her how incredible her book was.
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Cheshire cat




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 10:23 am
I'm sufficiently intrigued.

I just ordered "the man in the white sharkskin suit"

Looking forward to it!
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Metukah




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jul 15 2019, 9:14 pm
amother [ Rose ] wrote:
Ooh my grandmothers book! Though I highly recommend it (obviously) it’s not really what op is looking for. The beginning is about life in Tunisia but it’s mostly about her move to Gateshead and then Jerusalem.

I agree OP, sadly there aren’t too many books focusing on Sephardic heritage.


So we're honorary cousins, because she was our honorary grandmother; a very close friend of the family.

I remember your grandma. A true queen.
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gingertop




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 16 2020, 4:54 am
devo1982 wrote:
I thought this book was interesting - it's not written from a frum perspective, but it did give me really fascinating insights into a group of Jews I knew NOTHING about - and he goes back to the village his father came from after the Iraq War. Bonus points for learning about how his father became an expert translator and foremost authority on Aramaic.

https://www.amazon.com/My-Fath.....29334


Wow! Thanks for this recommendation. I bought it a while ago based on your post, but finally read it yesterday.

My Father's Paradise is a beautifully written, sad story of the Kurdish community, Aramaic (I understood most of the expressions in the book!), immigrants in Israel, immigrants in America, trying to tie up ancient traumas, and of a father-son relationship.

I was just so upset that Ariel married out. After 2700 of the Zakho community, how tragic that LA was the end of the route for the first generation born there.
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