Customer Reviews

Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History

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There are many popular books on Sephardic Jews in America, mostly memoirs or community histories. But there is very little comprehensive history.

Does this book fill the gap? Not entirely, as it spends lots of time and space on how other historians of Jews in America neglect Sephardim. It also covers the topic of Ms. Ben-Ur's dissertation, the adoption of Sephardic rather than Ashkenazic Hebrew in US schools and synagogues, at greater length than this reader thought it deserved. i would rather have seen more on Sephardic communities around the country.

Also, as Ms. Ben-Ur notes, the book has very little about Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab nations), who are often considered Sephardic. Here's hoping someone fills the gap within the gap.

The book has plenty of useful notes, but it lacks a bibliography or source list. This makes following the references in the notes difficult. The index is good.

So if you want a serious history of Sephardic Jews in America that is accessible to general readers, this is it. It's a good start. Ms. Ben-Ur expresses her hope that others will follow. I join her in that hope.