About the Author

Howard M. Sachar is the author of numerous books, including A History of Israel, A History of the Jews in America, Farewell España, and Israel and Europe. He is also the editor of the 39-volume The Rise of Israel: A Documentary History. He serves as professor of modern history at George Washington University, is a consultant and lecturer on Middle Eastern affairs for numerous governmental bodies, and lectures widely in the United States and abroad. He lives in Kensington, Maryland.

Reviews

Sachar (A History of the Jews in America, LJ 7/92) has written a history of the Sephardim (Iberian Jews) that illuminates the personalities and achievements of those doyens of the Jewish world. The Sephardim were an important element of Moorish society, serving as artisans, doctors, and government employees. During the period of Christian reconquest, they found new vocations as intermediaries between the Islamic and Christian worlds, often translating legacies of the Islamic world as well as classical works unknown to the Christian West. The year 1492 saw the conquest of Grenada, the voyage of Columbus, and the expulsion of the Sephardim from Spain. The sultan of Turkey lost no time in welcoming large numbers of this productive community to his domain. Sachar traces the history of this tragic diaspora from Turkey to Brazil. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with strong reader interest in this area.-Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L., Minn.

The Jews of Spain, integrated into Arab culture since the 10th century, flourished under Islamic and subsequent Christian rule, becoming scientists, poets, merchants and farmers despite periodic outbursts of Christian fanaticism and conversionary pressure. Expelled from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews sought refuge in the Ottoman empire, North Africa, Italy and elsewhere. Noted historian Sachar's (A History of Israel) vibrant odyssey charts Sephardic Jewry's dispersal, acculturation and achievements, informed by his own visits to Madrid, Lisbon, Athens, Belgrade and Tel Aviv. The narrative features luminaries such as Beatriz Mendez, who built a trading empire in 16th-century Antwerp and Venice and ran an underground rescue network for Marrano refugees; and Dutch rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, emissary to London, who successfully pressured Oliver Cromwell to grant England's Jews rights of residency, worship and trade. In modern times, Sachar portrays the violence Jews faced in Turkey under Mustafa Kemal, Jewish resistance to Mussolini and the political activism of Sephardim in Israel, where they have encountered discrimination by Ashkenazic Jews of middle or northern European ancestry. A feast for students of Jewish culture and history. (Oct.)