Syllabus of course: (for Graduate students) Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews in Latin America

Objectives:
Study of the process of immigration of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa to Latin America, and a comparative analysis of the patterns of their economic and social integration in various countries of the continent between 1890 and 1960. The study of institutional history and the religious characteristics of the various ethnic groups, and the analysis of their relations with the majority societies and with Ashkenazi communities.

Methodological instruction in the preparation of a paper analyzing the components of the identity of a specific community, based on primary sources.

Outline of the course:
1. The Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa on the eve of the immigration: political status, process of modernization and economic integration.
2. Immigration to Latin America: Causes of immigration from the Middle East; The Latin American countries as receptive countries and their attitude towards the "Turks"; The map of immigration of Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews in Latin America; The demographic composition and the patterns of economic integration.
3. The institutional history of the various groups of Sephardi/Mizrahi, analyzing examples from different countries: the old Spanish-Portuguese communities, the North African communities (Moroccan, Egyptian), the
Ladino speaking communities, the Syrian communities (Alepo, Damascus).
4. the relations with the Ashkenazi communities: The history of the Zionist movement and the consolidation of a Sephardic Zionism; the Sephardi/Mizrahi in the roof organizations of the Jewish communities.
5. the relationship with the majority societies: social and political integration; mixed marriages and patterns of assimilation: problems of identity.

Methodological instruction: Bibliographies, location and use of primary sources, collection and analysis of oral histories.