Memory and Forgetting among Jews from the Arab-Muslim Countries. Contested Narratives of a Shared Past

Abstract

In this issue we examine themes which are linked to memory studies and which have witnessed significant development in recent decades due to the strengthening of multiculturalism in the 1980s. The former, demanding equal respect for the various cultures making up a society and pursuing the aim of promoting and preserving cultural diversity, has contributed to a challenging of mainstream historiography and to a re-evaluation of memories considered “minor.” This explains how new spaces have developed to allow a counter-memory to challenge the dominant narrative. In Israeli society this has meant re-appraising the Zionist master narrative and giving expression to the different histories that are a part of the collective memory of the Jews of Arab Islamic countries, those who arrived in Israel from the end of the 1940s, but also to the histories of Palestinian Israelis.

Keywords

• Arab Jews
• Israel
• Memory
• Mediterranean
• Multiculturalism