What do you think?
Rate this book
Jews and Arabs
English, French (translation)
220 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1974
3 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Albert Memmi
67 books138 followersTunisian Jewish writer and essayist who migrated to France.
Born in Tunisia under French protectorate, from a Tunisian Jewish mother, Marguerite Sarfati, and a Tunisian-Italian Jewish father, François Memmi, he speaks French and Tunisian-Judeo-Arabic. He claims to be of Berber ancestry. He was educated in French primary schools, and continued on to the Carnot high school in Tunis, the University of Algiers where he studied philosophy, and finally the Sorbonne in Paris. Albert Memmi found himself at the crossroads of three cultures, and based his work on the difficulty of finding a balance between the East and the West.
His best-known nonfiction work is "The Colonizer and the Colonized", about the interdependent relationship of the two groups. It was published in 1957, a time when many national liberation movements were active. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the preface. The work is often read in conjunction with Frantz Fanon's "Les damnés de la Terre" ("The Wretched of the Earth") and "Peau noire, masques blancs" ("Black Skin, White Masks") and Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism." In October 2006, Memmi's follow-up to this work, titled "Decolonization and the Decolonized," was published. In this book, Memmi suggests that in the wake of global decolonization, the suffering of former colonies cannot be attributed to the former colonizers, but to the corrupt leaders and governments that control these states.
Born in Tunisia under French protectorate, from a Tunisian Jewish mother, Marguerite Sarfati, and a Tunisian-Italian Jewish father, François Memmi, he speaks French and Tunisian-Judeo-Arabic. He claims to be of Berber ancestry. He was educated in French primary schools, and continued on to the Carnot high school in Tunis, the University of Algiers where he studied philosophy, and finally the Sorbonne in Paris. Albert Memmi found himself at the crossroads of three cultures, and based his work on the difficulty of finding a balance between the East and the West.
His best-known nonfiction work is "The Colonizer and the Colonized", about the interdependent relationship of the two groups. It was published in 1957, a time when many national liberation movements were active. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the preface. The work is often read in conjunction with Frantz Fanon's "Les damnés de la Terre" ("The Wretched of the Earth") and "Peau noire, masques blancs" ("Black Skin, White Masks") and Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism." In October 2006, Memmi's follow-up to this work, titled "Decolonization and the Decolonized," was published. In this book, Memmi suggests that in the wake of global decolonization, the suffering of former colonies cannot be attributed to the former colonizers, but to the corrupt leaders and governments that control these states.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 20, 2024
This review is incomplete for now, but I'll just give a few thoughts.
This book should be a must read for anyone trying to understand the North African/Eastern Jewish experience in the 20th century. Even today there is a great deal of historical revisionism regarding Jewish life in the SWANA region. While it is true that there were periods of relative peace and quiet, what is so frequently missed is the utter poverty and humiliation that the Jews of this region could experience from just about anyone who was a part of the majority Muslim society; it also is worth mentioning that there were also plenty of massacres of Jews in this region too, long before the state of Israel came into being.
"It even made us secretly nostalgic; yes, of course we were Arab Jews, or Jewish Arabs, in our customs, our culture, our music, our cooking... I have said so often enough in writing, but must one remain an Arab Jew if that means having into tremble for one's life and the future of one's children? If it means being denied any existence of one's own? ... Jewish Arabs-that's what we would have liked to be, and if we have given up on the idea, it is because for centuries the Muslim Arabs have scornfully, cruelly, and systematically prevented us from carrying it out. And now it is far too late to become Jewish Arabs again." (20)
While much of Memmi's compatriots (as in left-wing intellectuals in the 60s and 70s) and many figures on the left still view the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of (Arab) Nationalism versus (Israeli) Imperialism/Settler-Colonialism, Memmi views the conflict as one of two national movements, Jewish and Arab. He states that as someone who believes in Arab independence and therefore Arab nationalism, it is not contradictory to also believe in Jewish independence and Zionism. For those who claim that the Jewish people are not a nation, Memmi replies that the Jews have been oppressed as a people and therefore they can only gain their liberation as a people, i.e. Zionism. "For what is Zionism but the most coherent effort ever made to respond to the oppression suffered by Jews the world over?" (207) Probably the main takeaway regarding Israel according to Memmi is that Israel is not a particularly unique country in the sense that he views Israel as another people who gained their independence during the process of decolonization. The other warning is that as long as self-proclaimed leftists continue to view the conflict as something other than two national movements, then they fail to actually get to a socialist solution: "the most serious criterion for judging whether or not a political attitude is an attitude of the left: does it seriously desire an agreement that takes into account the existence, the freedom and the interests of both partners?" As long as these criteria are not taken into account, its likely nothing will happen.
This book should be a must read for anyone trying to understand the North African/Eastern Jewish experience in the 20th century. Even today there is a great deal of historical revisionism regarding Jewish life in the SWANA region. While it is true that there were periods of relative peace and quiet, what is so frequently missed is the utter poverty and humiliation that the Jews of this region could experience from just about anyone who was a part of the majority Muslim society; it also is worth mentioning that there were also plenty of massacres of Jews in this region too, long before the state of Israel came into being.
"It even made us secretly nostalgic; yes, of course we were Arab Jews, or Jewish Arabs, in our customs, our culture, our music, our cooking... I have said so often enough in writing, but must one remain an Arab Jew if that means having into tremble for one's life and the future of one's children? If it means being denied any existence of one's own? ... Jewish Arabs-that's what we would have liked to be, and if we have given up on the idea, it is because for centuries the Muslim Arabs have scornfully, cruelly, and systematically prevented us from carrying it out. And now it is far too late to become Jewish Arabs again." (20)
While much of Memmi's compatriots (as in left-wing intellectuals in the 60s and 70s) and many figures on the left still view the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of (Arab) Nationalism versus (Israeli) Imperialism/Settler-Colonialism, Memmi views the conflict as one of two national movements, Jewish and Arab. He states that as someone who believes in Arab independence and therefore Arab nationalism, it is not contradictory to also believe in Jewish independence and Zionism. For those who claim that the Jewish people are not a nation, Memmi replies that the Jews have been oppressed as a people and therefore they can only gain their liberation as a people, i.e. Zionism. "For what is Zionism but the most coherent effort ever made to respond to the oppression suffered by Jews the world over?" (207) Probably the main takeaway regarding Israel according to Memmi is that Israel is not a particularly unique country in the sense that he views Israel as another people who gained their independence during the process of decolonization. The other warning is that as long as self-proclaimed leftists continue to view the conflict as something other than two national movements, then they fail to actually get to a socialist solution: "the most serious criterion for judging whether or not a political attitude is an attitude of the left: does it seriously desire an agreement that takes into account the existence, the freedom and the interests of both partners?" As long as these criteria are not taken into account, its likely nothing will happen.
July 17, 2011
Cette compilation d'articles et communications rédigés dans les années 60 et début 70 demeure d'une actualité stupéfiante. Cet ouvrage, qui vieillit beaucoup mieux que l’œuvre de Frantz Fanon ou d'autres écrits de Memmi, mérite d'être considéré comme un classique. Il pose le problème de l'identité culturelle des juifs nord-africains, ex-colonisés, qui n'ont pas bénéficié des indépendances puisque plus menacés, discriminés par les musulmans que par les colonisateurs, de la disparition d'une société, de la nécessité et de la légitimité donc de l'existence d'Israël. S'il était lu des aspirants professeurs d'histoire et journalistes, sans doute entendrait-on et lirait-on beaucoup moins de bêtises sur le conflit israélo-arabe. Solidement fondé, très bien pensé en général. L'auteur peine à concilier défense des jeunes nations et internationalisme socialiste, mais lorsqu'il se libère se libère des dogmatismes il est courageux et vibrant, humain et stimulant.
Want to read
February 1, 2016Just from having skimmed the first few pages, I'm keen to discover where Memmi fits into Israeli thought in the history of our ethnic sociopolitical scene, and of course I have to fill in the gaps in my own comprehension.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews