A Global Community: The Jews from Aleppo, Syria (review)

Walter P. Zenner has been doing research on Syrian Jews for the past four decades. His dissertation on the subject was completed in 1965, and he has continued to conduct field work since that time. His many publications place him at the top of authorities on the Syrian Jewish diaspora of the past 150 years. Bringing together his research in A Global Community, he attempts a broad view of this migration to Israel, England (Manchester), the United States (mainly New Jersey and New York City) and Latin America. Because the topic is large, his book of fewer than 200 pages of text must be seen as a survey or introduction, a summing up of his and other scholars' research.

The subtitle, The Jews from Aleppo, Syria, is a bit misleading. To be sure, he tells the story of the emigration of Jews from Aleppo, but at times he writes of Syrian Jews generally and not just those from Aleppo. Moreover, when he tells of the Sephardim, he discusses Jews from the Middle East and North Africa as well as Aleppo. Such overlaps make for some confusion, and one must realize that Aleppans are not the only immigrants under discussion.

Zenner uses few statistics; rather he relies upon his anthropological skills and years of field work. He notes his lack of formal training in ethnic field work when he began, but he certainly overcame this defect, and the book is rich in human or personal tales of Jews in the nations he studied. He also wants the reader to know that, because of his own religious views, when he began in the late 1950s, he had difficulty interviewing and studying Orthodox Jews. Moreover, he believes being single hindered candid interviews with women. He is more apt to study men than women, but this reviewer believes that he handled his concerns very well. His honesty about potential limitations is refreshing.

The reader should also note that the strength of the book is on Israel and the United States where he has done considerable interviewing. The Manchester community is small, but he does note that it has persisted. As for Latin America, although Zenner has visited there on several occasions, he did not carry out extensive interviews, but rather relied on secondary accounts and some statistics. Unfortunately several Latin American communities are involved, and he simply was unable to relate in depth the experiences of Syrian Jews in each country.

After giving accounts of the background of Syrian Jews, mainly who they were and why they chose migration to escape an increasingly hostile environment, Zenner probes the immigrants and their communities, and this includes the second and third generations as well as the immigrants themselves. The fact that he was able to follow individuals over a long period of time makes it possible for Zenner to humanize his subjects, though one is always left with the possibility that his sample might be biased.

One aspect of the Aleppan experience is the transnational nature of Syrian migration, which is at the core of his book. Immigrants have settled in the communities indicated, and he finds individuals who have lived in several nations for periods of time and who have relatives and friends living in several other nations. Since this migration is transnational, what can one learn from such a large period of time and immigration in so many places? The basic struggle he sees is the immigrants' attempt to hold on to their Aleppan culture, yet at the same time to live comfortably in their new worlds. In Latin America he sees many Jews who view themselves as sojourners and who remain more aloof from their neighbors. In Israel the experience was quite different because there Jews were living in a nation in which they were the majority. Yet there were conflicts there too, and the immigrants did not...