Levantinos and Other Jews: Reading H. Y. D. Azulai's Travel Diary

This article examines the cultural interaction between various Jewish communities and Jewish self-fashioning in the eighteenth century through a close reading of Rabbi Hayim Yosef David Azulai's travelogue, Ma'gal tov. Azulai traveled as an emissary to raise funds on behalf of the Holy Land to western Europe and to Tunisia. The account of his encounters with other Jewish communities during his extensive travels in the 1750s and 1770s provides a richly textured source for understanding Jewish identity in the eighteenth century.