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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s Whatever self-aggrandizing uses they may ultimately be put to, genealogies are, on a certain level, reminders that no individual exists in isolation and that behind each one of us and our achievements stands a long line of other people. It is therefore a most fitting privilege at the conclusion of a book in which genealogies play so central a role to able to acknowledge the many colleagues, friends, and family members who stood behind me and supported me over the course of this endeavor. To Mark Cohen, who planted the seed for this book and then generously and patiently nurtured its growth, I owe a very great debt indeed. With dispatch and the greatest of care he read draft after draft, making helpful suggestions at every turn. Particular thanks also go to Menahem Ben-Sasson, David Biale, Andras Hamori, Jeffrey Rubinstein, Marina Rustow, Seth Schwartz, and Avrom Udovitch for providing valuable comments on all or part of the manuscript during the long period of its gestation. For expeditiously responding to numerous queries on matters both great and small I am indebted to Ofra Tirosh-Becker, Haggai Ben-Shammai, Benjamin Hary, Philip Lieberman, Jonathan Milgram, Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, Ortal-Paz Saar, Avihai Shivtiel, David Sklare, Raymond Scheindlin, and Michael Terry. Elisheva Carlebach, Robert Chazan, Benjamin Gampel, Rachel Mesch, Jonathan Ray, Nancy Sinkoff, and Steven Weitzman offered sage counsel and good practical advice that ultimately helped turn the idea of this book into a reality. Infinite gratitude goes to Adam Davis for pointing me in the direction of the University of Pennsylvania Press, deciphering an obscure phrase in a Carolingian charter, and lending a sympathetic ear at a number of critical junctures. Thanks as well to kindred Davidic monarchists Geoffrey Herman and Elka Klein, zikhronah liverakha , for their encouragement and fraternity, and to Avraham David and Jonathan Decter for bringing new material to my attention. Maud Kozodoy helped me make sense of a Latin catalogue and gamely went on a lion hunt. For moral support and commiseration at many points along the way I am grateful to Fred Astren, Carol Bakhos, Alisa Braun, Hanan Cohen, Zohara  Acknowledgments Cohen, Alanna Cooper, Sharon Flatto, Daniel Frank, Shari Lowin, Eddie Portnoy, Ilana Sasson, and Adena Tanenbaum. No single person has played a more important role in the realization of this book than Jeanne Theoharis, who kept me going throughout the long and winding journey. Words cannot express my gratitude for her friendship or my admiration for her integrity and determination. Over the years I benefited from the generous support of a number of host institutions. Particular thanks go to Lawrence Schiffman and the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, where I had the privilege of being a Dorot Post-Doctoral Fellow, and to David Biale and the Jewish Studies Program at the University of California at Davis, where I discovered new terrain and gained new perspective. Thanks as well to my former colleagues at Hunter College, Yitzhak Berger, Rivka Friedman, Tamara Green, Marlene Hennessy, Alexander Ellinson, Robert Seltzer, and Christopher Stone, and to my current colleagues at Queens College, Joel Allen, Elissa Bemporad, Francesca Bregoli, Samuel Heilman, Mark Rosenblum, Frank Warren, and Evan Zimroth, for giving me such a warm welcome and reminding me what a privilege it is to be in the academy. Travel and research expenses were underwritten by grants from the PSC-CUNY Research Award Program. My thanks go likewise to the archives and libraries where I worked and whose staff assisted me in my research. I am especially grateful to Ben Outhwaite and the staff of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library; Binyamin Richler and the staff of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library ; Arnoud Vrolijk of Leiden University Library; David Kraemer and the Special Collections staff at the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; and Arthur Kiron of the University of Pennsylvania Library. Thanks as well to Evelyn Cohen for facilitating a key contact. I would also like to express my thanks to the staff of the University of Pennsylvania Press—to Jerome Singerman, the acquiring editor, Caroline Winschel, the editorial assistant, and Erica Ginsburg, the associate managing editor—for gently shepherding this book through to publication. It is impossible to express adequately my feelings of gratitude to my family. My wife, Galit Mizrahi, not only provided...

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