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Signed Copy of Jerusalem on the Amstel

$35.00

Own a special signed edition of Jews on the Amstel by our guest lecturer Dr. Lipika Pelham. This exclusive copy includes the author’s signature on the title page/front flyleaf, making it a unique memory of his visit to Mikveh Israel and a perfect gift for fans of Sephardic Jewish history. Since her lecture is happening on Shabbat, the book that you purchase will be available for pickup at the synagogue on the Weekend of her talk December 5-6th. YOU MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND THE MEAL, but you can buy the book separately if you want.

Jerusalem on the Amstel: The Quest for Zion in the Dutch Republic

By Lipika Pelham • Hurst, 2019
Hardcover • $35.00

Discover the extraordinary story of Amsterdam’s Sephardic Jewish community in Jerusalem on the Amstel. Lipika Pelham traces how Jews fleeing the Inquisition built a thriving “nation within a nation” in the Dutch Republic—shaping commerce, culture, and philosophy during the Golden Age.

From the community’s ties to Baruch Spinoza and Rembrandt to the Christian fascination with Jewish prophecy, Pelham brings this rich history to life. She then confronts its tragic unraveling under Nazi occupation and examines why Dutch Jews were so devastatingly affected.

Blending vivid history with modern perspectives, this book offers a compelling look at a once-flourishing diaspora and its legacy.

Own a special signed edition of Jews on the Amstel by our guest lecturer Dr. Lipika Pelham. This exclusive copy includes the author’s signature on the title page/front flyleaf, making it a unique memory of his visit to Mikveh Israel and a perfect gift for fans of Sephardic Jewish history. Since her lecture is happening on Shabbat, the book that you purchase will be available for pickup at the synagogue on the Weekend of her talk December 5-6th. YOU MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND THE MEAL, but you can buy the book separately if you want.

Jerusalem on the Amstel: The Quest for Zion in the Dutch Republic

By Lipika Pelham • Hurst, 2019
Hardcover • $35.00

Discover the extraordinary story of Amsterdam’s Sephardic Jewish community in Jerusalem on the Amstel. Lipika Pelham traces how Jews fleeing the Inquisition built a thriving “nation within a nation” in the Dutch Republic—shaping commerce, culture, and philosophy during the Golden Age.

From the community’s ties to Baruch Spinoza and Rembrandt to the Christian fascination with Jewish prophecy, Pelham brings this rich history to life. She then confronts its tragic unraveling under Nazi occupation and examines why Dutch Jews were so devastatingly affected.

Blending vivid history with modern perspectives, this book offers a compelling look at a once-flourishing diaspora and its legacy.

 

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Edirne was a bustling center linking Istanbul to Ottoman Europe. It was also the capital of Edirne Province—among the most religiously diverse regions of the Ottoman Empire. But by 1923, the city had become a Turkish border town, and the province had lost much of its non-Muslim population. With this book, Jacob Daniels explores how one of the world's largest Sephardi communities dealt with the encroachment of modern borders.

Using Ladino, French, English, and Turkish sources, Daniels offers a new take on the ways in which ethno-religious minorities experienced the transition "from empire to nation-state." Rather than tracing a linear path, Edirne Jews zigzagged between the Ottoman Empire and three nation-states—without moving a mile. And by maintaining interstate Sephardi networks, they resisted pressure to treat the shifting border as a limit to their zone of belonging. Ultimately, proximity to the border would undo Edirne's Jewish community, but the way this ending came about—local Jews were rarely killed or deported—challenges common assumptions about state borders and Jewish history. By studying Jewish encounters with the nation-state alongside the emergence of modern borders, Daniels sheds light on both phenomena.