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The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France
Headlines from France suggest that Muslims have renewed an age-old struggle against Jews and that the two groups are once more inevitably at odds. But the past tells a different story. The Burdens of Brotherhood is a sweeping history of Jews and Muslims in France from World War I to the present. Here Ethan Katz introduces a richer and more complex world that offers fresh perspective for understanding the opportunities and challenges in France today.
Focusing on the experiences of ordinary people, Katz shows how Jewish-Muslim relations were shaped by everyday encounters and by perceptions of deeply rooted collective similarities or differences. We meet Jews and Muslims advocating common and divergent political visions, enjoying common culinary and musical traditions, and interacting on more intimate terms as neighbors, friends, enemies, and even lovers and family members. Drawing upon dozens of archives, newspapers, and interviews, Katz tackles controversial subjects like Muslim collaboration and resistance during World War II and the Holocaust, Jewish participation in French colonialism, the international impact of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and contemporary Muslim antisemitism in France.
We see how Jews and Muslims, as ethno-religious minorities, understood and related to one another through their respective relationships to the French state and society. Through their eyes, we see colonial France as a multiethnic, multireligious society more open to public displays of difference than its postcolonial successor. This book thus dramatically reconceives the meaning and history not only of Jewish-Muslim relations but ultimately of modern France itself.
Focusing on the experiences of ordinary people, Katz shows how Jewish-Muslim relations were shaped by everyday encounters and by perceptions of deeply rooted collective similarities or differences. We meet Jews and Muslims advocating common and divergent political visions, enjoying common culinary and musical traditions, and interacting on more intimate terms as neighbors, friends, enemies, and even lovers and family members. Drawing upon dozens of archives, newspapers, and interviews, Katz tackles controversial subjects like Muslim collaboration and resistance during World War II and the Holocaust, Jewish participation in French colonialism, the international impact of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and contemporary Muslim antisemitism in France.
We see how Jews and Muslims, as ethno-religious minorities, understood and related to one another through their respective relationships to the French state and society. Through their eyes, we see colonial France as a multiethnic, multireligious society more open to public displays of difference than its postcolonial successor. This book thus dramatically reconceives the meaning and history not only of Jewish-Muslim relations but ultimately of modern France itself.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 10, 2020
The Burdens of Brotherhood is an in-depth, century long, study of the relations between Jews and Muslims in France, particularly as those relationships evolved within North Africa (also known as the Maghreb) as a French colony and then later as these countries gained independence. Katz made extensive use of archival materials, case studies, media and oral interviews to show that the relationships between those who identify as Jewish or Muslim are not, and historically, have not been as antagonistic as might be assumed. Especially when one considers the various socioeconomic factors that can have a bearing on the way people interact.
Like any good history should The Burdens of Brotherhood, serves to erase the black and white assumptions and add in the many layers of gray. When looking at a century of content, from the First World War through to the 1970s, there are fluctuations between which group had the better advantages. Those fluctuations and changes are direct results of French governmental decisions, or the power occupying France. The conflict between Zionism and supporting other Muslim nations or organizations grew stronger as Jews and Muslims came to identify more within their faiths then as African.
While giving some notes on the wider history, Katz focuses on Paris, Marseilles and Strasbourg to show how the relationships and populations changed over the period covered. Paris represented due to being both the capitol and often having the largest populations. Marseilles due to its location on the Mediterranean, often served as the entry point to France for many of those emigrating or working in France. Strasbourg serves to demonstrate the overall effect of population change, as it is located on the French /German border it is more removed from immigrant traffic.
As wonderful as the work is, it is a dense academic read and will not appeal to everyone. Also, preparing by reading a general history of France in the 20th century and possibly some works on the Algerian War would greatly help a readers' understanding.
Like any good history should The Burdens of Brotherhood, serves to erase the black and white assumptions and add in the many layers of gray. When looking at a century of content, from the First World War through to the 1970s, there are fluctuations between which group had the better advantages. Those fluctuations and changes are direct results of French governmental decisions, or the power occupying France. The conflict between Zionism and supporting other Muslim nations or organizations grew stronger as Jews and Muslims came to identify more within their faiths then as African.
While giving some notes on the wider history, Katz focuses on Paris, Marseilles and Strasbourg to show how the relationships and populations changed over the period covered. Paris represented due to being both the capitol and often having the largest populations. Marseilles due to its location on the Mediterranean, often served as the entry point to France for many of those emigrating or working in France. Strasbourg serves to demonstrate the overall effect of population change, as it is located on the French /German border it is more removed from immigrant traffic.
As wonderful as the work is, it is a dense academic read and will not appeal to everyone. Also, preparing by reading a general history of France in the 20th century and possibly some works on the Algerian War would greatly help a readers' understanding.
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April 6, 2016Review by Rachel Simon for the Jewish Book Council.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews