Forming Iranian Jewish identities : education, national belonging, the Jewish press, and integration, 1945-1981
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Situated at the intersection of modern Jewish history, Middle Eastern history, the history of education, and Transnational Studies, "Forming Iranian Jewish Identities: Education, National Belonging, the Jewish Press, and Integration, 1945-1981" demonstrates how the Jews of twentieth-century Iran leveraged the press, access to education, and nationalist ideology to claim belonging to the Iranian nation. Jews have lived in Iran for over 2,500 years, with a population of 100,000 at their height in 1945. Today, Iran is home to between 10,000 and 15,000 Jewish inhabitants, representing one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle East. This dissertation examines the means by which Jews experienced massive transformations in the period between the mid-1940s and the early 1980s. Drawing from records in Persian, Judeo-Persian, Hebrew, French, and English, collected in eleven archives and libraries, as well as oral histories, I establish the integral place of Jews in Iran and the multi-layered identities they formed as both ardent patriots and proud Jews. In this dissertation, I advance four central claims. First, I assert that even though Jewish emancipation in the Iranian context did not entail total acceptance by the broader Muslim Shi'i populace, Jews still achieved immense economic success, formed strong bonds with non-Jews, and integrated into many layers of Iranian society. Second, I argue that attendance at religiously diverse schools in Iran mitigated antisemitic experiences, engendered fruitful interreligious encounters, and helped Jews achieve significant upward mobility. Third, I contend that education and the press facilitated the Jews' integration by providing them with spaces to interact meaningfully and frequently with non-Jews. Finally, I posit that rather than being on the margins of twentieth-century Iranian life, as many scholars have previously argued, twentieth-century Iranian Jews were active citizens who crafted identities that reinforced and reflected their national agency.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Farah, Daniella Leah |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Rodrigue, Aron |
| Thesis advisor | Rodrigue, Aron |
| Thesis advisor | Milani, Abbas |
| Thesis advisor | Zipperstein, Steven J, 1950- |
| Degree committee member | Milani, Abbas |
| Degree committee member | Zipperstein, Steven J, 1950- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of History |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Daniella Leah Farah. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of History. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/zm663qx5559 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by Daniella Leah Farah
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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