Tag: Jewish migration

Tracing Routes and Memories: The Jews of North Africa and the Middle East in TRAME, a Digital Humanities Project

ABSTRACT This article examines TRAME: Tracing Routes and Memories—Entangled Jewish Experiences across the Mediterranean, a digital humanities project developed by the CDEC Foundation to document and interpret the migration of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East to Italy during the twentieth century. Building on the Edoth oral history fond, TRAME transforms oral testimonies, photographs, and archival materials into an interactive digital environment, offering new tools for research, education, and public engagement. Through digital mapping, story narratives, and thematic essays, the platform visualizes individual trajectories and collective experiences, highlighting how political, social, and personal factors shaped Jewish mobility across the Mediterranean. The project reweaves fragmented memories into a collective narrative, offering insight into the transnational origins of Italian Jewry and contributing to broader reflections on migration, memory, and identity in contemporary Europe.

issue 28 / no. 2 (2025) by Chiara Renzo

Teaching at a Lebanese AIU School in the 1930s: Rebecca Goldman’s Path from Kalisz to Beirut*

ABSTRACT This paper explores the microhistory of Rebecca Goldman, a Polish Jewish woman born in Kalisz who, after studying at the École Normale Israélite Orientale in Versailles, relocated to Beirut in 1935 as a teacher for the Alliance Israélite Universelle. Drawing extensively on her correspondence and educational reports preserved in the AIU archives, the article investigates Goldman’s interactions with and perceptions of the local Jewish community in Beirut. Rebecca Goldman’s narrative encapsulates the tensions of cultural identity experienced by Eastern European Jews navigating new socio-political environments. The paper also emphasizes how her Polish background and French educational formation created a significant cultural disconnect that affected her integration into the Lebanese Jewish community, leading to conflicts and misunderstandings. By examining Rebecca Goldman’s personal journey, this research contributes to broader discussions on the emotional landscapes of Jewish migration, identity formation, and the intricate interplay between personal narratives and collective histories.

issue 27 / n.1 (2025) by Magdalena Kozłowska