Jewish Maritime Studies
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The Parkes Institute for the study of Jewish/non Jewish relations has just published a special issue of their journal Jewish Culture and History: 'Jewish Maritime Studies'.
In a continuation of the AHRC Research Project on ‘port Jews’ (2000-2005), this new research agenda looks at specific Jewish connections to the sea and perceptions of the sea, both in the course of history and in the contemporary world. All research in this field is indebted to the late Professor Raphael Patai (Hebrew University Jerusalem) who dedicated his 1938 study of Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times the opening of the new port in Tel-Aviv.
The city of Tel-Aviv, and its port and its relationship to the sea, forms the main focal point of the research presented in this issue, which has been edited and introduced by Professor Joachim Schlör, with contributions by Rebecca Wolpe ('Judaizing Robinson Crusoe: maskilic translations'); Naor Ben-Yehoyada ('The reluctant seafarers: fishing, self-acculturation and the stumbling Zionist colonisation of the Palestinian coast in the interbellum period'), Hannan Hever ('The Zionist Sea: symbolism and nationalism in modernist Hebrew poetry'), and Alexandra Nocke ('Modern Israeli identity and the Mediterranean cultural theme: an exploration into the visual representations of Tel-Aviv and the sea').