Rhinestones, Religion, and the Republic

Fashioning Jewishness in France

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Discrimination & Race Relations, Anthropology
Cover of the book Rhinestones, Religion, and the Republic by Kimberly A. Arkin, Stanford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kimberly A. Arkin ISBN: 9780804787901
Publisher: Stanford University Press Publication: December 18, 2013
Imprint: Stanford University Press Language: English
Author: Kimberly A. Arkin
ISBN: 9780804787901
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Publication: December 18, 2013
Imprint: Stanford University Press
Language: English

During the course of her fieldwork in Paris, anthropologist Kimberly Arkin heard what she thought was a surprising admission. A French-born, North African Jewish (Sephardi) teenage girl laughingly told Arkin she was a racist. When asked what she meant by that, the girl responded, "It means I hate Arabs." This girl was not unique. She and other Sephardi youth in Paris insisted, again and again, that they were not French, though born in France, and that they could not imagine their Jewish future in France. Fueled by her candid and compelling informants, Arkin's analysis delves into the connections and disjunctures between Jews and Muslims, religion and secular Republicanism, race and national community, and identity and culture in post-colonial France. Rhinestones argues that Sephardi youth, as both "Arabs" and "Jews," fall between categories of class, religion, and culture. Many reacted to this liminality by going beyond religion and culture to categorize their Jewishness as race, distinguishing Sephardi Jews from "Arab" Muslims, regardless of similarities they shared, while linking them to "European" Jews (Ashkenazim), regardless of their differences. But while racializing Jewishness might have made Sephardi Frenchness possible, it produced the opposite result: it re-grounded national community in religion-as-race, thereby making pluri-religious community appear threatening. Rhinestones thus sheds light on the production of race, alienation, and intolerance within marginalized French and European populations.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

During the course of her fieldwork in Paris, anthropologist Kimberly Arkin heard what she thought was a surprising admission. A French-born, North African Jewish (Sephardi) teenage girl laughingly told Arkin she was a racist. When asked what she meant by that, the girl responded, "It means I hate Arabs." This girl was not unique. She and other Sephardi youth in Paris insisted, again and again, that they were not French, though born in France, and that they could not imagine their Jewish future in France. Fueled by her candid and compelling informants, Arkin's analysis delves into the connections and disjunctures between Jews and Muslims, religion and secular Republicanism, race and national community, and identity and culture in post-colonial France. Rhinestones argues that Sephardi youth, as both "Arabs" and "Jews," fall between categories of class, religion, and culture. Many reacted to this liminality by going beyond religion and culture to categorize their Jewishness as race, distinguishing Sephardi Jews from "Arab" Muslims, regardless of similarities they shared, while linking them to "European" Jews (Ashkenazim), regardless of their differences. But while racializing Jewishness might have made Sephardi Frenchness possible, it produced the opposite result: it re-grounded national community in religion-as-race, thereby making pluri-religious community appear threatening. Rhinestones thus sheds light on the production of race, alienation, and intolerance within marginalized French and European populations.

More books from Stanford University Press

Cover of the book Inclinations by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book The Experimental Imagination by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Broke by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book The Virtues of Abandon by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book We Are All Migrants by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Concerning the Spiritual—and the Concrete—in Kandinsky’s Art by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book A World Trimmed with Fur by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Changing on the Job by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book University Expansion in a Changing Global Economy by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Biosecurity in the Global Age by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Side Effects by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book The Revolt of the Whip by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Uprising of the Fools by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Crescent Moon over the Rational by Kimberly A. Arkin
Cover of the book Taiwan’s China Dilemma by Kimberly A. Arkin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy