Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Masculinities
Bodies of Knowledge across Generations and Geographies
open access | peer reviewed
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a cura di
- Piera Rossetto - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email
- Hadas Shabat Nadir - Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel - email
- Aviad Moreno - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel - email
Abstract
Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Masculinities: Bodies of Knowledge across Generations and Geographies examines how Jewish masculinities from the MENA region are formed, negotiated, and changed across time, places, and languages. Moving from the late Ottoman era through Israeli statehood to today’s diasporas, it shows how migration, displacement, and cultural translation reshape fatherhood, labour, queerness, and writing. Using gender studies, history, and literary analysis, the essays presents MENA Jewish masculinity as a mobile, embodied concept – reimagined across empires, memories, and geographies.
Keywords Zionism • Sabra • Third generation poets • Decolonisation of Jewish Studies • Sami Berdugo • Sephardi-Mizrahi Jews • Yehoshua Kenaz • Homosexuality in Israel • Sabra myth • Masculinity • Body • Postcolonial Studies • Mizrahi masculinities • Narrative poetics • Corporeality • Mizrahi literature • Fathers • Ballads • Israeli Literature • Haifa • 1950s Israel • Queer Studies • Father • Dror Mishani • Mizrahi • Writing body • Sephardic Studies • Mizrahi masculinity • Queer Mizrahim • Masculinities • Performance of identity • Grandfathers • Troubadours’ scene • Fatherhood • Mobilities • Mandate Palestine • Ethnicities • Oriental • Thessaloniki • Mizrahi poetry • Gay identity • Gender • Abdellatif Kechiche • Daughter • Male marginalization • Re-masculinization • Moroccan immigrants • Jewish masculinities • Yoram Kaniuk • Jewish-Israeli masculinity • Trauma • Bodies • Migration • Language
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-004-8 | e-ISBN 979-12-5742-004-8 | ISBN (PRINT) 979-12-5742-005-5 | Pubblicato 15 Dicembre 2025 | Lingua en
Copyright © 2025 Piera Rossetto, Hadas Shabat Nadir, Aviad Moreno. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.