Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 23, 2015

The San Diego Center for Jewish Cultures Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series in Coronado continues its season of free lectures with Professor Ibrahim al-Marashi. His lecture titled, The Spanish Past and the Modern Middle East will take place in the Winn Room of the Coronado Library on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 10:30 a.m.

This talk combines both history of Spain and the current politics in the Middle East. It will answer questions such as how are conviviencia, a paradigm of inter-faith harmony between Muslims, Christians, and Jews living in Iberia from 711 to 1492, and the Spanish Inquisition remembered in both modern Spain and Middle Eastern states. What happened to the Spanish Sephardic communities who migrated to the Ottoman Empire and Turkey? Why do politicians in the current Middle East often refer to the Spanish past. How do terrorist groups want to reconquer Andalusia? And finally how does Muslim Spain figure in Arabic TV historical dramas?

Al-Marashi is Assistant Professor of Middle East History at California State University San Marcos.His research deals with the modern history of Iraq. He is the co-author of Iraqs Armed Forces: An Analytical History (Routledge, 2008). He obtained his D.Phil. at University of Oxford, completing a thesis on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He is an Iraqi-American who lived at various times in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey, and has travelled extensively through the Middle East.

Future free monthly lectures will feature brilliant professors speaking on their own areas of research. In March, Professor Thomas Barton will speak on, The Battle Over Jews in Medieval Spain Other speakers include Professor Gabrielle Orsi.

The Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series is a program of the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, co-sponsored by Coronado Friends of CJC and Jewish Federation of San Diego County. All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information on this or future lectures in the series, contact the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture at 858-362-1327 or http://www.sdcjc.org.

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Lecture At The Library Feb. 18

Category: Sephardic
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