ABSTRACT

The Damascus blood libel of 1840 had a significant role in shaping modern Jewish historical memory. It generated a sense of solidarity demonstrated by Western European Jewish men of affairs (such as Moses Montefiore) with their less fortunate non-European brethren, setting the stage for the global practice of both Jewish politics and philanthropy for the betterment of the latter. Zionist historiography expanded on this theme while enhancing the gulf between Western Jewish saviours and the historical passivity of helpless Middle Eastern Jews. This essay demonstrates how the direct beneficiaries of the original event, the Shami (Syrian and specifically Damascene) Jews, while gracious to their saviours, attributed in fact no meaning to this event in their own communal construction of the past. The one native account of what happened was facilitated to begin with, and its rabbinic author largely oblivious to the significance of what had transpired. Even the presence of the Alliance Israélite Universelle in fin di siècle Damascus, a direct outcome of 1840, failed to further generate native historical consciousness. Subsequently the essay probes early Zionist efforts to codify a more regionally rooted memory of the affair for the sake of harnessing the local Jewish community to a land of Israel centred future. These efforts, however, failed to prevent Sephardi and Mizrahi Israelis from feeling sidetracked by an emerging Eurocentric Zionist foundational narrative. By revisiting the Israeli Pillar of Fire affair we conclude by identifying a specifically Syrian-Jewish predicament of being left out of this drama.

摘要

1840年的大马士革血腥诽谤在塑造现代犹太人的历史记忆方面发挥了重要作用。西欧犹太人（例如摩西·蒙特菲奥里）与不幸的非欧洲同胞之间表现出一种团结感，为犹太政治和慈善事业的全球实践奠定了基础，以改善后者。犹太复国主义的史学扩展了这一主题，同时增强了西方犹太救世主之间的鸿沟和无助的中东犹太人的历史被动性。这篇文章演示了原始事件的直接受益者Shami（叙利亚人，特别是大马士革人）犹太人虽然慷慨解囊，但在他们自己的过去社区建设中，实际上对这一事件没有任何意义。从一开始就对发生的事情进行了本地描述，该书的拉比作者在很大程度上忽略了所发生的事情的重要性。甚至存在以色列伊斯兰大学联盟在大马士革（fin disiècle）大马士革（1840）的直接结果中，未能进一步产生本土历史意识。随后，本文探讨了犹太复国主义者的早期努力，以整理对这一事件更加根深蒂固的记忆，以便利用当地犹太社区到以以色列为中心的未来。然而，这些努力未能阻止塞帕尔迪和米兹拉希以色列人被新兴的以欧洲为中心的犹太复国主义基础叙事所束缚。通过回顾以色列的火柱事件，我们最后确定了被排除在这部戏之外的一个特别是叙利亚-犹太人的困境。