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Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century Kindle Edition

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An award-winning historian shares the true story of a frayed and diasporic Sephardic Jewish family preserved in thousands of letters.

One of The Economist’s Best Books of 2019

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

A National Jewish Book Award finalist

For centuries, the bustling port city of Salonica was home to the sprawling Levy family. As leading publishers and editors, they helped chronicle modernity as it was experienced by Sephardic Jews across the Ottoman Empire. The wars of the twentieth century, however, redrew the borders around them, in the process transforming the Levys from Ottomans to Greeks. Family members soon moved across boundaries and hemispheres, stretching the familial diaspora from Greece to Western Europe, Israel, Brazil, and India. In time, the Holocaust nearly eviscerated the clan, eradicating whole branches of the family tree.

In
Family Papers, the prizewinning Sephardic historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein uses the family’s correspondence to tell the story of their journey across the arc of a century and the breadth of the globe. They wrote to share grief and to reveal secrets, to propose marriage and to plan for divorce, to maintain connection. They wrote because they were family. And years after they frayed, Stein discovers, what remains solid is the fragile tissue that once held them together: neither blood nor belief, but papers.

With meticulous research and care, Stein uses the Levys’ letters to tell not only their history, but the history of Sephardic Jews in the twentieth century.

“A superb and touching book about the frailty of ties that hold together places and people.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Remarkable . . . rigorously researched . . . Readers will rejoice at every miraculous story of survival, of which there are a few, and will mourn every death, of which there are many.” —Elaine Margolin, Los Angeles Review of Books
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Stein, a U.C.L.A. historian, has ferocious research talents . . . and a writing voice that is admirably light and human . . . [She] has produced a superb and touching book about the frailty of ties that hold together places and people." --Matti Friedman, The New York Times Book Review

"The “Sephardic Journey” traced in
Family Papers is . . . bounded by confident cosmopolitanism and aching loss . . . Stein guides the reader through [her] sources with a restrained but humane voice . . . The result is a book of unusual emotional power and immediacy." --Sara Lipton, The New York Review of Books

"A masterpiece of historical research that reads like a novel . . . [
Family Papers] is an intimate portrait of a family, reconstructed through a massive collection of their letters and documents. It’s also a chronicle of how their fates were shaped by the wars of the twentieth century, scattering the family from Greece to Western Europe, Israel, Brazil, and India." --Sally Abrams, The Times of Israel

"Jewish past is visible only in the flickering light of remembrance. In
Family Papers, Stein skillfully draws a map of this memory-scape and poignantly traces its travails." --Benjamin Balint, The Wall Street Journal

"An extraordinary work of historical research, but it is much more personal, even intimate, than most scholarship . . .
Family Papers is more than a fascinating account of the Levys’ gradual transformation from Ottoman subjects into Westerners and their dispersal throughout the world. It is also an opportunity to hear a small but poignant set of voices break through the silence that we have faced so far about the Jews of Greece. Stein’s prodigious research, a true labor of love, gives voice to some of those who have been silenced." --Alexander Nehamas, Jewish Review of Books

"[A] remarkable book . . . Stein is able to summon her characters with the depth and feeling of a novelist." --
The Economist (book of the year)

"Remarkable . . . rigorously researched . . . Readers will rejoice at every miraculous story of survival, of which there are a few, and will mourn every death, of which there are many." --
Elaine Margolin, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Remarkable . . .
Family Papers reflects the possibilities of modernity, the richness of Ottoman Jewry, and the nostalgia of diaspora consciousness. [Stein's] deeply intimate portraits of the Levy family present “'how this family loved and quarreled, struggled and succeeded, clung to one another and watched the ties that once bound them slip from their grasp.'” --Hilit Surowitz-Israel, Lilith

"A fascinating history . . . [with] incomparable sources . . . A masterful multigenerational reconstruction of a family's life." --
Kirkus (starred review)

"A tour de force . . . A moving, wonderfully written history of a fascinating family that will attract readers of history and those interested in Judaic studies." --
Library Journal (starred review)

"A fascinating history . . . [Stein's] spirited account, which is greatly enhanced by its many photos, makes a fine contribution to the field of modern Jewish studies." --
Publishers Weekly

“From Ottoman Salonika to Rio de Janeiro, Paris, and beyond, Sarah Abrevaya Stein follows the fascinating Levy family over five generations. Letters, memoirs, and interviews reveal love and hate, success and shameful secrets both. An extraordinary Sephardic saga, brilliantly told!” ―
Natalie Zemon Davis, author of Trickster Travels

“By turns intimate and expansive, mournful and celebratory, Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s
Family Papers mines a remarkable trove of letters to detail the dramatically shifting fortunes of one extended Sephardic clan. As she brings us inside the lives and lines of her border-crossing, multigenerational cast of correspondents, Stein also makes expert use of her skills as cultural historian, textual detective, and savvy social cartographer to map the fate of a fading world.” ―Adina Hoffman, author of Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City

“Gripping, inspiring, and heartbreaking,
Family Papers follows one Sephardic Jewish family from Salonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece) to the far corners of the world and through the most turbulent decades of the twentieth century. The author has accomplished something miraculous; by tracking down every scrap she could find, from Manchester and Johannesburg to Rio and Bombay, and reconstructing individual lives and all too many tragic deaths, this master of the craft makes the Levy family’s story everyone’s. This is history as it should be written now: approachable, yet full of insight, alert to every global resonance, and always insistent on getting as close to the truth as possible.” ―Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It Matters

“Sarah Abrevaya Stein is a historian―and a storyteller―of consummate skill. In
Family Papers, she has produced a lucid, intimate portrait of Sephardic Jews, of ties that bind and memories cherished and elided.” ―Steven J. Zipperstein, author of Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History

About the Author

Sarah Abrevaya Stein is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and holds the Viterbi Family Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies at UCLA. She is the author or editor of many books, including Extraterritorial Dreams: European Citizenship, Sephardi Jews, and the Ottoman Twentieth Century and Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce. The recipient of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two National Jewish Book Awards, Stein lives with her family in Santa Monica, CA.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07MYX35YC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (November 19, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 19, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 86491 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 191 ratings

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Sarah Abrevaya Stein
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Sarah Abrevaya Stein is the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, as well as Professor of History and the Viterbi Family Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies at UCLA. Look for Sarah's award-winning books and learn about upcoming speaking engagements at sarahastein.com, or tune in to @sarahastein. Sarah is the author or editor of ten books, including Family Papers: a Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century, named a Best Book of 2019 by The Economist, a New York Times Editors’ Choice Book, and a National Jewish Book Award Finalist. The recipient of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two National Jewish Book Awards, her work has been translated into Spanish, French, Hebrew, Russian, and Arabic. Sarah lives and surfs in Santa Monica, CA.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2022
    I gave this Book as a Birthday gift abd he told my that he started to read it and so the gas enjoyed it and has learned many things about his family that he did know and that he thought it was very weird written.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2020
    Family history treated in an entertaining way. The subject matter is specific to the Jewish diaspora and the city of Salonica, but a sad story is developed in a way that pulls you into another family’s story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
    Beautifully written family history. The author did a great job piecing together a story of people whose destiny took them all over the world.
    Recommended
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2019
    'Family Papers' is an excellent and digestible book that takes you on an exploratory transcontinental journey through the 19th and 20th centuries. The many Sephardic subjects of the book are endearing, and the book is packed full of fascinating historical perspectives.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2020
    Quite a read, but it was a nice break from the flowery fiction I had been indulging in. There is a great story here, the course a Sephardic Family from Salonica, but the writing is distinctly academic in its tone and veracity. No magical realism to be found, but that is okay because the reality was quite something. 

    The Levy family from Salonica (present-day Thessaloniki) experiences a series of diasporas throughout the 20th century from their home, once the center of Sephardic life after initial migrations from the Iberian peninsula in the 1400's and 1500's. Despite all the displacement, they manage to stay in touch through letters that are coordinated by a historian and synthesized to this text.

    5 out to 5 for research and rendition, but I would no way call this an easy read. The language is not particularly complex, but it is dense with historical events that might need further research to understand. It is not incredibly religious either and could be understood by anyone regardless of background. It is not sentimental or overly explaining, but it reflects each member of the family and I hope it is accurate. A great historical review and an exemplar text. 
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2020
    I'm plodding through this. If you are related to or knew this family perhaps you will find it interesting. Flat. One dimensional characters.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2022
    This is many histories in one: A history of one extended family, a history of a city, a history of a part of the world and a time in history we rarely read about. In the variety of experiences the Levy family had, they are the history of the Jews. Of course, because this is non-fiction and some facts are lost, we can't know all that we wish to know about these fascinating characters, but Stein brings them alive and makes us feel like we're living their lives a century or so ago.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2020
    GREAT GREAT book. One of my favorites to be honest. Reads very easily and is immensely interesting. Shows how rooted yet worldly Salonica jews were. I am very familiar with jews from Tangier (Morocco) and it just incredible to see the resemblance: moderate yet unwavering commitment to traditions/identity, strong family bonds, ladino / haketia, french influence, emigration...

    Highly recommended to anyone interested in history (of jews in the mediterranean) or just how families evolve through generations...

    Ps. Extra points for being new new material on sephardim.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Rey M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and important story of a very influential Sephardi family
    Reviewed in Australia on June 17, 2021
    A meticulously researched history of an influential Greek Jewish family from Salonica with an analysis of the political vicissitudes imposed on the city from Ottoman times through to the twentieth century.

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