All books are available at Amazon and Abe’s Books https://www.abebooks.com and are available at the Bethlehem Public Library.  

Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt. Jean Naggar

With a guest appearance of author Jean Naggar. Hosted by Mike Adler.

At The Bethlehem Public Library, Bethlehem, NH, and By Zoom. Register at Bethlehemshul@gmail.com

Born into a prominent, sophisticated Jewish family who spend time in Europe and live in the Middle East, author Jean Naggar’s coming of age memoir tells the story of her protected youth in an exotic multicultural milieu. Naggar’s grandparents too came from a prominent Bagdad Jewish family.  To Naggar her childhood seemed a magical time that would never come to an end. But in 1956, Egyptian President Nasser’s nationalizing of the Suez Canal set in motion events that would change her life forever.

This Year’s Theme:

Mizrahi Jews are also called Oriental Jews, members or descendants of the approximately 1.5 million Jews who lived in North Africa and the Middle East up until the mid-20th century and whose ancestors did not previously reside in Europe.

These immigrants were collectively labeled ʿEdot Ha-Mizraḥ (Hebrew: “Ethnic Groups of the East”) in Israel upon their mass migration into the country after 1948. They were distinguished from the two other major groups of Jews—the Ashkenazim (a tradition rooted in the Rhineland) and the Sephardim (a tradition rooted in Spain). 

The latter two groups are most familiar to us in the US, but Mizrahi or Oriental Jews are more of a mystery.  Three of our four books have as their main characters Mizrahi Jews; while the fourth is set Turkey and whose characters are a German born man and a Turkish woman. 

All four books open us to an unfamiliar culture and rich history, far different than the ones we know best.