KIRSTEN E. SCHULZE, The Jews of Lebanon: Between Coexistence and Conflict (Brighton, U.K.: Sussex Academic Press, 2001). Pp. 256. $69.50 cloth.

Extract

The position of Jews in Arab societies is an arena of enduring controversy in Middle East scholarship. In the hands of some writers, the persecution of the Jews by a Muslim majority serves as a central theme and an implicit justification for the Zionist position. Other, more measured studies have emphasized a dynamic of relatively peaceful coexistence, if not always harmony, that presents a more complex and, at the same time, more convincing picture of Jewish life in the Middle East. In The Jews of Lebanon, Kirsten Schulze takes up a position in the second camp in her presentation of a case study in which two large Christian and Muslim communities in a multi-confessional society provide the backdrop.