A Minority's Minority: An Ethnographic Study of Sephardic Jewish Community in Atlanta

Zachary Dooley

doi:10.31922/disc4.3

Abstract

This paper explores the Sephardic Community in Atlanta through the lens of an ethnographic study of a micro-culture. The methodology that was employed in order to complete this research was that of a standard ethnography, i.e. interviews, observations, and comparison with current research on the community. Throughout the paper, the Sephardic culture is contrasted with its larger Eastern European counterparts, the Ashekenazim. Their cultures, as they exist internationally as well as the Atlanta area, are a focal point of the paper so as to have a well established point of reference to which to compare the Sephardic Atlanta culture. The paper allows for further discussion and understanding of the Sephardic people in the United States and more specifically in the greater Atlanta area, where they are the minority of a minority.

Highlights

The main focus of this ethnography is the Sephardic Jewish Community in the greater Atlanta area, mostly concentrated inside Interstate 285, known as “the perimeter” throughout the paper
From the year 700, they found themselves under somewhat tolerant Muslim rule throughout the peninsula, until their expulsion from Spain by the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabel in 1492, after the Reconquista of Christian lands (Hualde, 2010)
The Alhambra Decree issued by the Catholic Monarchs stated that all Jews, and Muslims, still residing in the kingdom would be forced to convert to Catholicism (Azevedo, 2008)

Summary

Introduction

The main focus of this ethnography is the Sephardic Jewish Community in the greater Atlanta area, mostly concentrated inside Interstate 285, known as “the perimeter” throughout the paper. This investigation includes insights into the relation between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews in the context of the American South, guiding values of the community, as well as the linguistic landscape of their community with relationship to their heritage. The Alhambra Decree issued by the Catholic Monarchs stated that all Jews, and Muslims, still residing in the kingdom would be forced to convert to Catholicism (Azevedo, 2008) They were cast into a diaspora even more sparsely concentrated than that of the Jewish community in general, and around 100,000 Jews fled the kingdom instead of converting to Catholicism (Pérez, Hochroth, & Nader, 2007)

Methods

Results

Conclusion