“Mosaic Arabs” between Total and Conditioned Arabization: The Participation of Jews in Arabic Press and Journalism in Muslim Societies during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

Jewish involvement in Arabic press and journalism accompanied the process of modernization of Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa from the second half of the nineteenth century. There was a connection between the nature of the Jews' involvement in the canonical Arab culture and the development of the Arabic-Jewish press and journalism: wherever Jews tried to integrate socially, politically and above all culturally into society, there were always active Jewish owners of Arabic newspapers and periodicals as well as editors and journalists writing in standard literary Arabic (fu ā). But wherever Jews showed no interest in the canonical cultural activities of the relevant society, only periodicals in Judeo-Arabic dialects written in Hebrew letters are to be found, in addition to newspapers in other languages. However, due to the gradual demise of Arab-Jewish culture because of the national conflict in the Middle East, Jewish involvement in Arabic press and journalism is coming to an end. The distinguishing feature of the Muslim-Jewish symbiosis under the Arab cultural umbrella up to the twentieth century was that the great majority of Jews under Islamic rule adopted Arabic as their language. This symbiosis does not exist in our time because Arabic is gradually disappearing as a mother tongue mastered by Jews.