esmeir@bgu.ac.il

Orcid​: 0000-0002-9610-7472​

Specializes in the history of Jews from Arab countries, especially Iraq, in the 20th century.
 She has recently completed a book about the absorption of Iraqi Jews in Israel that deals with subjects of immigration, culture and identity.  Her new research focuses on the mass immigration of Yemenite Jewry to Israel.

 
Selected Publications

Books

1.     (1993) התנועה הציונית ויהודי עיראק, 1941- 1950
 Zionism and the Jews of Iraq, 1941-1950, Tel-Aviv: Tel Aviv University and Am-Oved Publishers, 1993. 328 pp.

2.   (2004) Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s, London and New York: Routledge, 2004. 285 pp. Book Cover

3.    (2009) בין בגדאד לרמת גן: יוצאי עיראק בישראל

Between Baghdad and Ramat-Gan: Iraqi Jews in Israel, Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi Publishers, 2009. 420 pp.

4.  (2012)יציאת יהודי תימן: מבצע כושל ומיתוס מכונן  
The Exodus of the Yemenite Jews: Failed Operation and Formative Myth , Resling Publishers, Tel Aviv 2012. 340 pp.

5. The “Magic Carpet" Exodus of Yemenite Jewry: An Israeli Formative Myth, Sussex Academic Press, 2014. 256 pp.

6.  Gradus, Yehuda, Meir-Glitzenstein Esther (eds.), באר שבע: מטרופולין בהתהוות  
Beer Sheva: Metropolis in the Making, Beer Sheva: Ben Gurion University Publishers, 2008. 333 pp.

7.  Zameret Zvi, Halamish Aviva, Meir-Glitzenstein Esther (eds.), עיירות הפיתוח
Development Towns in Israel, Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi Publishers, 2009. 449 pp.

 

Articles

1.  (2000) “Class and Ethnicity in the Struggle of Iraqi Immigrants in Beer Sheva, 1950-1955", Israel Studies, 5.2, pp. 78-106.

2.  (2001) “From Eastern Europe to the Middle East: The Reversal in Zionist Policy vis-à-vis the Jews of Islamic Countries", The Journal of Israeli History, 20.1, pp. 24-48.

3.  (2002) “Our Dowry - Identity and Memory among Iraqi Immigrants in Israel", Middle Eastern Studies, 38.2, pp. 165-186.

4.  (2003) “The West in the East: Patterns of Cultural Change as a Personal Kibbutz Experience", J. Tydor-Baumel and T. Cohen (eds.): Gender, Place and Memory in the Modern Jewish Experience, Re-Placing Ourselves, London and Portland: Vallentine Mitchell, pp. 213-239.

5. (2004) "מחויבויות מתנגשות: המנהיגות המזרחית במפא"י בשנותיה הראשונות של המדינה", “The Mizrahi Leadership in Mapai", Israel, Studies in Zionism and the State of Israel, History, Society, Culture, 5, pp. 63-97.

6. (2005) "כאן אוכלים בסכין ומזלג" “'Here They Eat with a Knife and a Fork'– East and West in the Inter-cultural Encounter in the State of Israel", Iyunim Bitkumat Israel, Thematic Series, A. Barely. D. Gutwein and T. Friling (eds.), Society and Economy in Israel: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, The Ben-Gurion Research Institute and Yad Ben-Zvi, pp. 615-644.

7. (2005) "מנהיגות ציונית וקומוניסטית במבחן קליטת עולי עיראק בישראל" “Zionist and Communist Leaders and Their Role in the Process of Integration", Pe'amim, 101-102, pp. 5-38.

8.  (2007) “From Refugees to Zionists and Back Again", in: A. Kacowicz and P. Lutomski (eds.), Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study.  Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, pp. 183-209.

9. (2008) “Ideology, Culture and Gender – Iraqi Women Immigrants in the Kibbutz during the 1940s" in: R. Kark, M. Shilo and G. Hasan-Rokem (eds.), Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel, Waltham, Massachusetts:  Brandeis University Press, pp. 83-99.

10. (2009)  "מפא"י והמנהיגות המזרחית בעיר פיתוח: באר שבע כמקרה בוחן", “Mapai and the Mizrahi Leadership in a Development Town: Beer Sheva as a Case Study", Z. Zameret, A. Halamish, E. Meir-Glitzenstein (eds.), Development Towns in Israel, Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi Publishers, pp.259-279.

11. (2009), 'La Fin de Babylone: Le Choc du Nationalisme en Irak', Shmuel Trigano (ed.) La Fin du Judaisme en Terres d'Islam, Denoel, Paris, pp. 87-124.

12.  (2010) הציונות בעיראק – מלאומיות יהודית לתנועה חלוצית"", “Zionism in Iraq: From Jewish Nationalism to a Pioneer Movement", A. Gal (ed.), Regional Aspects of Zionism, The Shazar Center, vol. 2, pp. 71-123 .

13. (2010) "The Baghdad Pogrom and the Zionist Policy", Shmuel Moreh and Zvi Yehuda (eds.) Al-Farhud: The 1941 Pogrom in Iraq, Magness Press, Jerusalem, pp. 186-206.

14.  (2011) "Operation Magic Carpet: Constructing the Myth of the Magical Immigration of Yemenite Jews to Israel", Israel Studies, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 149-173.

15. (2012) "יהודי עיראק והמאבק לדמוקרטיה ולשיוויון" “Iraqi Jews and the Strive for Democracy and Equality", M. Lissak and A. Gal (eds.), Against All Odds: The Historical Foundations of the Israeli Democracy, Yad Ben Zvi Publishers.

16.  (2012) "Zionist or Refugees: The Historical Aspect of the Uprooting of the Jews from Arab Countries and their Immigration to Israel", Justice: The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Spring 2012 No. 50, pp. 21-28. Zionists or Refugees

17. (2014) Einwanderer oder Flüchtlinge?. Geschichte und Identität der Juden aus muslimischen Ländern in Israel, Trumah, Zeitschrift der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, vol. 22, pp.103-114.

18. (2015) "A Different Mizrahi Story: How the Iraqis Became Israelis", in: Fran Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, Moshe Shokeid (eds.), Toward an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel, University of Nebraska Press, 2015, pp. 107-122.

19.  (2015) "Longing for the Aromas of Baghdad: Food, Emigration and Transformation in the Lives of the Iraqi Jews in Israel in the 1950s", Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 28, pp. 89-109.

 


Research Interests

Iraqi Jews in the 20th century.

The Zionist activities in Iraq.

Identity, memory and history of Iraqi Jews in Israel.

The immigration of Yemenite Jewry to the State of Israel.

Mizrahim and the ethnic question in Israel.

 

Professional Activities

2003-2005   Head of the Program for Israel Studies at BGU

2007-2008   Head of the Program for Israel Studies at BGU