Matthias B Lehmann Holy Land Emissaries sku-37784407

Emissaries from the Holy Land: The Sephardic Diaspora and the Practice of Pan-Judaism in the Eighteenth Century by Matthias B Lehmann, sku-37784407, is listed under African History Books. Drawing on archival research and rarely studied sources, it examines fundraising missions sent by Jewish leaders in Palestine and their allies in Istanbul during the eighteenth century.

Rabbinic emissaries sought donations for impoverished people in the Land of Israel from communities around the Mediterranean, along the Atlantic seaboard, in the Caribbean and in India. The book traces how the network was organized and how its members built trust across distances.

It considers Sephardic, Ashkenazi and North African emissaries and communities, their competing claims for support, and changing views of Jewish identity and solidarity from 1720 to 1820. Lehmann also examines how Jews of the early modern period related to Jerusalem, the Land of Israel and one another.