When the Middle East meets the West. Books to read this Winter

In ’The Merchant of Venice’, William Shakespeare challenged the Anti-Semitic prejudices of Tudor England by asking the question: “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons”. 

These books take us back to the 20th century and explore the various “dimensions” of Middle Eastern and Western Jewish communities. These are all available in bookshops and also see ‘Iraqi Jewish Writers’ by Banipal, a unique feature magazine on Iraqi Jewish writers which includes short stories, excerpts from novels and poetry.