No Memory, No Future: Memoirs of Sephardic Women Published in the Past Twenty Years

Abstract

Throughout the 20^th century, as well as in these early years of the 21^th, several memoirs, autobiographical novels and orally-transmitted testimonies by Sephardic Jews have been published. These people knew the traditional community lifestyle of the Ottoman Empire before living through the social, cultural and political changes around the turn of the 20^th century which brought about the decomposition of their Sephardic communities. Later they recreate —often in the new countries where they settled— this world that disappeared. The author analyzes here more than a dozen of such works, published by Sephardic women between 1987 and 2006. She calls attention to the way these women reconstruct their past and their identity in evoking the lifestyle, manners and customs of their original communities. Their testimonies differ significantly from those of the men, especially with regard to subjects such as family and social relationships.