On The Nightstand Thursdays: The Flying Camel

I will open by admitting that I haven't yet read this book. But, It was just recommended to me by someone I trust to not recommend crappy reads, so I'm going to put my stamp on it because this is a topic I've been really interested in for some time, the topic of expanding awareness of "Jewish" looks like.

Of The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage, edited by Loolwa Khazzoom, trusted recommend-er said, "I really appreciated the collection of essays, and how they treated struggling with being in the States and figuring out Jewish identity in an environment that didn't realize there were Persian, Libyan, etc. Jews." The publisher, more specifically states:

"Many of us have stereotypes of what 'Jewish' looks like—and for many of us that image is white and European. Yet, with the blossoming Jewish multiculturalism movement, led by the dynamic Loolwa Khazzoom, the myth of a 'monolithic Jewish community' is about to be debunked. Focusing on the experiences of Jewish women of two rich and varied regions, The Flying Camel reveals the hidden worlds of Jewish women often misunderstood or maligned by both the cultures in which they live and the European-Jewish community. Stories include one woman and her family’s flight from persecution in Libya, a writer’s exploration of the category 'Arab Jew,' and a lightskinned, Moroccan-born woman trying to 'pass' in order to gain acceptance among European Jews in Tehran"

Editor Loolwa Khazzoom (if she wants to trade names with me for, maybe a day or so, I would love it) has a more in-depth description of the book on her website, and you can find the book online at Amazon (as we already know), Powell's and the like.