A Scholar and a Leader: Abraham Elmaleh (1885–1967) across Ottoman, British, and Israeli Eras

• Applicant: Tamir Karkason, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 576871300

The proposed project offers the first comprehensive historical-biographical study of Abraham Elmaleh (1885–1967), a key figure in the Sephardi-Mizrahi intelligentsia in Palestine and early Israel. Interpreting Elmaleh as a Mediterranean Jewish intellectual shaped by movement across empires and nationals, the project explores how such trajectories enabled critical engagement with “Western-centric” models of Jewish modernity. Elmaleh exemplifies a broader cohort of Ottoman and post-Ottoman Jewish intellectuals whose work emerged from multilingual environments, communal institutions, and regional contexts. By analyzing Elmaleh’s intellectual and political activity together, the project contributes to current efforts to reframe Jewish modernity through transregional, Mediterranean, and non-hegemonic perspectives. Born in Jerusalem to a rabbinic family of Moroccan origin, Elmaleh became a leading public figure, ultimately representing the Sephardi community in the Executive of the National Committee and in Israel’s first Parliament (Knesset). In parallel, he authored a body of historical, ethnographic, and lexicographic scholarship that asserted the centrality of Jews from Muslim lands in modern Jewish history and provided a platform for articulating their cultural and political aspirations in a rapidly transforming landscape. His writings in Hebrew, Arabic, French, and Ladino engaged both local audiences and broader networks spanning Sephardi, Mizrahi, Middle Eastern, and Francophone communities. While Elmaleh’s printed work has received some scholarly attention, his extensive archival footprint—scattered across six collections in Jerusalem—remains entirely unexplored. Drawing on both Elmaleh’s printed works and his archival legacy, the project reassesses the cultural and political roles played by Sephardi and Mizrahi actors in the Yishuv, often marginalized in both Jewish and Middle Eastern historiography. In doing so, the project also contributes to broader debates on cultural modernity, communal political strategies, and multilingual intellectual life across the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman Middle East.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants