A Jewish delegation led by Sir Moses Montefiore and Adolphe Cremieux was sent to the Middle East in the hope of discovering the real murderers.

The French consul, the representative of the nation that had given the world the Rights of Man and had been the first to grant Jews the full right of citizenship, was the chief prosecutor. The British consul, serving under the enlightened Lord Palmerston and the new Queen, aided the prosecution. The American consul supported the charges. The Sultan, famed for the excesses of his court and his arbitrary rule of the vast Ottoman empire, and the Austrians, who tightly restricted the rights of Jews in their own empire, defended the accused Jews. The venerable London Times printed reports that defied its liberal reputation, while conservative Austrian and French newspapers took the equally unexpected opposite stand. As news of the Damascus accusations spread, diplomacy and confused loyalties made for strange bedfellows. Misperceptions, mutual fears, and isolation fueled the passions in Damascus.

"She was my crescent moon. I could not see a future for Syria, but I saw a future for us." Damascus, 2011: Equal parts heartwarming and heart-wrenching, Shawn Tenbrink's unforgettable debut novel captures the essence of modern civil war and love against unimaginable odds. Based on the author's true story, a U.S. diplomat and Syrian woman embark on a journey under the Assad Regime that will change them both forever. Shawn feels everything that a twenty-something feels as they fall in love: nervous, euphoric, and at home. But nothing is normal about this love story. He is 6,000 miles from home, in a desert city that is 5,000 years old, on the brink of a war that would kill over 300,000 Syrians. He has come to love this city as much as he loves this woman. At any moment, he could lose both.

The anonymous Arabic chronicle presented in this book offers a captivating account of a decisive decade in modern Middle Eastern history. It covers, among other events, the Egyptian invasion of Syria in 1831 and a number of popular uprisings, and includes a first-hand account of the so-called 'Damascus Affair' of 1840, when Jewish citizens of Damascus were put on trial for ritual murder. The study highlights that the chronicle not only provides evidence for historical facts, but also documents the ways Arab inhabitants of the Levant discussed the social and political realities of their time. Two different versions of the text have been preserved and both are likely to have been intended for public reading in coffeehouses and literary salons. The variations between them show how the text was revised to take into account the expectations of various readers and listeners. The English part of the book contains an extensive introduction and a translation of the chronicle, together with a chronology, a biographical appendix, maps and a glossary. The Arabic part comprises an edition of the two versions of the chronicle in synoptic form. -- Publisher.

Three Jews, Alfred Dreyfus, Mendel Beilis, and Leo Frank, were charged with heinous crimes in the generation before World War I, Dreyfus of treason in France, Beilis of ritual murder in Russia, and Frank of the murder of a young girl in the United States. Quite aside from the lurid details and sensational charges, larger issues emerged, among them the power of modern anti-Semitism, the sometimes tragic conflict between the freedom of the press and the protection of individual rights, the unpredictable reactions of individuals when subjected to extreme situations, and the inevitable ambiguities of campaigns for truth and justice when political advantage is to be gained from them. In attempting to untangle myth and reality many surprises emerge; heroes appear less heroic and villains less villainous, while real factors appear more important than most accounts of the affairs have recognised.

In 1840s Damascus, Aslan Farhi leads a miserable life. Despised by his wealthy father, bullied by his siblings, and humiliated by his mother, he forms a close friendship with another boy, only for him to mysteriously disappear when their relationship becomes public knowledge. Aslan is horrified when his father arranges for him to be married to the rabbi's daughter, but the ordeal of the wedding is unexpectedly lightened by the presence of an exotic dancer, Umm-Jihan, with whom he becomes entranced. But all is not as it seems and, confused and unhappy, Aslan embarks on an ill-advised relationship with an Italian monk, with disastrous consequences.

The last two centuries have witnessed a radical transformation of Jewish life. Marked by such profound events as the Holocaust and the establishment of the state of Israel, Judaism's long journey through the modern age has been a complex and tumultuous one, leading many Jews to ask themselves not only where they have been and where they are going, but what it means to be a Jew in today's world. Tracing the Jewish experience in the modern period and illustrating the transformation of Jewish religion, culture, and identity from the 17th century to 1948, the updated edition of this critically acclaimed volume of primary materials remains the most complete sourcebook on modern Jewish history. Now expanded to supplement the most vital documents of the first edition, The Jew in the Modern World features hitherto unpublished and inaccessible sources concerning the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe, women in Jewish history, American Jewish life, the Holocaust, and Zionism and the nascent Jewish community in Palestine on the eve of the establishment of the State of Israel. The documents are arranged chronologically in each of eleven chapters and are meticulously and extensively annotated and cross-referenced in order to provide the student with ready access to a wide variety of issues, key historical figures, and events. Complete with some twenty useful tables detailing Jewish demographic trends, this is a unique resource for any course in Jewish history, Zionism and Israel, the Holocaust, or European and American history.