Beginning in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab/Muslim lands came to Israel along with Holocaust survivors and other refugees, resulting in a doubling of Israel’s population during its first four years. But how could such a young country absorb this enormous influx?
MA’ABAROT is the story of the controversial “transit” camps where many of these early refugees and immigrants, particularly those from Arab lands, were taken. This award-winning documentary unravels the many stories of the camp residents, discovering surprising new details, exposing prejudices, and revealing rifts among Israelis that exist until today. It is the first documentary to tell this little-known story.
MEET SPECIAL GUEST DR. RON DUNCAN HART
Ron Duncan Hart, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist from Indiana University, an author and filmmaker. He did postdoctoral work on Jewish history at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford. He is Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies, and former President of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.
His research includes the American South, South America, Spain, and North Africa with a focus on religion and race between Jews, Christians, and Muslims He is an award-winning author, His most recent book, Jews and the Arab World: Intertwined Legacies was a Best Book Award Winner.
MEET AMIT SADAN, Ph.D.
Amit Sadan is a postdoctoral fellow in the International Studies Institute at the University of New Mexico. His fields of expertise are the modern and early modern Middle East, environmental history, and Israel Studies. As part of the Israel Institute’s postdoctoral teaching fellowship program, Amit teaches at UNM a variety of courses about Israeli society and culture, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and others.