Acknowledgements
This book was written during my Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, with the revision and editing processes occurring during my FCT Fellowship at the Nova University Lisbon. Paradoxically, I started writing a book about German Jews when I left Germany, where I had been since completing my PhD in 2014. In Germany, I devoted myself to studying German-Jewish authors and the interplay between language, identity, and community. At the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, the Institute of Jewish Philosophy and Religion, and the Manuscript Centre in Hamburg, I not only found the leads to develop my research, but also gained extensive knowledge. The people I met during these years were crucial to my work; without them, it would have been impossible to write this book. This study has been greatly enriched by the illuminating works of and my meaningful encounters with Agata Bielik-Robson, Asher D. Biemann, Lisa Block de Behar, Aryeh and Sara Botwinick, Daniel Boyarin, Roi Benbassat (z”l), Hanna Delf von Wolzogen, Donatella Di Cesare, Pablo Dreizik, Liliana Ruth Feierstein, Yemima Hadad, Gerald Hartung, Warren Zev Harvey, Vivian Liska, Michael Löwy, Elad Lapidot, Thomas Meyer, Paul Mendes-Flohr (z”l), Bill Rebiger, and Elliot R. Wolfson.
I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my colleagues at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies and the Institute of Jewish Philosophy and Religion, as well as to my students in Hamburg. My appreciation also goes to Santiago Zabala, to the dedicated administrative team at Pompeu Fabra University, who provided unwavering support during my Marie Curie Fellowship, and to Camil Ungureano for his meticulous review and invaluable insights. Additionally, I am thankful for the generous support from the IFILNOVA Institute throughout my FCT Fellowship.
I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my friends and colleagues Cedric Cohen-Skalli and Guido Bartolucci, with whom I have had the privilege of working for many years and who have greatly enriched my professional journey. Both believed in me long before I planned to write this book, and our intellectual exchanges and their extraordinary encouragement have been a cornerstone of my trajectory. I am also profoundly grateful for the genuine friendship and intellectual exchange of those whose presence has made my academic and life journey far more enjoyable over the years. Thus, special thanks to Cristina Basili, Federica Buongiorno, Marco Carassai, Pietro Castelli, Mickey Engel, Caterina Froio, Laura Garufi, Ambrogio Garofano, Francesco Grisolia, Antonio Lucci, Ze’ev Strauss, and Michela Torbidoni, whose encouragement and nearness have been invaluable sources of strength and inspiration throughout my academic trajectory.
For the process of conceiving, writing, and publishing this book, I owe a great debt to Sarah Wobick-Segev for her invaluable assistance, to Helena Schöb at Brill for her consistent support, and to Katharine Handel for her meticulous and diligent copyediting. This work would not have been possible without Giuseppe Veltri, whose vision for MCAS created the perfect environment for me to advance my career by learning every day and embracing the concept of conducting this research. His friendship, advice, and constant encouragement from the outset have been extremely significant to me.
In the Sephardic south—a region steeped in centuries of Jewish history, yet where traces of Jewish heritage and thought are largely overlooked—I often felt isolated during the years I spent writing the book. Thus, I am profoundly grateful to my family and to all of my friends who, during my wandering across four countries over the last decade, have made me feel at home in countless ways and supported me from afar.
I completed this manuscript amidst the magnificent silence of the Stabi in Berlin—one of my favourite places in the world—during summer 2023, while adopting a perspective that focused on a “birth-line” rather than a “dead-line,” a time during which I experienced the female power of creation and the overwhelming joys of pregnancy. This book is dedicated to José María Sánchez de León Serrano, whose genius, gentleness, and profound love were indispensable in its conception and creation. Our lengthy nighttime discussions about its content, along with our shared reflections on my exile in the south and my nostalgia for the north, profoundly shaped this work. Without his unwavering love, writing this book—a largely collective endeavour—would have been an insurmountable task. After I submitted the manuscript, our son Diego arrived, becoming our quiet revolution and our sweet source of inspiration. Our life together is the most precious gift I could ever receive.
This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101027857. The revision of this work was conducted while I was a Research Associate at Nova University of Lisbon. Therefore, this research was also supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under project reference 2020.01845 CEECIND, with DOI identifier 10.54499/2020.01845.CEEC IND/CP1586/CT0009 (https://doi.org/10.54499/2020.01845.CEECIND/CP1586/CT0009).