Sultan's Communists

Alma Rachel Heckman is Neufeld-Levin Chair of Holocaust Studies and Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

• The Sultan's Communists: An Introduction1. Choices: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Interwar Morocco2. Possibilities: World War II and Moroccan Jewish Belonging3. Tactics: Jews and Moroccan Independence4. Splinters: Disillusion and Jewish Political Life in the New Morocco5. Co-optation: The Moroccan Cold War, Israel, and Human RightsScarification: A Conclusion

"With meticulousness and fervor, Alma Rachel Heckman offers a unique historical entry to North Africa's Jewish communities. Written from the perspective of a marginal group within the Jewish community of Morocco, The Sultan's Communists provides a new and refreshing understanding of minority politics in colonial and post-colonial societies. A significant contribution to Jewish studies in the Middle East and North Africa."—Aomar Boum, University of California, Los Angeles "The Sultan's Communists tells the paradoxical and largely unknown story of a group of Moroccan Jewish militants who identified with Morocco's national liberation movement and remained in Morocco as patriotic citizens after independence when the majority of Jews were emigrating to Israel. Alma Rachel Heckman's riveting account of political activism, imprisonment, torture, exile, and cooptation reveals the possibilities and limitations of Jewish belonging in an Arab Muslim country."—Daniel J. Schroeter, University of Minnesota "In this innovative study about Moroccan communist Jews, Alma Rachel Heckman explores radical leftist movements, their struggles against fascism, and their battles for national liberation and social justice. The book masterfully reconstructs the nonsectarian vision these Jewish radicals developed, illustrating how communism served as a patriotic option for Moroccan Jews. A unique and compelling tribute to the activism and heroism of Moroccan radical Jews."—Orit Bashkin, University of Chicago "Alma Rachel Heckman has written an original and important book concerning the role that radicalized Jews played in Morocco's struggle for independence from France and in newly independent Morocco."—Sheldon Kirschner, The Times of Israel "As a historian, Heckman does a very fine job in offering to the reader a detailed account of the delicate twists and turns of every actor. She manages to see both the structural similarities between them as well as the peculiar idiosyncrasies. Equally important, she contextualizes these marginal actors so to comprehend their actions and utterances in the broader picture. By doing so, she demonstrates how one can focus on a marginal—some would say neglected—group of people and understand grand-scale processes in Morocco."—André Levy, Journal of Church and State "Alma Rachel Heckman has written an original and important book concerning the role that radicalized Jews played in Morocco's struggle for independence from France and in newly independent Morocco."—Sheldon Kirshner, Sheldon Kirshner Journal "[The Sultan's Communists] is an outstanding study, which is based on intensive research of a wealth of information that the author gathered in archives, interviews, the contemporary press and scholarly books. [Heckman] brings all these data together and analyzes it brilliantly. Accordingly, the book is an essential contribution to the historiography of Moroccan Jewry."—Orit Ouaknine Yekutieli, Quest: Issues in Contemporary Jewish History "Alma Heckman provides a fascinating account that is meticulously researched, with rich analysis and work in archives in Morocco, Israel, France, Spain, and the US; brilliantly written in compelling and beautiful prose, this book is recommended to readers interested in Moroccan history, Jewish history, scholars of social and popular movements, and more."—Lior Sternfeld, American Historical Review