From Jews to Muslims: Twentieth-Century Converts to Islam

From Jews to Muslims: Twentieth-Century Converts to Islam tells the stories of twentieth century Jewish intellectuals and activists and their various and complex reasons for converting to the Islamic faith. This book opens with a chapter on the work of late nineteenth century European Jewish scholars of Arabic and Islam who evinced a deep interest in Islam, but did not leave Judaism for the ’sister’ religion that so fascinated them. Their work examined Jewish-Muslim parallels and differences, and they brought forth the idea that the Convivencia, the imagined Golden Age of Muslim-Jewish intellectual and artistic cooperation, could serve as a model for contemporary inter-religious relations. In the twentieth century a new tendency emerged, that of Jews in Europe, the US, and Israel who left Judaism to become Muslims. Zionism struck each of these converts as deeply problematic, and by becoming Muslim, these converts understood that they were joining a tolerant universalist religion that rejected what they saw as ’Jewish particularism.’ Whether the geopolitical events of the twentieth century confirmed, complicated, or refuted their aspirations will be revealed in this book’s compelling narratives.

Shalom Goldman is professor of religion at Middlebury College.