The Tora enjoins the Israelites upon their entrance into the Land of Israel to love the stranger—36 times. Moses gives the people a historical context to this commandment, he reminds them to love or in some instances to not oppress the stranger “for you were a stranger in the land of Egypt.” This thread of…
Ronnie Perelis
About Author
Ronnie Perelis
Ronnie Perelis is the Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Abraham and Jelena (Rachel) Alcalay Associate Professor of Sephardic Studies at Yeshiva University and the director of the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs. He loves exploring the complexity and dynamism of Sephardic history with his graduate and undergraduate students at Yeshiva University. His research investigates connections between Iberian and Jewish culture during the medieval and early modern periods. His essays on Sephardic history analyze the dynamics of religious transformation within the context of the crypto-Jewish experience. His book, Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic: Blood and Faith (Indiana University Press) explores family and identity in the Sephardic Atlantic world. He is currently working on a critical edition and translation of the rediscovered manuscripts of the sixteenth-century Mexican crypto-Jewish thinker and poet Luis de Carvajal.
