About Drora Arussy

Drora Arussy, EdD, MA, MJS, is the Executive Director of Unity Through Diversity Institute. She has produced eight online courses and organized international academic conferences in NY, across Israel, Cambridge (UK),and Rabat (Morocco). Drora hosts the Reclaiming Identity podcast. She is the co-editor of the Jews and Muslims in Morocco: Their Intersecting Worlds (Lexington Press, 2021) and author of Leah Nassi of Lisbon, a historical novel (Amazon, 2022). Her passion for pride in one’s identity is at the core of her endeavors.

Drora Arussy, EdD, MA, MJS, is the Executive Director of Unity Through Diversity Institute. She has produced eight online courses and organized international academic conferences in NY, across Israel, Cambridge (UK),and Rabat (Morocco). Drora hosts the Reclaiming Identity podcast. She is the co-editor of the Jews and Muslims in Morocco: Their Intersecting Worlds (Lexington Press, 2021) and author of Leah Nassi of Lisbon, a historical novel (Amazon, 2022). Her passion for pride in one’s identity is at the core of her endeavors.

Drora's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Drora:

Debby Koren, "Responsa in a Historical Context: A View of Post-Expulsion Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Communities Through 16th- And 17th-Century Responsa" (Academic Studies Press, 2023)

April 18, 2024

Responsa in a Historical Context

Debby Koren
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Debby Koren's book Responsa in a Historical Context: A View of Post-Expulsion Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Communities Through 16th- And 17th-Century Res…

Chiara Renzo, "Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity" (Routledge, 2023)

March 24, 2024

Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951

Chiara Renzo
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Chiara Renzo's book Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity (Routledge, 2023) focuses on the experiences of th…

Uri Kaufman, "Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East" (St. Martin's Press, 2023)

January 15, 2024

Eighteen Days in October

Uri Kaufman
Hosted by Drora Arussy

October 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dange…

Aviva Ben-Ur and Wim Klooster eds., "Jewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World" (Cornell UP, 2024)

January 13, 2024

Jewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World

Aviva Ben-Ur and Wim Klooster
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Aviva Ben-Ur and Wim Klooster's edited volume Jewish Entanglements in the Atlantic World (Cornell UP, 2024) represents the first collective attempt t…

Bryan Mark Rigg, "The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers: Rebbe Joseph Isaac Schneersohn and His Astonishing Rescue" (UP of Kansas, 2016)

January 7, 2024

The Rabbi Saved by Hitler's Soldiers

Bryan Mark Rigg
Hosted by Drora Arussy

When Hitler invaded Warsaw in the fall of 1939, hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped in the besieged city. The Rebbe Joseph Schneersohn, th…

Abdul Galil Shaif, "South Yemen: Gateway to the World?" (Authorhouse UK, 2022)

December 12, 2023

South Yemen

Abdul Galil Shaif
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Abdul Galil Shaif's book South Yemen: Gateway to the World? (Authorhouse UK, 2022) tells the story of South Yemen. The book traces the history of the …

Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah et al., "Life & Legacy: A Window into Jewish Life Across the Islamic World" (U Groningen Press, 2023)

December 8, 2023

Life & Legacy

Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah, Lucía Farias García, Maxime Heijman, William Whitcombe, and Michel Gordon
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Through stunning images, maps and insightful commentary, Life & Legacy: A Window into Jewish Life Across the Islamic World (U Groningen Press, 2023) o…

Nicholas W. S. Smith, "Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

June 12, 2023

Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea

Nicholas W. S. Smith
Hosted by Drora Arussy
Listen:

Today, the countries bordering the Red Sea are riven with instability. Why are the region's contemporary problems so persistent and interlinked? Throu…

Oded Zinger, "Living with the Law: Gender and Community Among the Jews of Medieval Egypt" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

May 11, 2023

Living with the Law

Oded Zinger
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Living with the Law: Gender and Community Among the Jews of Medieval Egypt (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) explores the marital disputes of Jews in medie…

Laura Arnold Leibman, "Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family" (Oxford UP, 2021)

April 5, 2023

Once We Were Slaves

Laura Arnold Leibman
Hosted by Drora Arussy

An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her …

Sharon Shalom, "From Sinai to Ethiopia: The Halakhic and Conceptual World of the Ethiopian Jews" (Gefen Books, 2016)

March 8, 2023

From Sinai to Ethiopia

Sharon Shalom
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Some two thousand years ago, a group of Jews settled in Ethiopia and was for millennia cut off from the rest of world Jewry, preserving its heritage w…

Meir M. Bar-Asher, "Jews and the Qur'an" (Princeton UP, 2022)

February 1, 2023

Jews and the Qur'an

Meir M. Bar-Asher
Hosted by Drora Arussy

In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Meir Bar-Asher examines how Jews and Judaism are depicted in the Qur'an and later Islamic literature, providi…

Daniel Gross. "A Banker's Journey: How Edmond J. Safra Built a Global Financial Empire" (Radius Book Group, 2022)

December 14, 2022

A Banker's Journey

Daniel Gross
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Who was Edmond J. Safra? "The greatest banker of his generation," in the estimation of a former World Bank President. The founder of four massive fina…

Michael Frank, "One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World" (Simon and Schuster, 2022)

November 17, 2022

One Hundred Saturdays

Michael Frank
Hosted by Drora Arussy

With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Gre…

Alan Verskin, "A Vision of Yemen: The Travels of a European Orientalist and His Native Guide--a Translation of Hayyim Habshush's Travelogue" (Stanford UP, 2019)

October 31, 2022

A Vision of Yemen

Alan Verskin
Hosted by Drora Arussy

In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Ha…

Aviva Ben-Ur, "Jewish Autonomy in a Slave Society: Suriname in the Atlantic World, 1651-1825" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020)

September 30, 2022

Jewish Autonomy in a Slave Society

Aviva Ben-Ur
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Jewish Autonomy in a Slave Society: Suriname in the Atlantic World, 1651-1825 (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020) explores the political and social history o…

Reeva Spector Simon, "The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa: The Impact of World War II" (Routledge, 2019)

September 28, 2022

The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa

Reeva Spector Simon
Hosted by Drora Arussy

Incorporating published and archival material, Reeva Spector Simon's book The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa: The Impact of World War II (Ro…