Described as “a deeply personal exploration of family, empire, art and identity,” the book investigates “the disruption of Jewish Muslim life in Algeria and broadly in the Maghreb and the Middle East by two colonial projects: French rule and the Zionist colonization of Palestine” through a series of intergenerational letters.  

Held on September 20th, the symposium consisted of panels in conversation with cross-disciplinary scholars, an incredible Q/A, and culminated in a book signing. 16 artists and scholars across departmental and disciplinary affiliations engaged with the 16 open letters/chapters composing Professor Ariella Aïsha Azoulay latest book The Jewelers of the Ummah: A Potential History of the Jewish Muslim World (Verso, 2024), the book, in the form of epistolary/theoretical responses, narrative and historical speculations, anticolonial imaginaries, and more. Comparative Literature PhD student, Ahmad Abu Ahmad, organized the event with Adel Ben Bella alongside the MCM, Comp Lit, History, French and Francophone Studies departments. Joining Azoulay in conversation were Ahmad Abu Ahmad (Organizer), Adel Ben Bella (Organizer), Elizabeth Berman, Kate Creasey, Harley Elias, Jana Omar Elkhatib, Ana Furtado, Elisa Giardina-Papa, Macarena Gomez-Barris, Yannis Hamilakis, Jill Jarvis, Katerina Ramos-Jordan, Thangam Ravindranathan, Sherena Razek, Zoé Samudzi, Amelle Zeroug.