Jewish family biography receives kudos from Turkey and EU
Ottoman Bank awards $15,000 to Jewish author On December 15, Toronto-based author and geographer Dr. Joseph B. Glass, along with Israeli-born co-author and Hebrew University professor Ruth Kark, will be awarded 15,000 New Turkish Liras
Online, December 13, 2009 (Newswire.com) - While Israel and Turkey's political relations have suffered since Operation Cast Lead, cultural and academic ties between the two countries seem stronger than ever.
On December 15, Toronto-based author and geographer Dr. Joseph B. Glass, along with Israeli-born co-author and Hebrew University professor Ruth Kark, will be awarded 15,000 New Turkish Liras - approximately $15,000 - for their research on the development of banking in Palestine. In their book Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem: The Valero Family 1800-1948 (Gefen Publishing Jerusalem), Kark and Glass present readers with a fascinating look at one of Jerusalem's founding families, the Valeros, who were responsible for establishing the first private bank in Israel.
"The book, however, is not just a look at the family's history" said Kark. "It's a cultural study of the life of a family from the higher echelons of Jerusalem in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century."
"It's a rare glimpse at the day-to-day lives of Jews living in Ottoman-ruled Palestine, and a look at entrepreneurship in the Middle East during this time in history."
The $15,000 prize is awarded to winners of the Best Monograph in the Competition for Research on the History of Banking and Finance, 2008-2009 by the Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre, the European Association for Banking and Financial History (EABH) and the History Foundation of Turkey.
The competition aims to promote academic research on Turkish banking, finance, and economic history, from Ottoman times to the present, and to establish a tradition in this field.
About the Authors:
DR. JOSEPH B. GLASS received his doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has authored five books and numerous articles. Dr. Glass co-authored with Prof. Kark the first volume in this series: Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Eretz Israel: The Amzalak Family, 1816-1918.
RUTH KARK, Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has written and edited twenty books and over 200 articles on the history and historical geography of Palestine and Israel. She is co-editor of the book Jewish Women in the Yishuv and Zionism: A Gender Outlook (2002).
About Gefen Publishing House Ltd.
Gefen Publishing House Ltd. is an English-language publisher with almost three decades of publishing experience. Based in Jerusalem, with offices in New York and the UK, Gefen also distributes books published by other Israeli publishers, in Hebrew, English and other languages.
Gefen Publishing House Ltd. is dedicated to producing a broad range of quality titles relating to Judaism, Jewish thought, Israel and Israeli history. Gefen's aim is not just to publish books but also to use publishing to encourage exports from Israel - Jewish knowledge being primary among them.
Gefen's books are available at Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Ingram and Amazon, as well as at independent bookstores throughout the world.
For further information, or to schedule an interview with the authors, please contact:
Perry Nemirov
Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator
Gefen Publishing House Ltd.
6 Hatzvi St., Jerusalem Israel, 94386
600 Broadway, Lynbrook NY, 11563
TEL: 972-2-538-0247
FAX: 972-2-538-8423
[email protected]
www.gefenpublishing.com
Share:
