Bryan K. Roby is an associate professor of Jewish and Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After earning his PhD at the University of Manchester (UK), he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at New York University and was a visiting fellow at the University of Michigan's Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies. His research focuses on the history of race/racism, Black diasporas, and Jewish identity in Israel/Palestine and North Africa from the nineteenth century to the present.
""A fantastically interesting book that suggests significant shifts in how we think about a central and important topic in Israeli studies."" —Aziza Khazzoom, Israel Studies Review ""Roby effectively captures the rebellion by Mizrahi activists and the rise of a nascent civil rights movement. Well written and supported with relevant data and sources, this work . . . offers keen insight into the ongoing struggle over ethnicity, religion, class, and ideology in this present-day, still troubled nation. Highly recommended."" —Choice ""With modesty, care, reservation and empirical rigor, Roby has re-conceptualized our understanding of the nascent formation of Israel’s Mizrahi collectivity. His utilization of a wealth of hitherto unexplored documentation from the archives of the Israeli police—coupled with his critical scrutiny of additional primary source material in Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, and Judeo-Arabic—have produced a focused, unpretentious, and highly enjoyable book."" —Moshe Behar, coeditor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought