Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century
In conversation with Janine Zacharia

6:00 pm: Complimentary wine and cheese reception
7:00 pm: Talk

The Levy family established itself in Salonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece) in the 18th century and for two centuries published books and newspapers for the region’s Sephardic Jews. With the Ottoman Empire’s collapse, the Levys scattered throughout the world but kept in touch through letters. Drawing on this rich correspondence, Stein, the award-winning author of Extraterritorial Dreams uses the family’s experience to trace the history of Sephardic Jews through the twentieth century, showing how individual lives were affected by world wars, shifting political boundaries and the Holocaust – which wiped out several branches of the Levy family.

Janine Zacharia is the Carlos Kelly McClatchy Visiting Lecturer at Stanford University, and writes regularly about foreign affairs, the intersection of technology and national security, and media trends for the San Francisco Chronicle, Slate and other news outlets.