Mazaltob
A Novel

It is an amazing peek into the life and the debates of Jewish Tetouan in the early 20th century, but I found its constant orientalism and rejection of halachah as purely superstition and prejudice to be hard to swallow as a modern reader.......more

This book is so beautifully written that the third-person narrative feels like poetry. It is short book that gives deep insights into Sephardic Jewish life and tradition in northern Africa. The story is touching and feels personal as you root for the protagonist. It also shows how in the 20th centur......more

During the past few decades, scholars and feminists has been recovering work written by Jewish women during the first half of the 20th century. The majority of these books are from the Ashkenazic world, which makes the new edition of the novel “Mazaltob” by Blanche Bendahan, translated and edited by......more

Mazaltob is a novel about a young woman in an insular Jewish community in Morocco, set in the early 20th century. First published in 1930, it is amazingly ahead of its time, discussing religious convictions, intermarriage, the second class status of women, arranged marriages, and the lives of women......more

An evocative novel that expresses the dilemma of Sephardi women who are placed between modernity and tradition. The descriptions of the traditions of daily life are informative, rich, and nostalgia-invoking. The author clearly indicates the prison of Mazaltob's circumstances and mind that bind her t......more