קבוצות תת-אתניות יהודיות במרחבים על -לאומיים: ‏מ‏פגשים בין יהודים ממזרח אירופה ליהודי ביירות בין שתי מלחמות העולם, 1920-1940

The article employs a micro historical approach to the monitoring ofdiverse encounters that took place between Jewish immigrants fromEastern Europe who went to the Land of Israel and Jewish immigrantsfrom areas formerly dominated by the Ottoman Empire that occurred intransnational spaces under British and French Mandatory control.While hundreds of young Ashkenazi students enjoyed the local Jewishcommunity’s hospitality during their studies at Beirut’s AmericanUniversity, Lebanon’s tourism industry attracted many EasternEuropean vacationers to Lebanese resorts including Jewish-ownedhotels. The Jewish sub-ethnic immigrant groups living in bothtransnational Mandatory spaces brought in a variety of individualresources (real capital, social capital and human capital, includingprofessional and linguistic skills) that well served diverse businessenterprises.The most famous of them was a match factory established at theinitiative of the Weizmann brothers in the Lebanese Maronite Christianvillage of Damour, near Beirut. This enterprise called “El-Bark” inArabic meaning ‘light’ or ‘fire’ became burned into the collectivememory of Lebanese Jews as the Lebanese branch of Weizmann’s“Nur” match factory in Acre. Its loyal Jewish technical workforcewhom the Weizmann brothers recruited from their places of origin inEastern Europe were well integrated into the Jewish environment inBeirut. These immigrants’ previous match production experience andtheir ability to recruit cheap local labor through their fellow Jewishnetworks made the Damour match factory a success.