Yekkes and Arabs; encounters between German-speaking jews and Arab Palestinians in British mandate Palestine, 1920-1948

This thesis examines the history of the Yekke-Arab encounter in British Mandate Palestine which is largely absent from historiography. The study outlines how the German-speaking immigrants, known as Yekkes, responded to and interacted with the local Arab (Muslim, Christian and to an extent Jewish) Palestinian population. Drawing from exemplary individual stories of how the German Jews met their new neighbours, this dissertation provides a cursory overview of the extent and nature of these encounters and demonstrates that the Yekke-Arab encounter underpinned German Jewish life in the Mandate. The thesis addresses the profound impact the political and cultural contexts of Weimar and Nazi Germany had in shaping the Yekke-Arab encounter. The thesis ultimately argues that the Yekkes experienced their encounter with the Arab world in a particular way that was distinct from that of other Jewish population groups in the Yishuv.