Mapping as the Art of Listening to Jewish Mediterranean Migrations

How can we make sense of both large-scale migration phenomena as well as the unique, individual fragments which composed them? When reading history from an anthropological perspective, how can we draw meaningful connections between ordinary life trajectories and larger societal issues? In this chapter, I discuss maps and mapping in the context of contemporary Jewish migrations (and recollections thereof) from North Africa and the Middle East across the Mediterranean and examine the map&letter Ze haya be-leil Shabbat, The Eve of the Shabbat. In the context of research-creation practices, creative mapping represents a powerful way to train, in sociologist Les Back terms, our art of listening, that is the ability to see how individual trajectories can shed light on larger socio-historical phenomena.