ABSTRACT
Yitzhaq Gormezano Goren’s Alexandrian Summer [Qayitz aleksandroni] (1978) portrays a middle-class Westernized Sephardi milieu in Egypt. Although the majority of the novel takes place in Egypt during the summer of 1951, the narrative situates itself within the context of the Israeli society in which it is published. Near the beginning of the novel the narrator articulates that he is motivated to tell this story to counter the Ashkenazi-cultural hegemony in Israel. He explains:
I want to tell the story of the Hamdi-ʿAli family. What is it really, this Hamdi-ʿAli family? They are the joy of life, a Mediterranean vigor that never wanes. Yes indeed, Mediterranean. Perhaps because of this Mediterraneanness I sit here and spin out this story. Here in the land of Israel bordering on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Sometimes you wonder if Vilna is the Jerusalem of Lithuania or if Jerusalem is the Vilna of the land of Israel. Thus, I wanted so much to tell the story of the Hamdi-ʿAlis, and the story of the city of Alexandria.1
