Meyer, Maisie J. 1939-

(Maisie Joy Meyer)

PERSONAL: Born October 20, 1939, in Calcutta, India; British subject; daughter of Saul (in import-export business) and Seemah Gloria (a homemaker) Sadka; married Benjamin Meyer (a structural engineer), August 20, 1961; children: Deborah Meyer Kelman, David, Saul. Education: Loreto College, B.A. (English), 1961; earned B.A. (humanities), 1986; London School of Economics and Political Science, London, M.A., 1988, Ph.D., 1994. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Historian.

WRITINGS

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Immigrants and Minorities, Jewish Culture and History, and Jewish Quarterly.

SIDELIGHTS: Maisie J. Meyer told CA:“In the course of worldwide research for my doctoral thesis on the Baghdadi Jewish community of Shanghai, I collected a wealth of fascinating material that I wanted to share with a wide readership. Being of Baghdadi Jewish origin, and born and brought up in India, I was particularly interested in Baghdadi Jewish immigration to the East.

“I found a striking similarity between writing this book and childbirth. Researching was comparable to the exciting courtship period. My husband, Benny, was as essential to the conception of our children as he was to the book’s formation. Coordinating the mountain of research and editing the umpteen drafts was like a pregnancy. The increasingly heavy load made me feel broody and isolated. The pains of editing the final draft and not least preparing the index were as excruciating as those of labor and childbirth. I expected the analogy would end here because whereas everyone finds something to admire in a baby, I expected readers to be critical. Happily, I had extremely good reviews and above all, the community whose history I recorded was most appreciative. All my efforts seemed worthwhile when one member who has sadly become blind told me that he has so much enjoyment listening to tapes of my book which his daughter recorded. This ‘baby’ seems to have brought me as much joy as my other children. I am delighted that there is a now going to be a reprint of my book.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

China Review International, spring, 2004, Jonathan Goldstein, review of From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai, p. 146.

Choice, January, 2004, K.E. Stapleton, review of From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo, p. 968.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2003, review of From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo, p. 47.