The Jews and the Longest Kiss in History

The “longest kiss in history” refers to the point in Sudan where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile, although why French filmmaker Frédérique Cifuentes Morgan alluded to this bit of trivia in the title of her documentary is somewhat uncertain, since neither Nile has much to do with the subject of the rise and fall of Sudan's Jewish population. Originally consisting of eight families that immigrated to the region during Turkish-Egyptian rule in the 1870s, the Jewish community remained relatively small (never exceeding 1,000 members) and was mostly concentrated in the capital city of Khartoum. Sudan's Jewish population primarily grew through immigration—mostly by Sephardic Jews—and many found success in commerce and in administrative positions within the British colonial government. Anti-Semitism was relatively rare—the community never faced danger during World War II, and a special arrangement with Catholic schools offered educational opportunities for Jewish youth. However, Sudanese independence in 1956 and the new republic's focus on pan-Arab fellowship gave rise to a harsher environment, and by the 1960s the Jews of Sudan emigrated to Israel, Europe, and the U.S. Sudan-born Jews interviewed here reflect with rueful happiness on their lives in pre-independent Sudan, although some of these recollections come across as nostalgia regarding European colonial occupation while also being condescending to Sudan's indigenous population—one individual blithely dismisses the culture of the black rural villages as “primitive.” Of course, in retrospect, the community's exodus from Sudan may have been a blessing in disguise since the past several decades have witnessed Sudan's collapse into social and economic disaster—bearing no resemblance to the orderly world recalled by the interviewees here. Offering a unique view of a little-known historical intersection in which Jewish and African histories intermingled, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)