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Beginning in the Middle Ages, Sephardic Jews lived in vibrant Jewish communities all around the Mediterranean, from Spain, Portugal, and Italy in the north to Morocco and Algeria in the south. But when Western European imperialism, with its agenda of "civilizing the native," took over Africa and the Middle East, the Jewish communities assimilated en masse. Rabbi Wein contrasts Sephardic assimilation to Ashkenazic and analyzes the culture clash that arose when both groups met each other in the Land of Israel.