viii r Acknowledgments
and his secretaries, Dganit Boni-Davidi and Ravital Yitzhaki, proved
indispensable.
Considerable work has been invested by Professors Brannon Wheeler,
Avigdor Levy, Bat-Zion Eraqi-Klorman, and Dr. Alanna Cooper of our
editorial board. They took out much time from their busy schedules to
peer-review the chapters.
We are thankful to Michael Glatzer, the academic secretary of the Ben-
Zvi Institute and associate editor of its prestigious journal, Pe ̔amim: Stud-
ies in Oriental Jewry, for his great diligence in the initial editing process
of the manuscript. Special thanks go to Elaine Durham Otto, who thor-
oughly and skillfully copyedited the work. Last but not least, we praise
Amy Gorelick, editor-in-chief of the University Press of Florida, and
Michele Fiyak-Burkley, both of whom took charge of accompanying the
manuscript to press.