34.2 Spring/Summer
Tale of the Modern Refugee
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Lipika Pelham considers modern refugees’ defiance in the face of their host societies’ norms and expectations: “What individual and group identities mean to the migrants must be decided by them only.”
Lipika Pelham
Lipika Pelham worked in the BBC newsroom for over a decade. In 2005–13, she lived in Jerusalem, where she learnt Hebrew, made award-winning films, and wrote a memoir. Lipika’s latest book, Jerusalem on the Amstel: The Quest for Zion in the Dutch Republic, talks about how New Christians from the Iberian Peninsula arrived in 17th-century Amsterdam, reverted to Judaism, and prospered beyond belief. Through their story, the book explores the ideas of migration, nationhood, and identity.