JL;DR SUMMARY Professor Robert Brody explores the historical and cultural links between the Geonim, the influential leaders of Babylonian Jewry from the 7th to the 11th centuries, and the Sepharadim, the Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.