Yedida Kalfon Stillman (née Messodi Khalfon-Poney), world-renowned scholar of Islamic and Jewish culture, was born in the mellah of Fez, Morocco, on April 8, 1946. At age five, she immigrated to Israel with her large family, spending the first two years in a transit camp (maʿabara) tent. The family hebraicized her name to Yedida. She grew up in the overcrowded, prefabricated housing of the Katamonim section of Jerusalem, a neighborhood overwhelmingly populated by Jews from Arab countries. There she developed her talent for languages, picking up more than a smattering of different Judeo…