Who Are the Mizrahim in , and How Have American Tokenized Them?

Mijal Bitton

Campus Professionals Fellowship Cohort VII Distance Learning July 1, 2020

I. At the Margins 2 1. “Jewish Residents in Mainly Muslim Countries, 1948” 2 2. Sergio Della Pergola, “‘Sephardic’ and ‘Oriental’ Jews in Israel and Western Countries: Migration, Social Changes, and Identification” 3 3. Stephen Sharot, “Jewish and Other National and Ethnic Identities” 3 4. Statement by Arye Gelblum, , April 22, 1949 4 5. Drora Rotman, “Suham-Drora-Sparrow,” October 30, 2012 5 6. Statement by David Ben Gurion, ca. 1960s 6 II. Open Resistance 7 7. Picture from a Black Panther demonstration for social justice, Israel, 1971 7 8. R’ Ovadia Yosef, Yabia Vol. 6, 1976, §43 8 III. Today’s Stories 9 9. Pew Research Center, “Israel’s Religiously Divided Society”, 2016 9 10. Recommendations from the Bitton Commission, 2016 10 11. 2015 Campaign Slogan 11 12. Shababnikim, TV series from Israel 12 13. Sarit Hadad, Pop Singer 12 14. Miri Regev, Mimouna celebration, 2017 13 15. protest organized by AMRAM, Summer 2017 13 16. Almog Behar, “Sheikh Jarah, 2010” 14 17. Marie Nahmias, May 2019 15 18. Haim Sabato, speech in the , excerpt, January 2017 15

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I. At the Margins

1. World Jewish Congress, “Jewish Residents in Mainly Muslim Countries, 1948”

Figure 1

2. Sergio Della Pergola, “‘Sephardic’ and ‘Oriental’ Jews in Israel and Western Countries: Migration, Social Changes, and Identification,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry Vol. 22, 2007, p. 4

All in all, somewhat echoing more general contentions about the concept of ‘‘Orientalism,’’ it appears that ‘‘eastern,’’ in the Jewish sense, is most commonly defined not in objective, but rather in symbolic terms. ‘‘Eastern’’ often appears in the context of value-laden assumptions about difference—or more precisely, hierarchic inequality. In such statements, the paradigm of edot hamizrah, or ‘‘Oriental communities,’’ while expressed in the plural, is not posited against any similar paradigm of edot hamaarav, or ‘‘western communities.’’ Instead, Oriental Jews are consistently contrasted with an aggregate of ‘‘Ashkenazim’’ who are assumed to form a coherent alternative paradigm. So, too, ‘‘eastern’’ and ‘‘Sephardim’’ commonly go together even though the history of Jews from Spain has little in common with that of Jews from Oriental communities. What this means is that all those who are not “western’’ (actually Ashkenazic) constitute a single group. Put somewhat differently, ‘‘eastern-ness’’ is defined not by the existence of a given property, but rather by the absence of another property: ‘‘western-ness.’’ Furthermore, ‘‘West’’ and ‘‘western’’ are commonly (whether explicitly or implicitly) associated with modernization, progressiveness, and rationality—all of which are endowed with positive connotations and deemed desirable both for individuals and groups. In contrast, ‘‘East’’ and ‘‘eastern’’ represent the alternative—perhaps more expressive and colorful, probably less orderly and efficient, maybe good for them, but surely less desirable for ourselves or for us all.

3. Stephen Sharot, “Jewish and Other National and Ethnic Identities,” in National Variations in Jewish Identity: Implications for Jewish Education, eds. S. Cohen and G. Horenczyk, 1999, p. 309

The term edot ha’Mizrach was not related to a cultural entity that existed prior to immigration [to Israel. The] communities in North Africa and Asia varied greatly with respect to their Judeo- dialects, religious customs, and other cultural features. However, in their confrontation with Israelis from Europe, many North African and Asian Israelis felt that, despite their differences, they were closer culturally to other edot ha’Mizrach than to Ashkenazim.

4. Statement by Arye Gelblum, Haaretz, April 22, 1949

This is immigration of a race we have not yet known in the country… We are dealing with people whose primitivism is at a peak, whose level of knowledge is one of virtually absolute ignorance, and worse, who have little talent for understanding anything intellectual.

Generally, they are only slightly better than the general level of the Arabs, Negroes, and Berbers in the same regions. In any case, they are at an even lower level than what we knew with regard to the former Arabs of Eretz Israel… These Jews also lack roots in Judaism, as they are totally subordinated to the play of savage and primitive instincts… As with the Africans you will find card games for money, drunkenness, and prostitution. Most of them have serious eye, skin and sexual diseases, without mentioning robberies and thefts. Chronic laziness and hatred for work, there is nothing safe about this asocial element…

Aliyat Hanoar [the official organization dealing with immigrant youths] refuses to receive Moroccan children and the kibbutzim will not hear of their absorption among them.

Transit Camp, ca. 1950s

5. Drora Rotman, “Suham-Drora-Sparrow,” October 30, 2012

Translated by Orit Bashkin and Youval Rotman in Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel by Orit Bakshin, pg. 1-2

Autumn 1951:

She was eight years old when she heard her name for the first time, her new name, her Hebrew name.

It was the year of the mass migration from Iraq to Israel, and the family moved from a newcomers’ camp to [transit camp]. The camp stretched between Mount Carmel to the east, the Carmel shore to the west, and the cemetery to the south - the military cemetery, where children used to go and watch the funerary rites of soldiers. The transit camp’s name was Camp David, but everybody called it “Winds Camp” because of the strong winds that blew there in the winter. In their first winter the wind blew off all the tents they were living in, exposing them and their belongings to the heavy rains.

Later they would get permanent housing: canvas and wooden shacks, clustered together haphazardly all around the camp’s grounds. In her first week of school, the school nurse asked for a girl’s name: Suham? What does that mean? Is it some sort of bird? We will call you, then, Drora (“sparrow” in Hebrew, and it also means “freedom”). Thus blessed with the sweet and satisfying smile of the school nurse, the girl was reborn. Her parents were not asked for their view of the matter.

It was a beautiful autumn day, cloudy and chilly. She felt the raindrops in the air pleasantly clinging to her cheeks. She inhaled the humid air. It filled her lungs and washed her entire body with a special freshness that will never return. A soft and white fog embraced the nurse and the group of children standing around her in the schoolyard, and distanced them from the searing sight of naked shacks, the ever-blazing sun, and the emptiness that filled the bare spaces between everything.

The nurse was tall and beautiful. She wore a tight blue gown and a snowy starched cap that crowned her head, with a thick bob of her black hair tightened on top. Amid the children of the transit camp with their baggy gray clothes, amid the wooden shacks used as classrooms and the trodden faded soil, the nurse was the most colorful and spectacular thing the girl saw in those days.

The old name that was tossed away as a useless object reemerged fifty years later, when she opened her son’s ID card, looking under “mother’s name.” A little girl in an old childhood photo instantly surfaced, staring at her with endless sadness. And she was back at the moment her name was lost, starting all over again.

6. Statement by David Ben Gurion, ca. 1960s

We do not want Israelis to become Arabs. We are in duty bound to fight against the spirit of the Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies, and preserve the authentic Jewish values as they crystallized in the Diaspora.

Figure 2 Yemenite children airlifted to Israel, ca. 1950s

II. Open Resistance

7. Picture from a Black Panther demonstration for social justice, Israel, 1971

Sign on the right: “Join the Panthers, resign from discrimination.” Sign on the left: “Golda, teach us Yiddish”

8. R’ Ovadia Yosef, Yabia Omer Vol. 6, 1976, §43

ושמעתי שיש טוענים על דברי שמאחר שהרבנים הראשיים לת"א שקדמוני הניחו המנהג להחמיר אין לשנות המנהג ולאו מילתא היא (=זו אינה טענה) שמקום הניחו לי לה ת ג ד ר בו. ומכל שכן שידוע שהרבנים הראשיים הספרדים שקדמוני הוו מיכף כייף (=היו כפופים) לעמיתיהם הרבנים הראשיים האשכנזים. הרב עוזיאל ז"ל הוה כייף לרב קוק זצ"ל וכן הרב טולידנו ז"ל בהיותו רב ראשי לת"א לא היה יכול להרים ראש כלפי עמיתו יבדל לחיים טובים הרב אונטרמן שליט"א ולחלוק עליו בהלכה. והם היו ממונים ושולטים על הרבנים רושמי הנשואין והנהיגו הכל כמנהג בני אשכנז. ולמען השלום שתקו, שרים עצרו מילין וכף ישימו לפיהם. והדברים מפורסמים בבירור גמור. אבל אנן דלא כייפינן תודה לאל יתברך, על משמרתי אעמודה להחזיר עטרה ליושנה להורות כדעת מרן שקיבלנו הוראותיו... ושומע לנו ישכון לבטח.

And I heard that some claim against my ruling, because they contend that given that the previous chief of adopted the custom of stringency there was no justification to change the custom, but this is not a compelling argument. All the more so because it is well known that the chief Sephardi Rabbis were subordinated to their fellow Ashkenazi chief Rabbis. Rabbi Uziel z"l was subordinated to Rabbi Kook zt"l; and Rabbi Toledano z"l when he served as of Tel Aviv, couldn't raise his head towards his colleague [demonstrating equality], may he be blessed with a long life, Rabbi Unterman and oppose him in matters of . And they had authority and controlled the rabbis who recorded marriage and ruled that everything should be according to the Ashkenazi custom. And for the sake of peace they were silent; ministers refrained from complaint and muzzled their mouths. And the matter is well-known and entirely clear. But I am subordinated to no one, thank the Lord blessed be He, I will stand watch and restore the glory of old times and rule according to (Rabbi Yosef Karo) whose instructions we received… and those who follow us will reside safely.

III. Today’s Stories

9. Pew Research Center, “Israel’s Religiously Divided Society,” March 2016

Ashkenazi, Mizrahi or Sephardi? Jewish ethnic identity in Israel

Israeli Jews are nearly evenly split between two Jewish ethnic identity groups – the Ashkenazim (45%) and the Sephardim or Mizrahim (48%). These two ethnic groups retain some distinct religious practices and cultural traditions associated with their ancestral roots. The chief rabbinate in Israel consists of two rabbis – one who is Ashkenazi and the other Sephardi.

The Ashkenazim (from the Hebrew term for Germany, Ashkenaz) trace their roots mainly to central and eastern Europe. (Indeed, a quarter of Israeli Ashkenazim say they speak primarily Russian at home.) Sephardim and Mizhrahim vary widely in their ancestral origin – from Spain’s Iberian Peninsula to the Middle East and Central Asia. Mizrahi (from Mizrah, meaning eastern in Hebrew) often is used interchangeably with Sephardi (or Sfaradit, meaning Spanish in Hebrew). Sephardim and Mizrahim have similar religious traditions and practices, distinct from those of the Ashkenazim. Sephardim typically trace their roots to ancestors who lived in Spain until they were expelled during the Spanish Inquisition. The Sephardim then migrated eastward and lived largely among the Mizrahim in the Middle East and North Africa.

Sephardi and are, on average, more religiously observant than their Ashkenazi counterparts. Fully two-thirds of Ashkenazim identify as secular (Hiloni) Jews, compared with about three-in-ten of Sephardim/Mizrahim (32%). A plurality of Sephardim/Mizrahim (42%) identify as Masortim.

Over the course of Israel’s modern history, the Sephardi/Mizrahi community has experienced problems with discrimination and marginalization. This survey finds, however, that a majority of Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews say there is not currently a lot of discrimination against Mizrahim in Israeli society (32% say there is a lot, 64% say there is not). However, it should be noted that Sephardim/Mizrahim are significantly more likely than Ashkenazim to say that Mizrahim face a lot of discrimination (32% vs. 9%).

Overall, the survey finds Ashkenazim in Israel are more likely than Sephardim/Mizrahim to give priority to their Israeli identity over their Jewish identity. Fully 42% of Ashkenazim say they are Israeli first and Jewish second, compared with 27% of Sephardim/Mizrahim who say this. While Ashkenazim are closely divided among those who say they are Israeli first and those who say they are Jewish first, among Sephardim/Mizrahim, the prevailing view is that they are Jewish first (53%).

10. Recommendations from the Bitton Commission, 2016

11. 2015 Shas Campaign Slogan

Translation: “If you live in Ramat Aviv, do not vote for us. If you work for someone who lives in Ramat Aviv: only Shas. Shas, the revolution returns!”

12. Shababnikim, TV series from Israel

13. Sarit Hadad, Pop Singer

14. Miri Regev, Mimouna celebration, 2017

15. Jerusalem protest organized by AMRAM to raise awareness and protest the events surrounding the missing Yemenite children, Summer 2017

16. Almog Behar, “Sheikh Jarah, 2010”

...והייתי חולם באחד הלילות: נבוא ל ש י ח' ג' ר א ח להפגנה גדודים גדודים של מגורשים, ובתוכנו יצעדו התימנים ש ג ו ר ש ו מן המושבה כנרת, ופליטי חברון היהודים מתרפ "ט, וערביי בקעה, טלביה , קטמון, מ א ה שערים, ליפתא ועין כרם שגורשו בנכבה, ופליטי הרובע היהודי שב48- גורשו ע ל-ידי הירדנים וב 67- הולאמו בתיהם ע ל- י ד י ממשלת ישראל להימכר בכסף רב ולהשאירם בפליטותם, והפלסטינים שגורשו מן הכפרים שסביב לטרון ב67-, והמזרחים שגורשו משכונת ימין משה, אחרי שנים בעין הצלפים, כדי ל פ נ ו ת מקום ל אָ מ נ י ם ולציירים, ותושבי הכפרים הבדווים הלא - מוכרים בנגב, ונפגעי המשכנתאות המושלכים מבתיהם בצווי ההוצאה לפועל , ויושבי יפו ומוסררה הנדחקים לפנות את בתיהם לטובת עשיר מהם , ואנשי סִ ילְ וַ אן שצו הריסה מאיים על ביתם.

And one night I dreamt: We’ll come to Sheikh Jarrah for a protest, regiment by regiment of the expelled, and with us will march the Yemenites expelled from the Kineret village, the Jewish Hebron refugees of 1929, the Arabs of Ba’ka, Talbieh, Katamon, Meah Sha’arim, Lifta and Ein Karem expelled during the Nakba, the Jewish quarter refugees expelled in '48 by Jordan, and in '67 their homes were nationalized by the government of Israel to be sold for great profit leaving them refugees, the Palestinians expelled from the villages surrounding Latrun in '67, the Mizrahim expelled from the Yemin Moshe neighborhood after years in the eye of the target, to make room for painters and artists, the residents of unknown Bedouin villages in the Negev, the mortgage defaulters expelled from their homes by eviction crews, the Jaffa and Musrara residents forced to vacate their homes to make way for the rich, and the people of Silwan, a demolition order threatening their homes.

17. Marie Nahmias, Israel’s Independence Day, Torch Lighting Ceremony, May 2019

I am Marie Nahmias, the daughter of Shalom and Hannah Sabbah of blessed memory, bless the state of Israel, from all my heart.

May Israel be blessed, from all my heart, God will hear me, and the righteous [in Heaven], that it [Israel] rises ever upward, that we grow, that our soldiers don’t fall anymore — from all my heart, that the Jews and the Arabs and the Christians and the Druze, tomorrow we will all become one single hand…We are all made by God, may he give us peace, and next year, may there be another 10 million [of us].

18. Rabbi Haim Sabato, speech in the Knesset, excerpt, January 2017

כשהיינו ילדים אחי ניגש לאבא ואמר: בוא נחליף את שם המשפחה, אף אחד לא מכיר את השם סבתו, בוא נמצא משהו אחר. אבא ענה: אל תחליפו את השם, אתם תעשו את השם.

When we were children, my brother approached my father and said: let’s change our last name, nobody recognizes the name Sabato, let’s find something else. Aba answered: don’t change the name, you will make the name.