Changing Meanings of “Sephardi” in Its Social Environments

From Sephardi to Mizrahi and Back Again: Changing Meanings of “Sephardi” in Its Social Environments Harvey E. Goldberg ABSTR A CT This article sketches historical shifts in the meanings and associations of the term “Sephardi.” Post-Iberian migrations and the post-emancipation perception of Euro- pean Jews potentially made “Sephardi” the main marker of the “Eastern half” within binary ethnic discourse reflecting the “ingathering” of Jews in Palestine and the State of Israel. This did not evolve, paralleling a historically based reluctance of old-time Sephardim to be identified with “Easterners.” Instead, broad ethnic divides were coded utilizing the lexeme mizrah. “Sephardi” retained some prominence and partially “re- verted” to its associations with religion. Relevant factors were a dual rabbinate and the emergent Israeli Shas party combining politics, religion, and “Sephardism.” There is also evidence that the images and terms “Sephardi” and “Mizrahi” gradually became coeval in valence to “Ashkenazi” within Israeli discourse regarding “religion.” Key words: Sephardi, ethnic categories, Israeli society, Eastern Jews t is a perennial dilemma in cultural and historical research how to sort out the strength of influences from the past in relation to the I impact of synchronic factors operating in any social situation. This is particularly true in cases of migration, when people separate themselves from a home setting yet carry with them many orientations and dispositions that they express, consciously or unconsciously, within new economic, political, and cultural realities. Social research in Israel, in Harvey E. Goldberg, “From Sephardi to Mizrahi and Back Again: Changing Meanings of ‘Sephardi’ in Its Social Environments,” Jewish Social Studies: His- tory, Culture, Society n.s. 15, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 165–88 the decades after the state was established, generally downplayed the impact of the pasts of the Jewish immigrant groups that altered the [166] human landscape of the society.1 With time, however, it became clear that various cultural factors originating elsewhere continued to reso- Jewish nate in Israeli society, whether in terms of cultural content or in the Social forging of identities that drew selectively on images and memories from Studies the past in response to the challenges of the new society. • One line of sociological analysis regarding Israel has stressed the Vol. 15 No. 1 ability of the more established (European/Ashkenazi derived) groups to set the terms within which the culture and the past of weaker seg- ments of the society (coming from Middle Eastern countries) are de- fined and accorded recognition.2 These analyses, while providing important insights into the social power entailed in processes of cultural construction and identity formation, overlook the diverse seats of memory throughout a society and the subtle and shifting dynamics that shape self-identification even in the face of powerful forces work- ing to dictate those processes.3 In a collection entitled Charting Memory: Recalling Medieval Spain, Stacy Beckwith has offered an “interdiscursive picture of how Medi- eval Spain has been remembered.”4 She refers to discourse across dis- ciplines as well as across the religious boundaries defining Christians, Muslims, and Jews, many of whom continue to remember Spain far from its historic geographic borders. In highlighting the diversity of memories, Beckwith attempts to move past the conventional practice of treating these chains and traditions of memory as distinct and separate strands, and thus to both capture, and perhaps in a sense recon- stitute, aspects of the medieval convivencia of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish life. The chapters of her collection illustrate how the content and mode of memories of later eras select among, and rhetorically highlight, images and narrations of the past but always do so in col- lective contexts and processes of interaction. Jews in that region, who were dubbed Sephardi (Sfaradi), thus ex- isted in a range of socio-religious situations. Their self-cognition probably was threaded through categorizations that also included Christians and Muslims, as exemplified in terms such as Mozarabs, Mudéjars, and Moriscos. Some of these labels and their historical de- rivatives can be relatively clearly delineated, whereas others, like Moors, are notorious in their lack of historical or contemporary speci- ficity. Delineating the trajectory of a term that subsequently emerged as an inclusive reference to Jews originating from the Iberian peninsula—Sephardim—requires attention not only to the medieval Span- ish context but also to the encounter of Sephardim as communities and as a social and religious category, with Jews outside of that region, both in relation to Jews from various parts of Europe (Ashke- nazim) and vis-à-vis coreligionists long residing in the Arab East. As [167] in all cases of cultural encounter, such contact yielded mutual ex- change and influence concomitant with dynamics that reasserted Changing and re-formed social boundaries and identities. Meanings of “Sephardi” Modern Israel is a site in which Sephardi groups are found, and where Sephardi traditions receive some expression, alongside Jews • Harvey E. (and non-Jews) of varying backgrounds. Several complex fields of cul- Goldberg tural and social interaction shape the shades of meaning that the term “Sephardi” has carried in the past and continues to acquire in the evolving circumstances of Israeli society. The meaning of Sephardi, or any ethnic category, that one sector within Jewish life seeks to privilege cannot ignore different and competing emphases. A brief account that includes reference to the impact of the contemporary political party Shas—Sephardi Torah Observers—which lays claim to flagship repre- sentation of Sephardi tradition, serves to illustrate the complexities at work in specific social contexts in contemporary Israel. It is well known that Shas has attracted voters who do not themselves follow a strict religious way of life, and that many have indicated appre- ciation of how the party succeeded in restoring pride to their cultural heritage, even though they do not agree fully with its ideology. This lack of full agreement can also reach points of tension. I have, on several occasions, attended a Jerusalem synagogue established early in the twentieth century by families who mostly came from Persia, whose de- scendants—in small numbers—continue to pray there on Shabbat and holidays even though they do not consider themselves dati (religious). This synagogue is found in the Mahaneh Yehudah neighborhood, an area of contact among a number of Middle Eastern and Sephardi groups in the decades before the state was established.5 Most of those who attend the synagogue no longer live in its vicinity, and they drive to Mahaneh Yehudah on the Sabbath even though this is prohibited by rabbinic law. Liturgically, these synagogue-goers see themselves as maintaining a Jerusalem Sephardi tradition with which they are all fa- miliar. However, in the matter of reading from the Torah during the course of the service, they now rely on a yeshivah student educated in Shas institutions who they pay to read the parashah (weekly portion) each Sabbath. While dependent on his skills, they also resent this student, for he arrives only shortly before the Torah-reading service, does his “job,” and then leaves, showing little solidarity with the group’s local heritage and sense of identity. Their attachment to a very specific Sephardi tradition notwithstanding, families connected to this synagogue feel totally Israeli, and among the Persian founders of the synagogue was the Banai family that later “produced” prominent figures, [168] and even icons, within Israeli culture. This synagogue has appeared in the media, recognizing its “colorful ethnic” background, in particular Jewish with reference to the late Yossi Banai, but this is done without any hint Social of a connection to the world of Shas. Studies The traditions and memories that a group holds and nourishes, • and the way that these are recognized (or not) and marked, are un- Vol. 15 No. 1 questionably shaped by contemporary social forces that enter into a politics of identity. A synchronic view alone, however, tends toward a reification of ethnic definitions and categories, and toward an inabil- ity to grasp the content and dynamics of historical imprints that at times surface in unexpected ways. With this in mind, my article un- dertakes to sketch some of the historical, social, and semantic settings that gave shape to the contemporary uses and understandings of the term and notion “Sephardi,” with special attention to the complexities in the pre-state Yishuv and its continuation in Israeli society. Any (ethnic) term takes on its significance both from the social setting within which it functions and the syntactic frames and semantic fields within which it operates. From a methodological point of view, then, focusing on a single ethnic category by itself carries the analytic danger of isolating and perhaps essentializing it. But by following the term Sephardi, even cursorily, from the late Middle Ages through more recent periods, and observing how it accrued, discarded, and re- configured social and cultural meanings, we get a sense of historical shifts as well as factors that give such labels their persuasive sense of “inherent-ness.” My account touches briefly on earlier stages, though dwelling more on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of the interpretations offered are tentative and are intended mainly to spur further research in these directions. Among the phenomena worthy of attention is the way that earlier associations of “Sephardi” reassert themselves, not in any pre-set way but through a confluence of social forces and modifications in meaning that become visible in the details of specific and evolving interactional fields. Early History As is well known, Sepharad is a place name appearing once in the Bible that was applied by Jews to the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, and the term came to characterize communities there and their traditions.

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