Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity? Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies Edited by David S. Katz VOLUME 53 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bsjs Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity? Interpellation, Exclusion, and Inessential Solidarities By Reuven Snir LEIDEN | BOSTON Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Snir, R. (Reuven), author. Who needs Arab-Jewish identity? : interpellation, exclusion, and inessential solidarities / by Reuven Snir. pages cm. — (Brill’s series in Jewish studies, ISSN 0926-2261 ; volume 53) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-28911-6 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-28910-9 (e-book) 1. Jews—Arab countries—Identity—History. 2. Arab countries—Ethnic relations. I. Title. DS135.A68S65 2015 305.892’40174927—dc23 2014049552 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0926-2261 isbn 978-90-04-28911-6 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-28910-9 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For my grandson Tom “May my grandson, growing up and finding [my book] one day by chance on the family bookshelves, look through the pages, read a passage or two, then put it back in the dusty corner where he found it, shrugging his shoulders and marveling that in his grandfather’s day such things still needed to be said.” ― Amin Maalouf . “Woe to those who, to the very end, insist on regulating the movement that exceeds them with the narrow mind of the mechanic who changes a tire.” ― Georges Bataille ⸪ Contents Preface ix Transliteration (Arabic) xi Transliteration (Hebrew) xii Introduction 1 1 Identity: Between Creation and Recycling 10 2 Arabized Jews: Historical Background 33 3 Arabized Jews in Modern Times between Interpellation and Exclusion 49 A The First Process: Jews in Arab Lands are Arab 69 B The Second Process: Jews in Arab Lands are “Zionist” (= First Exclusion) 106 C The Third Process: Arabized Jews are “Arabs” (= Second Exclusion) 125 D The Fourth Process: The Arabized Jews are . [a monolithic category] 144 4 Globalization and the Search for Inessential Solidarities 180 5 White Jews, Black Jews 197 Conclusion 219 Appendices 1 Iraqi-Jewish Intellectuals, Writers, and Artists 231 2 Sami Michael, The Artist and the Falafel 235 References 241 Index 282 Preface* In 1988, I published my first contribution to the field of Arab-Jewish culture. This was a Hebrew article on the role of Jewish authors in the emergence of the Arabic short story in Iraq in the twentieth century. At the time, this article was incidental to the main focus of my scholarly interests, the Arabic literature of the wider community. Gradually, my interest in specifically Jewish writings grew, and in the last twenty-five years my publications in Hebrew, English, German, and Arabic have covered various aspects of Arab-Jewish culture. In most, if not all, of these publications, notions in regard to identity were pres- ent, but were not the central issue. With my most all-encompassing work on Arab-Jewish culture, published in Hebrew in 2005, notions of identity played a more significant role, as hinted at by its title.1 My main objective, in most of my publications, has been to expose the large corpus of literary texts that Jews wrote in Arabic since the late nineteenth century and to analyze these texts in their appropriate cultural and social contexts, before and after the emigration of Jews from the Arab world to Israel. That is, I set aside theoretical contexts regarding issues of identity because I was more interested in cultural and liter- ary activities and less interested in the subjectivities of the people concerned. During my tenure as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (2009–2010), at least with regard to research in the human- ities and social sciences, most, if not all, of the projects conducted at the Institute related in some way to issues of identity. I myself conducted research into identities in transition and attempted to relate this research to my own area of interest; notions of identity, from a theoretical point of view, became one of my main academic concerns. As identity must, according to Stuart Hall, go “through the eye of the needle of the other before it can construct itself,” my project highly benefited from the gathering of established scholars from various parts of the world, each with a different and original insight regard- ing identity per se—each with his own unique singularity inspiring the con- texts through which they negotiated and defended their singularities and self-understanding. Thus, the multidisciplinary environment at the Radcliffe Institute would play a cardinal role in shaping the present book. * This book is based on research that I carried out while I was a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2009–2010). 1 Reuven Snir, ‘Arviyut, Yahadut, Tziyonut: Ma’avak Zehuyot ba-Yetzira shel Yehude ‘Iraq [Arabness, Jewishness, Zionism: A Struggle of Identities in the Literature of Iraqi Jews] (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2005). x Preface I owe a debt of gratitude to my fellow fellows at the Radcliffe Institute, who turned their attention to the questions I evoked and contributed in various ways to my understanding of theoretical issues and their relevance to the topic of Arab-Jewish culture. I would like to thank my four research assistants at the Radcliffe Institute: Amrita Dani, Sophie Legros, Shani Boianjiu, and Anna E. Boch. Their dedica- tion and their respective insights were of great value to my project. I would also like to thank Professor Glenda Abramson, currently Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University and editor of the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, and Professor David Tal, currently Yossi Harel Chair in Israel Studies at the University of Sussex, who provided me with opportu- nities to present early versions of some of the views that I express here.2 A special word of appreciation is due to the editor Michael Helfield for his excel- lent work on the manuscript and to the independent scholar Aviva Butt whose contribution to the final shaping of the study was significant. Their dedication to this book was tremendous and borne out by their strong belief in the neces- sity of publishing such a project. 2 “Double Exclusion and the Search for Inessential Solidarity: The Iraqi-Jewish Experience in Israel as Heralding a New Concept of Identity and Belonging,” a presentation at the confer- ence “I’m in the East and My Heart is in the West—Israel in the Middle East,” University of Calgary, Israel Studies (October 3–5, 2010); “Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity? Fragmented Consciousness, ‘Inessential Solidarity,’ and the ‘Coming Community’ (Part 1),” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 11.2 (2012), pp. 169–189; “Double Exclusion and the Search for Inessential Solidarities: The Experience of Iraqi Jews as Heralding a New Concept of Identity and Belonging,” in: David Tal (ed.), Israeli Identity between Orient and Occident (London & New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 140–160; “Who Needs Arab-Jewish Identity? Fragmented Consciousness, ‘Inessential Solidarity,’ and the ‘Coming Community’ (Part 2),” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 14.2 (2015). Transliteration (Arabic) ئ ئ ئ ṭ ط i; ’u; ’a’ �؛ ؛ � ب � � ẓ ط b ب� ت� ‘ بع t ث� gh بع th j �� f ت ب� ḥ q � ب� k ك kh � ل د d l ب د m م dh h �ه�ـ r بر z � w ر s � (long) ū ��س �ث� y �ت� sh س � long) ī) ي ṣ ب س ḍ ِ ;َ ; ُ (short) i; a; u �س 1 . The definite article al- is used before solar and lunar letters. The waṣla .silent alif is systematically ignored ئover 2. ’ (�) is not indicated when it is at the beginning of a word. � ت �ت .(ح�ك�ات��� end of words and names is not transliterated (i.e. ḥikāya for تat the .3 When � occurs in the first word of an iḍāfa (construction), it is transcribed آ.as t .or � or �� areّ transcribed as ā � .4 5. A shadda ( ) is represented by doubling the relevant letter. �ع � and iyya ( ربت� Final nisba is transcribed as ī (masculine, i.e. ‘Arabī for .6 � ت .(عرب��ت��� feminine, i.e. ‘Arabiyya for) 7. Arabic words or letters transcribed into Latin characters are generally given in italics, except for personal names and names of places and publishers. 8. Anglicized spellings of commonly used names and locations have been retained, and foreign names in transliterated passages generally appear in their English form. In English quotations, transliterated Arabic words appear as is, even if they differ from our preferred system. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2�15 | doi 1�.��63/9789004289109_001 Transliteration (Hebrew) l ל ’ א m מ/ם b/v ב/כּ n נ/ן g ג s ס d ד ’ ע h ה f/p פּ/פף consonant) v) ו tz צ/ץ z ז k ק ḥ ח r ר t ט sh/s שׂ/שׁ consonant) y) י t ת k/kh כּ/כ 1.