A Lebanese band’s concert in Jordan offered this Arab Jew from Haifa a new take on her identity and one of the of the key premises of the Arab-Jewish conflict.
Mashrou3 Leila in concert, Amman, August 2011. Photo by Mati Milstein.
Last Tuesday, I returned from Amman. I went to see a concert given by the Lebanese band Mashrou3 Leila in the only Middle Eastern Arab country still open for Israeli Jews to freely visit. The best way to get from Israel to Amman is by bus from Nazareth. The passengers were mostly elderly Arabs going to travel in Jordan and the rest were a bunch of fellow concertgoers.
My journey to Amman and back was critical to the evolving process I am currently undergoing relating to my personal, ethnic and political identity. The identity of the Arab Jew, while rendered a near impossibility in today’s Israeli socio-political reality, is nevertheless essential to who I am and how I see my world.
Symbolically (or not), my book for the road was Tel Aviv University sociologist Yehouda Shenhav’s: “The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity.”
I first heard the term “Arab Jews” in my freshman year of university. A friend of mine told me a certain professor used it to describe Mizrahi Jews (Israelis whose origins are in Arab and Muslim countries), and I remember I was deeply offended. I remember thinking that the use of the term “Arab Jews” was racist and exclusive. I felt that the word “Arab” was used as a collective insult against Jews of “Oriental origin” such as myself.
A long time has since passed, during the course of which I have dedicated much effort to dealing with my own racism towards Arabs. This was also a period of time during which I realized that the word “Arab” is not an insult and does not symbolize, as I had learned from Israeli societal norms, a barbaric and culture-less mass.
During that time, with the help of initiatives like Ruch Jedida, and bands like Mashrou3 Leila, I realized that the language that was spoken in the homes of my grandparents (who are of both Moroccan and Iraqi origin) was Arabic. The music they played was Arab music, and the food I ate as a child in their homes was Arab food. (Obviously, there are many types of Arab Jewish foods, and there are excellent articles discussing the great culinary variations within Mizrahi culture. But for the purposes of this post, I maintain that there is greater similarity between various Arab Jewish dishes than there is between Mizrahi cuisine and traditional Ashkenazi cuisine.)
My discovery of Arab culture was, in fact, a movement in two directions. With every new box I opened in my studies, an old box that rested inside of me was revealed. Unveiling the “other” – the Arab – allowed me to discover the parts of my identity from which I had up until then been alienated. Later, this process allowed me to embrace the Arab Jew with a renewed pride.
Though I have previously traveled in Morocco, this trip to Amman represented an apex in my process of personal evolution: this was the first time I visited an Arab country with a conscious awareness – even if still in its initial stages – of the “Arabness” in me.
On the bus to Amman, the other passengers spoke to me in Arabic – a language that I do not understand. Shenhav says that the only way for Arab Jews to earn their “ticket” into Israeli society is via denying all that is Arab inside them.
Trapped inside the false dichotomy of Jewish-versus-Arab that was created artificially by Israel, the Mizrahi Jews had to suppress their Arab characteristics and stress their Jewish characteristics. (Which makes it hardly surprising that major parts of the Mizrahi community in Israel are today both religious and politically right wing).
Getting too close to Arab culture or too far from Judaism symbolizes for the Arab Jews the blurring of the boundaries between “us” and “them” – “them” being the Arab “enemy” – which is the dominant narrative authored and imposed by the Zionist movement.
Back to the bus. An elderly Arab woman told jokes in Arabic that I did not understand to the other Arab women around her. At some point she took out some sefihe – an Arab bread topped with meat – and offered it to us. When we first politely refused she said in Hebrew, “You can eat it. It’s kosher. I’m religious.” She was a Syrian Jew that came to Israel years ago. Unlike me, however, she had not turned her back on her Arab origins, but rather preserved them in a way that made it difficult for me, and for others in the bus, to fit her into any preconceived category or stereotype.
And it was in this unsettling moment of confusion that I suddenly understood myself clearer than ever. One of the major assumptions in the heart of the primary existing paradigm of the Arab-Israeli conflict is that there are two different populations in conflict – “us” and “them” – and that each has distinctive, opposing interests. I believe that the re-connection of Mizrahi Jews to our Arab origins has a huge potential to alter the paradigm of the conflict.
One of the key and best-founded arguments against the two-state solution – the most accepted mainstream liberal interpretation of that separation – is that it neglects to consider the ’48 Palestinians (those who remained in what is now the State of Israel following the 1948 Middle East war), and leaves them in a Jewish state with no representation of their heritage, history, language and culture. What I understand today is that the division of land into two separate Palestinian Arab and Jewish, non-Arab countries also ignores my interests, heritage and culture as an Arab Jew, and would impose on me once again this artificial dichotomy of Arab vs. Jew.
“Free Palestine!” called the lead singer of Mashrou3 Leila from the stage in the middle of the concert, and all of us – Palestinians from Ramallah, Palestinian-Israelis from Jaffa, I, an Arab Jew from Haifa and Ashkenazi Jews from Tel Aviv, cheered. I felt that there was no “us’ and ‘them’ at that moment, partly because there were too many possible ‘us’s and ‘them’s into which we could be divided.
For me, just then, a new entity was created, one that does not perceive Arabs and Arabness in contrast or opposition to anything, but that rather sees “Arab” as an integral, essential and totally natural component of our own identity.
Lihi Yona is an Israeli feminist activist and blogger. Her Hebrew blog is Reuma.
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Daniel
Very boring article,boring band rich kids band from The american university of Beirut.
I am a mizrahi jew,and I always eat kube and I grew up with parents listening to Oum Khalthoum and Mohammed Abdel Wahab,I always heard stories about Baghdad and the persecution my grandparents suffered for being communists and zionists.
The only Mizrahi jews who have no arab identity are those falsanim like the one who write thisa article,she has decided to hijack the palestinian identity.
annie
beautiful
noam
It’s cool that you’ve found a new identity, and I entirely agree with Shenhav’s criticism towards the Israeli-Ashkenazi opression of the Mizrahim’s Arabness. Their cultural heritage is indeed Arabic, and we should all celebrate this diversity instead of trying to Europeanize everybody. Same goes to Israeli Arabs/Palestinians.
However, I don’t agree with your conclusion that 2 states means oppressing the Arab (Jewish or Palestinian) identities in Israel. All minorities should enjoy equal rights in the Israeli democracy after the occupation ends. Arabic should stay an official language, and should become far more dominant in public life and culture, and taught to everybody. My wish to divide the land to 2 states doesn’t change my deep belief in that. There should be no mixing these two. I believe that the only means by which this conflict can be cooled off is through two states, and Palestine tasting independencne from the occupation.
The end of your essay sounds like an unfortunate pulling of your newfound identity towards a nationalistic sentiment. We’re all Arabs rings quite like that.
Also, excuse my skepticism, but I have doubts about how much of the crowd would be so enthusiastic about seeing an Arab-Jew and your Israeli-Ashkenazi friends as a members of this Arab collective you all felt part of that evening. Let’s not romanticize neither Israeli nor Arab nationalism, eh?
Maybe this is a result of years of western media brainwashing, but I doubt it. I think it’s more of an honest look at reality, as opposed to your romanticism.
Amitai Sandy
I’m an Israeli of “Ashkenazi” descent on all sides. I don’t accept etnicity based bounderies. I call people my friends or my enemies by their views. That’s why the people of Nebi Salah, for example, or Iksal, are my friends, and my own government is my enemy.
Palestinian
Lihi, amazing , marvelous , wonderful , thats exactly what I spent hours arguing about with Ashkenzi Jews on one of Joseph’s articles.Arab Jews, US and them , Arabs vs Jews , ignoring Jewish Arabs.
Noam , dont you support our ROR ?
I agree with you that people wont be happy to see them at first but an Arab Jew sounds like a christian Arab to a Muslim Arab and a Muslim Arab to a Christian Arab , so its not about religion but nationalism and behavior.Norman Frankenstein is an Ashkenzi Jew and see how they treat him in the Arab countries.European Zionism destroyed the existence and identity of Jewish Arabs and brought them as cheap labor.
Bosko
Can someone explain to me why is the suppression of “Arabness” a greater evil than would be the suppression of “Jewishness” in a Mizrahi Jew?
To me, the former is a personal choice of some Mizrahi Jews in Israel today because they succumb to the prejudices of some fellow Israelis instead of fighting against those prejudices. The latter (suppressing “Jewishness”) on the other hand, is not a personal choice in Arab majority countries. It is a matter of survival. The author of this article alluded to this, I suspect inadvertantly, by admitting that Jordan is the last Arab country which accepts travellers from Israel. And I suspect, that won’t be the case for much longer because they too will follow Egypt’s example. Oh and here is another one … Exactly how many Jewish citizens live in Arab countries today … ? A few thousand maybe … ? That says it all …
aristeides
Bosko – this, too, can be added to the account of Israel’s original sin. Within a single decade, vital Jewish communities across Africa and Asia were sacrificed on the altar of Zionist nationalism.
Bosko
Really Aristeides? What did we sacrifice? The oppression of Jews by Arabs? Make no mistake about it, that oppression pteceded Zionism. In fact, in a small way, the oppression of Jews all over the world, including the Arab world, contributed to the revival of Zionism amongst Jews. I say revival because the yearning to return to Zion always existed amongst Jews even before Herzl. He just showed a way to make it a practical reality.
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Go read some more history my dear Aristeides and stop being so one sided in your views.
directrob
Bosko,
You seem to agree that suppression of the “arab” identity of Jews in Israel is bad. In that case there is no need to point to other countries, fight prejudice in Israel.
Talia
great read lihi – thank you for sharing this and writing so clearly about something so complicated.
RichardNYC
“I felt that there was no “us’ and ‘them’ at that moment, partly because there were too many possible ‘us’s and ‘them’s into which we could be divided.”
That’s nice…but when the music stops, and you ask to join hands in peace with your Arab brothers, they are going to put you on a boat and send you ‘back’ to Morocco, or, if you’re really lucky fly back to old neighborhood in Iraq. Maybe Zionism doesn’t sound so bad after all? Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater now!
RichardNYC
@PALESTINIAN
Oh your siren song of Arab brotherhood is dividing the Jews…just look at you, you’re dividing and conquering just like a big boy…oh wait, no there are actually only very few people as immature and glossy eyed as the author, so don’t get your hopes up!
RichardNYC
Palestinian: “see, Norman Finkelstein visits Arab countries without any fuss! You have nothing to fear my precious…nothing to fear…now just put down the guns and everything’s going to be just fine…I promise…”
Palestinian
@ Richard ,she has been listening to siren song of “Jewish” peoplehood since her birth.Allow her to discover her heritage and origins,even if this damages your interests ad beliefs.Few people like her is a great start , people are awakening ,didnt you read the letter written by Jewish Arabs to the Arab revolutionists ?Arabs are seeking freedom and democracy , does that really bother you Richey?
I always have hope.Your second comment is completely worthless, you just had to say something but you ad anything to say.
directrob
@Richard,
To use the threat of deportation to Marocco or Iraq to defend the current situation is quite outrageous fear mongering. If nothing else a guest blogger deserves more respect.
RichardNYC
@DIRECTROB
I wish the threat to expel Jews from Israel were outrageous, but its not. Its entirely mainstream in the Arab world – I respect the guest blogger enough to tell her the truth – are we adults here or is this a high school newspaper that exists for the purpose of building self esteem?
RichardNYC
@PALESTINIAN
I welcome and encourage Jews of Arab ancestry to express their family’s culture – I personally appreciate their contribution to Israeli culture – and I have no problem with Arab freedom–> however, I do have a problem with wishful thinking that goes something like “its all Ashkenazi Zionists’ fault that us Arab Jews don’t get along with the Muslim Arabs, who are our REAL friends anyway” – because that’s totally bullshit – it was in 1948 and it is now – if you applied the same logic to American Muslims, then you’d blame Osama Bin Laden for an American decision to summarily expel its Muslims citizens. History is clear enough – tell your stories about Zionist bombs in Baghdad – Israeli Jews from Arab countries are not going to forget how they ended up in Israel en masse – statistically speaking there will be some misguided ones, like the author, who decide to express their legitimate grievances against the Ashkenazi establishment by pretending that Israel is 100% responsible for the “Arab Jewish divide.” Ok, whatever. Just don’t get your hopes up.
Sylvia
“Allow her to discover her heritage and origins”
A Jew who identifies himself/herself as “Arab Jew” HAS to deny his or her heritage for one simple reason: by assuming the identity of the oppressor, he/she will naturally suppress anything that could create an identity conflict.
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There have been Jewish activists such as Albert Memmi or Abraham Serfaty who have called themselves Arab Jews. But that was because in order to militate for their causes (for Memmi, it was the fight against colonialism in Tunisia, for Serfaty, it was social reform in Morocco) so that they could militate from a position of equality although everyone – probably themselves included – knew better.
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Here is a small excerpt from Memmi’s famous essay, “Who is an Arab Jew” that he wrote in the 1970s in answer to Ghaddafi’s invitation to his “Arab jews” to return to Libya years after he robbed them and kicked them out:
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“The term “Arab Jews” is obviously not a good one. I have adopted it for convenience.”
“… the much vaunted idyllic life of the Jews in Arab lands is a myth! The truth, since I am obliged to return to it, is that from the outset we were a minority in a hostile environment; as such, we underwent all the fears, the agonies, and the constant sense of frailty of the underdog. As far back as my childhood memories go – in the tales of my father, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles – coexistence with the Arabs was not just uncomfortable, it was marked by threats periodically carried out.”
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Bosko
@Directorb – You wrote …
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“Bosko,
You seem to agree that suppression of the “arab” identity of Jews in Israel is bad. In that case there is no need to point to other countries, fight prejudice in Israel”
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I agree that wherever a sizable community of human beings live together, not just in Israel, prejudice exists. That is the point that I made. I also make the point that the prejudice that Jews faced and are still facing in Arab countries, went and still go beyond prejudice. Jews faced and are still facing existential threat in Arab countries. I fail to see why you want me to ignore that fact and just talk about prejudices that exist in Israel. I am against all prejudices, whether they are held by SOME Ashkenazi Jews or by SOME Mizrahi Jews or by many Arabs against Jews.
Ben Israel
I wish someone would explain to me why “Arab Jews” (okay, I will use this nonsensicle term for convenience in this thread) are supposedly “brothers and sisters” with other Arabs because they happen to like Arab music and cuisine, but they are NOT brothers and sisters with their fellow Jews, even Ashkenazim, in spite of the 4000-year long religious and cultural tradition they share?
Lihi Yona
Hi Ben,
Your comment is based on the very inaccurate dichotomy that I chose to confront in this article – the false idea that Mizrahi Jews identifying and embracing the Arab aspects of their identity (and thus other Arabs) means they must necessarily reject the Jewish aspects of their identity (and thus other Jews). In fact, there needn’t be any conflict in our embrace of both the various Jewish (religious) and Arab (ethnic) aspects of our heritage.
Ben Israel
Lihi-
Thank you for your clarification. I was responding to those who claim that somehow “Arab Jews” view themselves as Arabs as their prime identity and that the Zionists, out of nefarious motives, artificially created this notion of “Jewish solidarity”.
I have a good friend who was born in Iraq and who was brought, as a baby, to Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. He told me that his parents made clear to him that the Jews were viewed as aliens by the Arabs and their role in society was essentially as “middlemen” between the British quasi-colonial regime along with its Iraqi supporters and the Arab masses. This left the Jews in a very uncomfortable situation. This was true in places like Syria, Egypt, Morocco and other places in the Middle East. Once the colonial powers had left, the Jews were left exposed and were viewed as collaborators with the colonial regime by the Arab masses (this applied to the Christians in these countries as well) and so there was no choice ultimately but to leave, many to Israel, but also many to France, the UK, the US, Canada and other liberal countries.
Sylvia
Bosko, you’re wasting your time. Centuries of history and culture -distinct from religion – in country of origin HAVE to be suppressed in order to eliminate conflict. Which is why those centuries long histories and cultures are being reduced to a bundle of recipes and a litany of stereotypes.
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It pains me deeply, as someone who is herself an immigrant from an Arab country, to read articles such as this or Larry Derfner’s, which never sit on tangible evidence only on approximations and never reflect minimal intellectual effort only gut feelings. THIS is insulting.
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There is Ashkenazi oppression and this is not the time or the place to discuss it. But today, their “Mizrahi” students and their children have absorbed and co-opted the contemptuous and rigid mindsets of their Ashkenazi teachers and today, they too are looking down on us immigrants from Arab countries with contempt.
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Ben Israel
I think it is oversimplistic to think of the original MAPAI-MAPAM-directed cultural hegemony as being “anti-Mizrachi” specifically. It is important to recall that they had an elitist, Marxist mentality which said they knew what was best for everyone (BTW in the mid-20th century it was a world-wide phenomenon that central planning by “experts” was best for everyone, and this applied in the US and other Western countries. Examples were the attempts to crush indigenous cultures in democracies like Canada with the Eskimoes and the Aborigines in Australia).
They believed that a Mamlachtiut (statist) mentality could only be created by imposing a single culture (i.e. theirs-a European, socialist culture) on everyone. This was pressed on the Ashkenazim as well where the Yiddish language and traditional Ashkenazi foods were disparaged and felafel was adopted as the “official Israeli food” and production of things like gefilte fish were actually discouraged by the monopoly food processors that operated under government control.
Naturally, religious observance was discouraged and actual coercion, including discrimination in job hiring was used against religious workers, of all communities, and even violence.
A friend of mine, who is right-wing Orthodox/religious still has tremendous resentment against Israel radio because for many years, they would not broadcast “mizrachi” music.
The SHAS party is the most visible reaction against the old cultural coercion that existed.
Thus, a lot of us are very unhappy at this cultural, but do not, for one moment think that this is any sort of complaint on my part or by others against Zionism itself, or Jewish solidarity. What unites us is still far stronger than disputes over these matters.
Palestinian
The real culture part of what you call the Israeli culture is the Arab part.
Zionism is number one to blame .I do blame whoever did 11/9 attacks, and you cant compare between the citizens of the US today and the Arabs back in the 40s, different mentalities, conditions, awareness and media.
History is clear enough….indeed it is , compare the life of Jewish Arabs before the existence of Zionism esp during the 20s and 30s and after the establishment of Israel. Zionist bombs in Jewish neighborhoods ,Zionist agencies driving Jewish Arabs out of their countries (40,50 and 60s) are facts.Those “misguided” Jewish Arabs are just discovering what their parents were banned from thinking about. Media , internet and technology are putting them on the right track , the more they know the more they comprehend what Zionism has done to them , same applies to Palestinian Druze and Bedouins. They will understand that their grandparents and parents were brought for the same reason Zionists allowed 100,000 Palestinians to stay in their homeland.Dont forget Zionist mentality is part of the European colonial mentality, same goal different means.I hope for the best, you never know whats gonna happen , history is full of surprises.
RichardNYC
@LIHI
“In fact, there needn’t be any conflict in our embrace of both the various Jewish (religious) and Arab (ethnic) aspects of our heritage.”
True, to the extent that you express this identity in a cultural sense – the problem is that the Arab world doesn’t agree with you – and its not Zionism’s fault. The seeds of Arab anti-semitism were sown long because Israel was on the horizon, and now that it exists, there’s certainly no way of turning back. Arabs have plenty to like about your cultural anti-Zionism, but that doesn’t mean they sincerely respect your civil rights, or that those professing to like you represent a politically relevant group of people.
Sylvia
Ben Israel
Marxism and elitism don’t excuse the fact that “Mizrahi” (another misnomer) and no other group has been made synonymous with “Working class”, as part of a “proletariat” that would have included Palestinian laborers. That was – and still is in some circles – the proletarian basis for the so-called “one state” society.
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I would agree with you, had the son of the milkman from Poland or the mason from Germany been also included into that “Working class.” But it hasn’t. Oddly, the only thing generations of Israelis have retained from that socialist history is precisely and only that: “Mizrahi”= “Working class”. So evidently, people with aspirations like those of Amir Peretz are going to be demonized and dismissed not for their ideas or their character, but for trying to step out of that box.
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I find it tragic though, that some people are still stiffling intellectual progress by dragging us – Jews from Arab and Muslim countries – down into sterile and time wasting arguments around artificial and fallacious identity constructs which, beside being useless, never existed in any community records. While individuals have the right to call themselves what they please, groups remain define nthemselves according to their own traditions. How they have called themselves in their community records is what finally counts.
Bosko
Ah, the good old times before Zionism. That’s when Arab and Jew lived side by side peacefully and respecting each other …
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So much for the mythology. Here is what Karl Marx (the man himself) wrote about it in the New York Herald Tribune in 1854. Before modern Zionism was even conceived …
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“the sedentary population of Jerusalem numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans and 8,000 Jews. The Mussulmans, forming about a fourth part of the whole, and consisting of Turks, Arabs and Moors, are, of course, the masters in every respect, as they are in no way affected with the weakness of their Government at Constantinople. Nothing equals the misery and the sufferings of the Jews at Jerusalem, inhabiting the most filthy quarter of the town, called hareth-el-yahoud, the quarter of dirt, between the Zion and the Moriah, where their synagogues are situated – the constant objects of Mussulman oppression and intolerance”
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http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1854/03/28.htm
Ruth
Yawn. The fact that you have not heard the term until university says it all! False constructed identity. You have an agenda. Are we supposed to be impressed by the boldness of the statement? Do you expect us Mizrahim-hate that word too- to follow you? Sounds very progressive to you but I am sure your parents did not say,”Come here my little arab jew” Did they now? It is always those who are far away from their grandparents culture who adopt and romanticise that culture.
Every once in a while an anti-zionist Mizrahi Jew stands up and declares himelf or herself an arab jew regardless of the fact that the communities themselves never self identified that way in their countries of origin. And regardless of the fact that those emigrate out of their countries tend to adop the culture of the host country. And in the case of Israel, the dominant culture was ashkenazi. The same Moroccan jews who went to Canada are not repressing anything because they are assimilating as they are expected to do into the dominant culture. It has nothing to do with ashkenazim or Zionism for crying out loud! I am a Francophone North African Jew. Why the fuck should I adopt an identity that does not speak to who I am now?
You can call yourself anything you want but dont drag us into your politics. We are not buying it.
Student Ameer
although very far from being a brief and easy blog entry – the author here may still wish to check the following 2009 article which effectively addresses most of the concerns and themes debated here:
What’s in a name? Socio-terminological formations and the case for ‘Arabized-Jews’
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504630903372488
nizar
Lihi excellent article. It is excellent because of the questions it raises rather than the answers it gives. I was born and lived in Lebanon all of mylife. In my imagination the Israelis were blond and blue eyes and I imagined Israel with German or European houses that has little gardens. It was fascinating for me meeting Israelis that looked like me! The arabs experienced the loss of palestine as a loss to western Europeans and not to semites or to Jews. This is very important. As an Arab I also share with you this nostalgia to pre-national Middle East, while it might be unfounded, that period was much more cosmopolitan and productive than the period of nationalism in the East Mediterranean. I am in this sense anti-zionist and anti-Arab nationalism. We have to recreate the political culture in the Levant on the basis of liberalism rather than militant ghettos. This process of ‘revising’ our preconceived notions about who we are and the political space we live in is necessary if we want to end the conflict. The Arab Jews or the Mizrahi were like the Palestinians the real losers of the European solution of the “Jewish matter”, they are the people who lost their homes and experienced incredible racism at the hands of the colonial Ashkanazi regime!
Samir S. Halabi
This article doesn’t make any sense to me, I was brought up speaking Arabic, and enjoying arab-music still to this day. However my parents had to uproot their lives from their arab-homeland because of arab hatred directed against all the Jewish communities in the Arab-World. This hatred against the Jews of the arab-lands didn’t start with the inception of ‘The State of Israel’ in May 1948. This animosity against the Jews Mizrahi or Safardi was always there, it was and still is endemic.
Even as the second world war was raging, The ‘Farhud’in Baghdad took place, ‘the savage slaughter’ of around 800 Jews murdered in revenge for the ill-fated failed pro-Nazi-coup instigated by Rashid Ali who was supported by non-other than the Grand Mufti-of-Jerusalem,Haj Al-Amin al-Husseini who fled to Iraq after the British-Mandate-police issued an arrest warrant for him for cozying up to the nazis. Jews were also murdered in Libya ater the war ended in 1945. Jews lived under the protection and whim of Islam, sometimes peaceful at other times threatened. What i will say is that the Arabs who hold Israeli-citizenship wouldn’t wish to live in a Arab country because they know full well that they are better off and have more freedom in Israel than they would in any Arab land.
Dana
Never thought i’d see an Israeli Arab supremacist.Wow. FYI. Moroccans are Berber, Moroccan Jews speak a Judeo Berber language, have a berber culture so just like all Moroccans,we Jews are also Berber NOT Arab. Maybe if you were an Iraqi or Yemenite I would actually take this serious. Jeez.