Translated from Hebrew; English edited by Chana Morgenstern | Arabic version here
In a letter titled “Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011,” young Jewish descendants of the Arab and Islamic world living in Israel write to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa
We, as the descendents of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region.
Our generation’s protest against repression and oppressive and abusive regimes, and its call for change, freedom, and the establishment of democratic governments that foster citizen participation in the political process, marks a dramatic moment in the history of the Middle East and North Africa, a region which has for generations been torn between various forces, internal and external, and whose leaders have often trampled the political, economic, and cultural rights of its citizens.
We are Israelis, the children and grandchildren of Jews who lived in the Middle East and North Africa for hundreds and thousands of years. Our forefathers and mothers contributed to the development of this region’s culture, and were part and parcel of it. Thus the culture of the Islamic world and the multigenerational connection and identification with this region is an inseparable part of our own identity.
We are a part of the religious, cultural, and linguistic history of the Middle East and North Africa, although it seems that we are the forgotten children of its history: First in Israel, which imagines itself and its culture to be somewhere between continental Europe and North America. Then in the Arab world, which often accepts the dichotomy of Jews and Arabs and the imagined view of all Jews as Europeans, and has preferred to repress the history of the Arab-Jews as a minor or even nonexistent chapter in its history; and finally within the Mizrahi communities themselves, who in the wake of Western colonialism, Jewish nationalism and Arab nationalism, became ashamed of their past in the Arab world.
Consequently we often tried to blend into the mainstream of society while erasing or minimizing our own past. The mutual influences and relationships between Jewish and Arab cultures were subjected to forceful attempts at erasure in recent generations, but evidence of them can still be found in many spheres of our lives, including music, prayer, language, and literature.
We wish to express our identification with and hopes for this stage of generational transition in the history of the Middle East and North Africa, and we hope that it will open the gates to freedom and justice and a fair distribution of the region’s resources.
We turn to you, our generational peers in the Arab and Muslim world, striving for an honest dialog which will include us in the history and culture of the region. We looked enviously at the pictures from Tunisia and from Al-Tahrir square, admiring your ability to bring forth and organize a nonviolent civil resistance that has brought hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets and the squares, and finally forced your rulers to step down.
We, too, live in a regime that in reality—despite its pretensions to being “enlightened” and “democratic”—does not represent large sections of its actual population in the Occupied Territories and inside of the Green Line border(s). This regime tramples the economic and social rights of most of its citizens, is in an ongoing process of minimizing democratic liberties, and constructs racist barriers against Arab-Jews, the Arab people, and Arabic culture. Unlike the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt, we are still a long way from the capacity to build the kind of solidarity between various groups that we see in these countries, a solidarity movement that would allow us to unite and march together–all who reside here–into the public squares, to demand a civil regime that is culturally, socially, and economically just and inclusive.
We believe that, as Mizrahi Jews in Israel, our struggle for economic, social, and cultural rights rests on the understanding that political change cannot depend on the Western powers who have exploited our region and its residents for many generations. True change can only come from an intra-regional and inter-religious dialog that is in connection with the different struggles and movements currently active in the Arab world. Specifically, we must be in dialog and solidarity with struggles of the Palestinians citizens of Israel who are fighting for equal political and economic rights and for the termination of racist laws, and the struggle of the Palestinian people living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza in their demand to end the occupation and to gain Palestinian national independence.
In our previous letter written following Obama’s Cairo speech in 2009, we called for the rise of the democratic Middle Eastern identity and for our inclusion in such an identity. We now express the hope that our generation – throughout the Arab, Muslim, and Jewish world – will be a generation of renewed bridges that will leap over the walls and hostility created by previous generations and will renew the deep human dialog without which we cannot understand ourselves: between Jews, Sunnis, Shias, and Christians, between Kurds, Berbers, Turks, and Persians, between Mizrahis and Ashkenazis, and between Palestinians and Israelis. We draw on our shared past in order to look forward hopefully towards a shared future.
We have faith in intra-regional dialog—whose purpose is to repair and rehabilitate what was destroyed in recent generations—as a catalyst towards renewing the Andalusian model of Muslim-Jewish-Christian partnership, God willing, Insha’Allah, and as a pathway to a cultural and historical golden era for our countries. This golden era cannot come to pass without equal, democratic citizenship, equal distribution of resources, opportunities, and education, equality between women and men, and the acceptance of all people regardless of faith, race, status, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic affiliation. All of these rights play equal parts in constructing the new society to which we aspire. We are committed to achieving these goals within a process of dialog between all of the people of Middle East and North Africa, as well as a dialog we will undertake with different Jewish communities in Israel and around the world.
We, the undersigned:
Shva Salhoov (Libya), Naama Gershy (Serbia, Yemen), Yael Ben-Yefet (Iraq, Aden), Leah Aini (Greece, Turkey), Yael Berda (Tunisia), Aharon Shem-Tov (Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan), Yosi Ohana (born in Morocco), Yali Hashash (Libya, Yemen), Yonit Naaman (Yemen, Turkey), Orly Noy (born in Iran), Gadi Alghazi (Yugoslavia, Egypt), Mati Shemoelof (Iran, Iraq, Syria), Eliana Almog (Yemen, Germany), Yuval Evri ((Iraq), Ophir Tubul (Morocco, Algeria), Moti Gigi (Morocco), Shlomit Lir (Iran), Ezra Nawi (Iraq), Hedva Eyal (Iran), Eyal Ben-Moshe (Yemen), Shlomit Binyamin (Cuba, Syria, Turkey), Yael Israel (Turkey, Iran), Benny Nuriely (Tunisia), Ariel Galili (Iran), Natalie Ohana Evry (Morocco, Britain), Itamar Toby Taharlev (Morocco, Jerusalem, Egypt), Ofer Namimi (Iraq, Morocco), Amir Banbaji (Syria), Naftali Shem-Tov (Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan), Mois Benarroch (born in Morocco), Yosi David (Tunisia Iran), Shalom Zarbib (Algeria), Yardena Hamo (Iraqi Kurdistan), Aviv Deri (Morocco) Menny Aka (Iraq), Tom Fogel (Yemen, Poland), Eran Efrati (Iraq), Dan Weksler Daniel (Syria, Poland, Ukraine), Yael Gidnian (Iran), Elyakim Nitzani (Lebanon, Iran, Italy), Shelly Horesh-Segel (Morocco), Yoni Mizrahi (Kurdistan), Betty Benbenishti (Turkey), Chen Misgav (Iraq, Poland), Moshe Balmas (Morocco), Tom Cohen (Iraq, Poland, England), Ofir Itah (Morocco), Shirley Karavani (Tunisia, Libya, Yemen), Lorena Atrakzy (Argentina, Iraq), Asaf Abutbul (Poland, Russia, Morocco), Avi Yehudai (Iran), Diana Ahdut (Iran, Jerusalem), Maya Peretz (Nicaragua, Morocco), Yariv Moher (Morocco, Germany), Tami Katzbian (Iran), Oshra Lerer (Iraq, Morocco), Nitzan Manjam (Yemen, Germany, Finland), Rivka Gilad (Iran, Iraq, India), Oshrat Rotem (Morocco), Naava Mashiah (Iraq), Zamira Ron David (Iraq) Omer Avital (Morocco, Yemen), Vered Madar (Yemen), Ziva Atar (Morocco), Yossi Alfi (born in Iraq), Amira Hess (born in Iraq), Navit Barel (Libya), Almog Behar (Iraq, Turkey, Germany)
April 27, 2011
12:56 am
R-
Well said! “Hishtaknazt” is an artificial Hebrew word that means a Sefardic (edot hamizrach) Jew who wants to be considered Ashkenazic, or, more correctly according to the “hitpael” verb grammar-a Sefardic Jew who made himself into an Ashkenazi.
Today, there is so much intermarriage between groups in Israel, these “ethnic” distinctions are becoming meaningless in a political or social sense.
You are quite right-if things were so good in the Arab countries, why did the Jews feel they have to leave them? Jews feel things are good in the US and Canada and most have not left. Once the colonial period ended in the Middle East (by the early 1960′s) most minority groups, particularly the Christians, in the Middle East were under pressure and began leaving. The process continues today, as political Islam asserts itself to varying degrees in the countries of the area. However, it must be remembered it was the “secular, progressive” regime of Nasser that expelled the Jews and other minority groups from Egypt in 1956, so the discrimination and outright persecution of minorities in the Middle East is not only religiously motivated.
April 27, 2011
2:00 am
@R.–I only dissed his son-in-law and you if you think being an Arab is inherently a bad thing, which apparently you do. To me it’s just a general descriptor for people from the Middle East who speak Arabic or a dialect of it, and who generally have brown skin. (And yes, your dialect may have been a muddle of French, Berber and Arabic that is incomprensible to Levantine Arabs, but the Moroccan Muslims also speak that same incomprehensible dialect in daily speech also, it doesn’t mean they’re not Arabs.)
And are you saying that I personally, as an Ashkenazi, am still a Khazar? Or is that just a general example? If the former, then you’ve bought into completely disproven anti-Jewish propaganda largely disseminated by other, non-Jewish Arabs.
April 27, 2011
2:26 am
Here in Israel, many Arabs could pass for Europeans, having light skin. The Mufti Husseini was cleared as an “Aryan” by no less than Hitler. Thus, your view of “skin color” as being some sort of definition of ethnicity is off track.
April 27, 2011
2:42 am
I said generally, and when did we start using Hitler as our standard for determining ethnicity? You seem to be suggesting that ethnic identity is ultimately a choice, and nothing innate? Okay, I have no problem with that. Although that would return being Jewish to only a religious identity, which you might have no problem with, but the greater state of Israel would.
April 27, 2011
5:43 am
Richard Allen
I don’t think you understand what people are telling you. It’s not for you (or ‘the ashkenazi themselves”) to name other people contrary to their tradition and wishes. People can name animals and objects. They cannot rename other people.
Not only is it offensive, but it is also a violation of the Geneva Convention on Human rights relative to cultures because once you rename a group you are deleting its past. It is not better or worse to be called “Arab Jew” or “Oriental”. It simply is not correct and it is detrimental to the cultures because changing the name deletes the memory of that group.
Please understand that it is very painful and distressing to many of us from that viewpoint.
This is my problem with that group, not their politics or their mindboggling naivete. Instead of rebelling against the imposition of a new name, they have brandished those crumbs thrown down to them like a flag.
And thus condemned millions of the people they purported to represent to cultural death more efficiently than all the Israeli governments combined. Now you know why they are so hated.
April 27, 2011
6:05 am
Well that’s just like, your opinion, man.
And I’m pretty sure the hatred has less to do with, “How dare you think you can speak for me!” and more, “How dare you call me an Arab!” What you call naivete, I see as optimism, and I’ll take their naivete over the viciously externalised self-loathing that apparently a clear-eyed, realistic Mizrahi feels.
April 27, 2011
6:41 am
“And I’m pretty sure the hatred has less to do with, “How dare you think you can speak for me!” and more, “How dare you call me an Arab!””
Well, I guess that’s the best one could expect from a Khazar…
April 27, 2011
8:38 am
“Hishtaknazt” is an artificial Hebrew word that means a Sefardic (edot hamizrach) Jew who wants to be considered Ashkenazic, or, more correctly according to the “hitpael” verb grammar-a Sefardic Jew who made himself into an Ashkenazi..”
.
So says the melamed from Chelm. Once again displaying your rather superficial understanding of hebrew culture. Not suprising, as the concept of a culture derived from a language does nothing to validate your “baal teshuva” life choice. There’s nothing artificial about the word. Its authenticity is defined by its colloquial nature. Newsflash! The only thing artificial here is you.
.
Re.
.
“…Today, there is so much intermarriage between groups in Israel, these “ethnic” distinctions are becoming meaningless in a political or social sense.”
.
Close, but no cigar. To wit;
.
“…In the past, many of us hoped that the high rate of intercommunal marriages would produce a third generation, in which descent would not matter, and all inequalities would be eradicated. Unfortunately, another research project indicates that among pupils of this third generation, whose parents are Israeli-born, the gaps remain (especially among boys).”
.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=179696
April 27, 2011
9:02 am
Look Sylvia! You even believe the Khazar propaganda, just like a real Arab!
April 27, 2011
9:23 am
Can you tell us any more about this group of young people? Do they have an organization? How did they get together and create this letter? I plan to forward it, and I’m sure these questions will be asked of me.
April 27, 2011
9:26 am
Propaganda?
Well that’s just like, your opinion, man.
April 27, 2011
12:18 pm
Well said, Sylvia!
April 27, 2011
1:30 pm
If I may jump in here, it seems that there is so much at stake, such fierce attachment to identity of all sorts: ethnicity, national origin, religion, etc. The perspective I wish to bring in here is that in reality we’re all humans, and being human we’re more alike than different. On one level, we all want happiness and freedom and prosperity for ourselves and our community. On another level, we all have egos; we firmly believe that what we believe is right and the others are wrong. All those identities (religious, ethnic, nationality, etc.) that we cling to are extensions of our ego, and when egos form into group egos they become even more adamant, more self-righteous, and less tolerant of what is perceived as “other.”
Every group that has been mentioned in these comments is functioning in exactly the same way, although perhaps to different degrees. For example, Nazis thought the Jews (and Roma and gays) were inferior to themselves and could not tolerate their “otherness.” The Jews who dislike Arabs and are strangling Gaza, occupying the West Bank, they are operating out of the same mind-set, imagining themselves as more deserving or entitled. And the Arabs who are hell-bent on destruction and violence against their perceived enemies are exactly the same. There is no group who is essentially any different. Likewise, there are some holy and illumined Jews and there are some holy and illumined Arabs, those who rejoice to see the light and beauty in all Creation of the one God (HaShem/Allah), those who have risen above the narrowness and littleness of petty ego (personal and collective) identities. This is the realization of unity we must strive for in ourselves and advocate for in the world.
What I am saying is not meant to diminish the beauty of our various cultures. Unity does not mean uniformity. It’s wonderful to have all our cultural identities and preserve our languages, our foods, our music, arts, ways of life. But we abuse cultural diversity when we use it as a pretext for denigrating and oppressing others. So let’s just appreciate each other and work together to bring forth a world of harmony and well-being for all.
April 28, 2011
7:33 am
While this letter attempts to bridge some barriers left open, it still repeats some general oppressive logic. First, a so called “Andulsian model of Muslim-Jewish-Christian” leaves no space for anyone who are outside the ‘book people,’ what about Atheists? Seems like a forcast of the future where religions unite in their oppression of individuals. Second, it is a leap to discuss the Palestinian dispossession inside and outside Israel, but this leap is silent on the right of Palestinian refugees to return! Third, there is alot of glamour given to democracy and rights, but does that mean that self-identified Jews who recently came from Texas, Ethiopia, or any other place get to be ‘equal’ with Palestinian who recently have been expelled from their homes – it doesn’t seem equal.
April 28, 2011
11:30 am
I’m not sure if Fadi is responding to my earlier comment since I don’t mention the Andalusian model, but in any case, even though I refer to the One God I don’t mean to exclude atheists or Buddhists or Hindus or any other religious or non-religious belief. Religions in general put forward a “God-ideal” (some kind of conception of what they think “God” is) and try to convey in words, often in mythic or symbolic language, that which cannot be described or named. The trouble comes when these “pointers” are understood literally and concepts become reified. When we become aware of this, we begin to have respect for how all religions attempt to convey something beyond our ordinary experience of the world, but we also see the shortcomings of religion which, as Fadi says, becomes oppressive when the original essence has become concretized and made into dogmas and other rigid structures. That’s when religion has become just another human institution and takes away freedom rather than offers a path to true spiritual liberty (which was the original message of all the prophets, messengers, and inspirers of humanity).
The whole question of dispossession that Fadi raises is so important, because there has been so much injustice in how the state of Israel came into being, and how people in that time did not deeply question the validity of Zionist claims to the land. It was all done through expedience coming out of the atrocious experience of the holocaust. It’s well known that early in the 20th century most of the orthodox rabbis in Europe did not approve of Zionism as a socio-political movement, but the situation in Germany convinced many that the survival of the Jewish people required a Jewish state. So now it’s a done deal, but that doesn’t mean that Zionist claims cannot be questioned at this point. For a group that has been victimized to then use their victim status to justify victimizing another people only perpetuates the disease. When any organization or structure requires increasing oppression, dominance or hurt of any peoples to maintain itself, that’s a clue that the organization or structure is not viable. We have to be willing to admit and say that there has been a mistake and ask “where do we go from here?”
To do this authentically we have to leave behind the mind-set that created this situation, which is one that separates people and asserts that one group has rights at the expense of another people. This is the basic fallacy. As soon as a certain “tipping point” number of people genuinely feel this and know this, then real change can begin.
Here is a story:
“There was a man who once hated his neighbor. He quarreled and fought with him, and took revenge; there were fights and quarrels, and they exchanged their ill will towards one another, words against one another. In the end the heart of one person was melted, and he said: “What are we quarreling about? It is nothing, just a misunderstanding, I am so sorry.”The whole thing which was built into a mountain, dropped in a moment. Nothing of the past was left. They became friends, and loved one another.”
This may seem like an over-simplification in this case, but it really can happen just like that. It only takes the heart to be melted and deep sincere apologies. Then we can move forward. This is why I so appreciate the letter that the young, or not so young, mizrahis wrote, finding common ground with the Arab youth. These are the kinds of bridges that can move us forward.
April 29, 2011
6:31 am
It’s amazing just how self-denigrating some of these individuals are, who claim to speak for all Mizrahim. While their intentions might be good, their naivety and ignorance is so painful that it drives them to try and reconcile with those who have no desire to reconcile with them, let alone acknowledge the tragic uprooting of millenia old Jewish communities throughout the Arab and Muslim world.
Our families never identified as Arabs. They were comfortable with speaking Arabic (more specifically our unique Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic dialect) and in fact Jews had used Arabic even BEFORE Islam. They participated in the society, contributed immensely to the economy, culture, arts, literature and music. But they also maintained their unique separate identity as Babylonian Jews who pre-date the muslim conquests by at least 1,000 years. It was only a minority from the more secular middle-upper class who identified as “Arabs” and even then, not all of them did. One needs to understand this in its proper historical context. The pan-Arab Baathist movement was founded by a Muslim and a Christian. But for many non-Muslims, it became a way of exiting their less-than-equal reality and create a new identity not modeled on religion, but one on a secular Arabness that would somehow unite Muslims, Jews, Christians…etc The problem was, most Muslims weren’t so immediately swayed by this development, and religion remained an important part in their self-identification with the Muslim Umma. The price for that illusive equality was a downplaying of one’s non-Muslim or non-Arab identity, whether you were a Copt or Assyrian or Maronite or Syriac or Jewish or Berber. That to me, doesn’t speak of equality but of further inequality, one were Arab culture and Arabic language trumps older regional identities and languages. I challenge these young Mizrahim to find a period in history where Jewish communities voluntarily chose an Arab identity for themselves. Let them pour over the wealth of Jewish writing, literature, letters and historical record and find one such instance. That is not to say that one can’t be an Arab-Jew if so they choose or even be an Arab convert. In Yemen for example, many Yemenite tribes embraced Judaism and were absorbed into the pre-existing and ancient Jewish community of Teiman. The same with Amazigh tribes in North Africa. However, these communities themselves came to view themselves as part of the Jewish nation and the Jewish people accepted them into the fold. We are an old and diverse people and that is what enriches us and makes us so strong.
The problem with many pan-Arabists is that if you say you’re not an Arab it means its an insult or you hate Arabs, which is of course ridiculous! What is an insult is imposing a foreign and politicized identity on people without their consent. That attitude is rooted in contempt for minorities and a belief in the superiority of everything Arab. That is why many of us Middle-Eastern Jews resent these paternalistic attempts to lecture us on OUR history and how we should identify and “rediscover” our Middle-Easterness or “true arabness.”
I don’t need to rediscover anything. My family has always known where it came from (Iraq) and took great pride in it, despite the violence they faced in Iraq and the discrimination in Israel. They are unapologetic Babylonian Jews who are loud, warm, love listening to Arabic classics (many many of which were composed or sung by Jews by the way) and cook with our strong and beautiful pungent spices.
That being said, it is unfortunate that many of the younger generation has lost touch with their parents’ culture but that is due to many factors: racism, eurocentric views of Jewishness but also the violent dispossession of Jewish communities throughout Arab/Muslim lands that dealt a massive blow. The culture and traditions are rooted to the land where one lives and one can try to preserve what they can, but one can’t expect it to remain the same as when our fathers and mothers lived in Baghdad or Zakho or Arbil.
If there is to be a true reconciliation, let be one where we stand on equal grounds. Let it be one where our Arab brothers and sisters open their eyes to the lies their governments and politicians have been feeding them for decades, and learn about the disappeared Jews who once lived in their midst. Let them acknowledge that we are the face of Israel and are a part of this landscape as much as they are, not more, not less. Let them look to how other minorities today are experiencing what we once experienced and maybe they could stop the disappearance of yet another fragment of diversity. Only then can we even begin to speak of a real, genuine dialogue.
E.Heskel
April 29, 2011
4:47 pm
I am wishing you all many blessing and support during this time of great change! May peace have a chance for all of our sakes!
May 1, 2011
5:05 am
vital idea; needs extension: try thinking of reuniting historical palestine for a viable long term solution. this will in turn allow for your vision of old andalusia in the form of extendable geography into the rest of the arab and muslim worlds. otherwise, this all is wishfull thinking and functions as anesthesia.
May 1, 2011
7:52 am
Well said, E. Heskel. I don’t FULLY agree, but you came the closest to convincing me.
May 1, 2011
6:32 pm
There are two places in our history where humans took a wrong turn which set us toward self-destruction: land ownership and religion. Too complex to reiterate here but I go into this in more depth on my blog.
The discussion taking place here is the result of both those choices. Think about the consequences of who owns which piece of land and to which religion does one belong?
May 2, 2011
9:09 am
breath taking in scope…more…thank you…
May 2, 2011
3:22 pm
Two words people!
Dhimmi & Crypto
Llllllaters!
May 3, 2011
1:02 pm
The sons and daughters of jews who came to israel from arab countries are part of the Arab world. I hope their relations with their peers in Arab countries will be better in the future.
May 3, 2011
2:44 pm
Richard Allen, what exactly do you find objectionable?
Jalal Ghazi, we would have liked to have been a part of the Arab world, but alas, no more. We can’t change the past الفات مات We are an integral and inseparable part of Israel.
May 6, 2011
4:19 pm
To Artcenterjo:
You speak of “ancient, historical Palestine”. When has there ever been a historic ethnic, political, cultural, religious or any other way of independent entity called “Palestine” or “Palestinians” in history? If there has been such a thing, what were its borders? Can you give me any historical name of anybody in the past who declared him/herself as “Palestinian”?
Don’t you see that this whole “Palestine” thing is a political invention?
May 15, 2011
1:12 pm
For another unreserved support of the Arab Spring see
http://www.a-c-elitzur.co.il/site/SiteArticle.asp?ar=241
in three languages.
June 16, 2011
12:16 pm
@ Ben Israel, the jews in the 50s and 60s were expelled due to terror from small zionist militia cells especially. It of course did not help that the arabs started assimilating all jews to potential zionists following the mass influx of european jews to the region. However, they did live together for centuries without any problem before mass european jewish immigration to palestine and appropriation of lands. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emq94B17zXo for instance, in addition to some of Ellah Shohat’s texts about Israeli discrimination against Sephardi jews and the reasons for trying to push them to come to Israel (mostly economic, demographic and political)
September 14, 2011
2:01 am
Bold Move, Mabrook to all wise men and women who took this action. The 21st century requires us to act as such. Proud of you guys, lets leave aside the difference and work around commanalities and shared interests and values of human beings. All these religious fundumentalist from Jews to Muslims and Christians are the elements seeking their personal interests on others miseries.
September 18, 2011
2:54 am
I did not know that Jews from Serbia, Turkey, Iran, Germany, Kurdistan are Arab…
It is true that Jews lived for hundreds and even thousands of years throughout the Middle East, and that after the Arabization of the region that started with the spread of Islam in the seventh century, they became linguistically and culturally Arabized, just as Jews in America have become linguistically and culturally Americanized. But it’s also true that, in the course of these centuries, no Middle Eastern Jew, if asked whether he was an Arab, would have said yes, no matter how at home he felt in his environment. And for that matter, no Arab would have called his Jewish neighbor an Arab either. Jewishness and Arabness were perceived as antonyms in the sense of denoting two mutually exclusive ethnic identities. It was only in the 20th century that small numbers of Jews, most of them on the Anti-Zionist political left in cosmopolitan Arab cities like Cairo and Baghdad began to argue on behalf of an “Arab Jewish” identity as a way of repudiating Jewish nationalism and justifying their participation in Arab revolutionary politics.
One speaks of “American Jews” and “European Jews” rather than of “Jews living in America” or “Jews living in Europe” because Jews in these places think of themselves as Americans and Europeans. But traditionally, Jews living in Arab lands never thought of themselves as anything but Jews living in Arab lands, and I challenge the signatories to produce a single pre-20th-century text that suggests otherwise. To refer to these communities as “Arab Jews” implies that Zionism tore them away from their true homelands for the false lure of a Jewish state. In my immediate family there are
some with Yemeni and Egyptian origin. When I asked them how they identify themselves, it is always as Israelis first and then as Yemeni Jews or Egyptian Jews but never as Arab Jews.
When the signatories speak about the Andalusian model and mention the Muslim, Christian, Jewish cooperation, they forget that the Jews are not just a group with the same religion, like the Christians and the Muslims, but a people.In Andalus they were a minority with the well known dhimmi status. Today they have their own nation-state and the vast majority of them will not give it up.
December 29, 2011
4:51 am
It is shocking and disappointing to hear these forgotten Jews slam Israel. To slam the only country who remembers you is disheartening. To slam the country that has given you a home and who has preserved your life is shocking. you say you want “a solidarity movement that would allow us to unite and march together–all who reside here–into the public squares, to demand a civil regime that is culturally, socially, and economically just and inclusive.” Only problem is that most of those people want to destroy Israel, not march in hopes of civil government. They would march in hops of an islamic government.aka sharia. For you to praise the arab world as if they are the leaders of human rights and equality for all is a joke. Just ask all the Jews there. Oh ya there arent any left. Ok well theres a few Coptics in Egypt. Lets ask them what they thing about the solidarity in Egypt.
December 29, 2011
5:04 am
After rereading this “letter” it sure does sound propagandish. it certainly wasnt written by some young people like they described. The english is very well written…with some things that only the more highly educated would say. not something a jew from yemen who moved to Israel and learned English as a 2nd language. Theres no way. “Part and parcel” is one example. That is a term used by an older generation. The generation that is in their 60s or older. Im also not sure when anyone from israel has ever claimed to be “enlightened”. Just because the muslim world is in the dark doesnt mean Israelis have said they are enlightened. Clearly another ruse by someone on the left. The self hating Jew from the left. This letter may have been sent, but it clearly was written by someone older, with their own agenda. This did not come from school kids…aka “We, the undersigned” ya tell me thats natural to hear from someone that english is a 2nd language. Dont fall for the spin people. Slamming the country that gave you a safe place to live, love and be Jewish without fear while siding with the culture that has made them irrelevant and forgotten??? thats like being pushed into the ocean by a muslim, while an israeli comes along and saves you from drowmning by throwing you a life preserver and you turning around and saying…how nice the muslim was compared to the a-hole who actually saved your life. If these are true mizrahi then no wonder… people tend to not like traitors