Reflections of an Arab Jew »
Posted by: hyperbola 6 months, 3 weeks agoZionism is destroying much of judaism. For Sephardic (oriental) jews, Israel does not represent aliya (ascent), but rather a yerida (descent). Oriental-Sephardic peace movements not only call for a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians, but also for the cultural, political, and economic integration of Israel/Palestine into the Middle East.
Read Full Story at solidarity-us.org
Join the Discussion 
+ Add Comment
Comments So Far: 10
-
0%
hyperbola6 months, 3 weeks ago
from the article:
I am an Arab Jew. Or, more specifically, an Iraqi Israeli woman living, writing and teaching in the United States.
When my grandmother first encountered Israeli society in the `50s, she was convinced that the people who looked, spoke and ate so differently -- the European Jews -- were actually European Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably associated with Middle Easterness.
My grandmother, who still lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic, had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had always been "Muslim," "Jew" and "Christian," not Arab versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a common shared culture and language, albeit with religious differences.
Reply-
0%
hyperbola6 months, 3 weeks ago
we have spoken Arabic, not Yiddish; that for millennia our cultural creativity, secular and religious, had been largely articulated in Arabic (Maimonides being one of the few intellectuals to "make it" into the consciousness of the West); and that even the most religious of our communities in the Middle East and North Africa never expressed themselves in Yiddish-accented Hebrew prayers, nor did they practice liturgical-gestural norms and sartorial codes favoring the dark colors of centuries-ago Poland.
Middle Eastern women similarly never wore wigs; their hair covers, if worn, consisted of different variations on regional clothing (and in the wake of British and French imperialism, many wore Western-style clothes). If you go to our synagogues, even in New York, Montreal, Paris or London, you'll be amazed to hear the winding quarter tones of our music which the uninitiated might imagine to be coming from a mosque.
Reply-
0%
hyperbola6 months, 3 weeks ago
An Arabic Jewish Culture
As Iraqi Jews, while retaining a communal identity, we were generally well integrated and indigenous to the country, forming an inseparable part of its social and cultural life. Thoroughly Arabized, we used Arabic even in hymns and religious ceremonies.
The liberal and secular trends of the 20th century engendered an even stronger association of Iraqi Jews and Arab culture, which brought Jews into an extremely active arena in public and cultural life. Prominent Jewish writers, poets and scholars played a vital role in Arab culture, distinguishing themselves in Arabic speaking theater, in music, as singers, composers, and players of traditional instruments.
Reply
-
-
0%
AbuAmirah6 months, 3 weeks ago
Can I aske you a question. Is it true that the European Jews discriminate against the Mizrahi and Sepharic Jews. I remember the scandal that the Shas party founder got into. Is he still in jail? Also, I've been doing some readings on the Khazar's. Do you think these are the true ancestors of the European Jews?
Reply-
0%
hyperbola6 months, 3 weeks ago
Look for articles by the author of this article. Many are in academic journals (in libraries), but a few are available on the web (look far down in google lists). If you don't find them, I will chase them again. They are a VERY solid description of the experience of sephardic jews in israel.
Reply -
0%
Thinker224 months ago
> Is it true that the European Jews discriminate against the Mizrahi and Sepharic Jews.
No, it is not. There are, of course, differences between people of different ancestries and sometimes some individuals claim that they're somehow "better" than the others but all this can not be qualified as "discrimination". Would you agree that European Americans as a whole discriminate against Asian Americans, for example?
> I remember the scandal that the Shas party founder got into. Is he still in jail?
Not one but several Shas party operatives were involved in illegal activities, tried and convicted. The party founder (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef), however, was not one of them. Still, being a thief is not a proof of "discrimination" as many European Jews were similarly involved, convicted and jailed.
Reply -
0%
Thinker224 months ago
> Also, I've been doing some readings on the Khazar's. Do you think these are the true ancestors of the European Jews?
No, they were not. First, no one knows how the Khazars adopted Judaism. The popular theory saying that one day their leader woke up and ordered all his people to convert to Judaism is laughable.
Second, Khazars ceased to exist as a separate ethic entity back in the 10th century. Some of them were killed; those who stayed in South Russia converted into Christianity. Those who moved south converted into Islam. There were no Jews in Russia until the 18th Century when Kathryn the Great allowed Hews from Europe in. It is laughable to claim that the Jewish Khazars were hiding somewhere for 700 years and then came back into Russia pretending to be European Jews with the sole purpose of pushing Arabs out of Palestine 200 years later.
Reply
-
-
Submitted By:
hyperbola
I wrote a long commentary on poor design features in the "new" propeller, including a number of suggestions for improvement, but was unable to post ...
Also submitted:
- 1.0 - Democratic Delusions - The Myths of Joe Biden
- 1.0 - Oh, No! Not Joe Biden!
- 1.0 - Russia wins backing from China
- 1.0 - The Story of Tskhinvali's Resistance
Related Articles:
Why not submit a story?
Also Propping This Article
Groups Watching This
No groups are watching this story. Why not share it with your group?
