On that note, last Saturday morning as I was brewing my Turkish coffee, I came across that weeks Jewish Journal splashed with the head line "THE SEPHARDIC SPIRIT: Is it going mainstream?" While most Sephardi, or more accurately, Mizrahi, Jews that I grew up with would react to this cover story as something sweet, that 'oh! how nice of them', I literally could not help but to be offended and at the very least annoyed. The reason for this is that why should being Sephardi, Mizrahi or even Ashkenazi for that matter be something that should be going "mainstream?" Are we not people with an ancient history and culture, frankly much richer, colorful and prosperous then the Ashkenazim? (Ironically the article almost hints at that fact too. While sill fetishizing us as being from "sunny climates" and having "sunny views on life," opposed to the cold Ashkenazim from Russia and Poland.) This comes down to a key point that Professor Shohat makes in her work: "Modern European Jews came to speak on behalf of all Jews, powerful shaping Eurocentric representation of "Jewish History and Culture" (Shohat, 3.)
Before I continue I think a slight vocabulary lesson is in order:
Orientalism:
(in short) the representation of Asia, especially the Middle East, in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude. (in more detail) a way of seeing that imagines, emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to that of Europe and the U.S. It often involves seeing Arab culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times dangerous.
BUT, please, for a truly well rounded understanding read Edward Said's revolutionary book, that as a Middle Eastern person, will literally open your eyes to so much about yourself and the way the world perceives us.
Eurocentrism defined by Professor Shohat in her book with Robert Stam, "Unthinking Eurocentrism, Multiculturalism and the Media":
Eurocentric discourse projects a linear historical trajectory leading from classical Greece (constructed as "pure," "Western," and "democratic") to imperial Rome and then to the metropolitan capitals of Europe and the US. Europe, alone and unaided, is seen as the "motor" for progressive historical change: it invents class society, feudalism, capitalism, the industrial revolution. Eurocentrism appropriates the cultural and material production of non-Europeans while denying both their achievements and its own appropriation, thus consolidating its sense of self and glorifying its own cultural anthropophagy.
In sum, Eurocentrism sanitizes Western history while patronizing and even demonizing the non-West; it thinks of itself in terms of its noblest achievements - science, progress, humanism - but of the non-West in terms of its deficiencies, real or imagined.
Very briefly:
Ashkenazim- Descendants of (Eastern) European Jews
Mizrahim- Descendants of Babylon Jews (Iran/Iraq), the Gulf, Central Asia, etc.
Sephardim- Descendants of Iberian Jews (Spain/Portugal) who made their way to Ottoman lands (Turkey/Greece/Syria/ North Africa) after the Christian explosion of Jews and Muslims in 1492
While culturally Sephardim and Mizrahi are usually inflated into one due to their close cultural ties and sometimes ethnic overlap (in places like Egypt, Syria and North Africa), I would argue that they are ethnically different and have a slightly different history. I'll speak for myself when I say that it is highly UNLIKELY that my ancestors immigrated from Iran/Iraq to Spain and back to Iran/Iraq again once they were expelled, right? The case of North Africa and the Mediterranean makes more plausible sense to me, especially based on socio-political geography.
Back to my original point now of why I find this headline offensive, it continues to 'other' Sephardim/Mizrahim as the "other" in Jewish History and Culture with a capital H and C. The subtitle of "Is it going mainstream?" continues to fetishize Sephardic culture as something exotic and essentially a fade at that. Could you imagine that ever being done to Ashkenazi culture? I would assume not. Why? Because it is assumed that we live in America and America is Western and White therefore the Ashkenazim are White Jews and dictate the way things are done, how we are represented and who speaks for us.
My entire life attending American Jewish institutions like Synagogue or Hebrew school, I always felt out of placed. While some Temples were better then others, I always felt awkward and the only time I ever enjoyed celebrating my Jewish-ness was in the home, at Shabbat, celebrating Jewish holidays and attending different milestone celebrations like Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and weddings. Judaism to me was always the family. (As cheesy as that might sound.) My family was never religious, Ashkenazim would have qualified us as being Conservative, but in hind sight now, I see how that sort of ideology was imposed on us and never really made sense for us. I will never forget my (what Persian Jews call) Tefelin Bandoon, or the wrapping of Tefelin (a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah.) It was held in Chabad of Westwood, I believe the largest Chabad on the West Coast with a hefty Persian community. I will never forget the way the Rabbi was sneering at my grandfather for the Mizrahi tone of his prayer or for his style of wearing the Talit ( a fringed garment). Turning to him that "oh, dont worry we will help you and correct you" something that even as a 13 year old boy made me feel like 'you savages dont know what proper Jewish practices are, we are here to correct you.'
This has greatly influenced me to this day and how I connect and reject certain aspects of Judaism. While I greatly disagree with the presentation of this article, I did appreciate one major part of it, the positive emphasis on historical Jewish-Muslim relations. The continued, incorrect, demonization of Muslims and Islam towards Jews and Judaism has to stop. This is again, another Eurocentric Zionist brainwashing tool to get the Mizrahi into Israel, make them second class citizens and continue to spread Orientalist fears throughout the world. As I always say the last 70 years should not be seen as a reflection of the relations over an over 1400 year period.
Most of all, I was very pleasantly surprised to see a Journal of such magnitude print something that says "Sephardim could be at the forefront of solving some of Israel's and the Diaspora's most pressing problems. . . A lot of people say if there were Sephardic Jews in charge of either the government or the peace process, we would probably have found a way to get together with our neighbors a long time ago." All based on the "keen experience in terms of how they (Sephardim) lived with, related to, dealt with and coexisted with Muslim populations, but unfortunately Israeli society and government has never looked to the Sephardic community for insight into that." In addition to that, I appreciate the critique of the Ashkenazi ideological "mold of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist," being imposed on Sephardim. Furthermore, how they are reclaiming their roots and their cultural tradition, away from this extreme form of Judaism that was imposed on them when exposed to the West.
All in all, I wish that the continued marginalization and fetishizing of the Sephardim/Mizrahim in mainstream Jewish Culture and History would come to an end. While this article is trying to make a positive contribution to that, its style and presentation suggests a taste of old school Orientalism, nonetheless. This topic requires much more discussion and further probing, but I hope this can be a start.
Shabbat Shalom!
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