Researching my book, I heard many Mizrahi recollections of fear, suffering and discrimination in former homelands. But just as many readily share other memories: of happy lives, equal rights and considerate neighbours. "Our doors were always open," Mizrahis often told me, when they spoke of past lives in Arab or Muslim countries.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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One of the most striking sentiments expressed by Mizrahis in Israel is a sense of disbelief. Excerpt:
ReplyDelete"Some of these Jewish migrants from Arab countries are still stunned at the level of ignorance and prejudice that greeted them in the new Israel. For some reason, their new Jewish co-nationalists – who often came from the ghettos of Eastern Europe – thought the Mizrahis were backward and inferior, or, as Lyn Julius puts it, "badly educated" and "unwashed".
"The Europeans couldn't get their heads around the fact of Mizrahis being poets or communists, driving cars or using toilets. How could they not know, wondered the Mizrahis, about the manner of life in Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo or Casablanca?"
ReplyDeleteThe sad fate of the celebrated Arab world's Jewish artists living in Israel:
ReplyDelete"Meanwhile, proper, high culture is maintained as a European preserve. That's why former Jewish musical legends of the Arab world – feted performers, whose names still inspire adoration in the Middle East – ended up selling pots in the city slums of Israel. That's also why there are over 20 European classical music ensembles in the Jewish state, and just one Mizrahi outfit – currently on the verge of extinction."