tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post8534440919743009166..comments2024-03-29T11:39:42.348+00:00Comments on Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries: Girls discriminated 'on grounds of culture, not skin'Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-74990519734523476352010-05-05T06:52:42.232+01:002010-05-05T06:52:42.232+01:00There is much truth in your first comment - there ...There is much truth in your first comment - there was discrimination in the secular field and prejudice against Arabic, but as you also say,Eliyahu, Yiddish speakers were also made to abandon their language as Israel tried to create the new Hebrew-speaking Israeli. But I think it is generally recognised that things have changed since the 1950s and Sephardi and Mizrahi culture is 'in'.<br />Every wave of immigrants looks down on subsequent waves, and the Sephardim of the 1950s and 60s are now the 'old-timers'. <br />Religious culture is something else and I agree with you that more empowerment, better orgnaisation, less corruption and of course MONEY is needed to rebuild the Sephardi educational structure.bataweenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15829104245735619972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-68682926903431388302010-05-05T02:41:49.676+01:002010-05-05T02:41:49.676+01:00But in the end of the day we must not forget that ...But in the end of the day we must not forget that Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh<br />All of Israel is responsible for one another<br /><br />E. HeskelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-38834151256932881752010-05-05T00:42:54.091+01:002010-05-05T00:42:54.091+01:00And just to add, there is no reason why we should ...And just to add, there is no reason why we should not have our independent Sephardi institutions. In fact, it is our obligation to restore our rich heritage to its rightful place. Millions of our Ashkenazi brothers and sisters perished in the holocaust (as did thousands of Sephardim from Greece and the Balkans for example) and a large proportion of their institutions and social organization, but yet they still could perpetuate their ways in Israel. We just need better organization, more empowerment and less corrupt leadership<br /><br />E. HeskelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-53919216645213261982010-05-05T00:33:55.602+01:002010-05-05T00:33:55.602+01:00Us Sephardim/Mizrahim didn't just lose our cul...Us Sephardim/Mizrahim didn't just lose our cultural and religious institutions in the Arab and Islamic lands we were forced to abandon. This process also took place within Israel. Let us not forget that. It's an unfortunate reality that many of our grandparents and parents encountered real racism and discrimination by our Ashkenazi brethren who had the advantage of being more established in Eretz Yisrael, but who also had their own notions of what it was to be a Jew or more accurately, the new Israeli Jew. There were pressures for us to abandon our "backward" "Arab" ways which we acquired in the galuth (forgetting that we were indigenous populations that never left the Middle-East. I daresay Avraham avinu would have more in common with us than Litvaks) but we weren't completely helpless or without agency because many of us made conscious (and unfortunate) choices of letting go of our traditions and heritage and even the way we spoke Hebrew in order to fit in. There was a lot of shame tied to speaking Arabic, perceived as the language of the "enemy" or being too "Eastern." But some of us were steadfast and tried to preserve what we could. By the same token, many Ashkenazim also underwent similar pressures to abandon their Yiddishe shtetl ways, so it was a complex process. This whole Emmanuel affair might be complex and yes, it may have to do with real differences in traditions and outlooks between Sephardim and Ashkenazim, but it would be quite naive to deny the hierarchical and discriminatory factors at play.<br /><br />Eliyahu HeskelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com