Jewish Intolerance and Sephardim By Jeremy Rosen

 

Jewish Intolerance and Sephardim

by Jeremy Rosen

ALL CREDIT GOES TO THE ALGEMENER JOURNEL and the Author.

To confuse matters, when Hasidism, a European Ashkenazi movement, emerged in the 18th century, it adopted the mystical style of prayer attributed to Rebbi Yitzchak Luria — who lived in Safed — and called it Nusah Sefard, the Oriental style. Although there was nothing Oriental about those who used it.

In 1948, there was a massive expulsion of Jews from Arab and other Muslim lands. Most ended up in Israel where they were described as Mizrahim — Easterners — which carried the reek of discrimination and condescension. They were treated as second-class citizens. Israel was poor at the time, struggling to survive. It had to absorb nearly a million refugees. Many were penniless and lacked the skills and language to adapt. Their conditions were rudimentary and their opportunities meager. The Jews who dominated government and society for the first 30 years of the state regarded the poorer more traditional Mizrahim as inferior. To be fair, they also treated the Germans, the Yekkes, with disdain and every other immigrant community that came after them.

The popular attitudes towards Jews from the Orient belied important distinctions. Some Sephardi communities were more influenced by modernity than others. Some were richer, more multilingual, and assimilated. Many identified with Muslim national aspirations, particularly in North Africa. Some Mizrahim belonged to marxist and socialist movements. And nowadays they can be found supporting the Opposition in Israel. Most ironic of all, many Mizrahim actually came from the Maghreb, which is North Africa and much further West than the vast majority of Ashkenazim, who came from Middle and Eastern Europe.

Yet I have met Persians who resent being called Mizrahim, while at the same time claiming Spanish descent. Everyone seems to have a different perspective.

Things began to change under Menahem Begin’s leadership. Although Ashkenazi, he had inordinate respect for the very traditionalist Sephardim. In Israel before Begin, it was rare to see anyone in government employ wearing a kipa or other outward sign of religiosity. Under Begin, the pendulum began to swing the other way. Which is one explanation as to why nowadays the Mizrahi vote is overwhelmingly right instead of left. And now the marriage rate between the two communities runs at nearly 40%.

The overwhelming mood of Israeli life has nowadays shifted firmly eastwards in terms of music, dance, and culture — even religion. There was no Reform movement in the Sephardi world, which explains the dissonance in Israel between Israeli Judaism and American. Mizrahim tend to be more tolerant of religious laxity while being very loyal to tradition. In Israel to this day it is the Ashkenazi Haredim who are most prejudiced, towards non-religious Jews and particularly towards Sephardi Jews — often limiting the number of students they accept into their schools, or simply segregating them.

The late, great Sephardi authority, Rav Ovadia Yosef, did his best for Sephardi pride. He used to campaign against Sephardi students imitating the styles and dress of the Ashkenazi Haredi world. He even established a Sephardi Haredi alternative party.

It is because of the negativity of some Ashkenazim and others that I prefer not to use the term Mizrahi (which in my youth stood and still does in some circles, for the Religious Zionists), and say Sephardim instead. After all, many Sephardim like to append to their names the letters ST — Sephardi Tahor. Pure Sephardi. The aristocrats — as indeed they were for most of the past 2,000 years. While medieval Europe was barbaric, much (but not all) of the Sephardi world was in fact superior in every way to the Ashkenazi.

It is often said that most Sephardi Jews did not experience or lose family members in the Holocaust. And most did not. Nevertheless, there were a significant number of Jews from Greece, the Balkans, and other areas invaded by the Nazis who did indeed perish in Auschwitz. No community had exclusivity of suffering.

Israel is a variegated, complex, and multifaceted society. It is often said that Sephardim are extremely anti-Muslim because of the way they were humiliated and then expelled. Others say that the Sephardim lived far better under Islam than Christianity. They can point, perhaps controversially, to brief windows of “Convivencia.”  Some say that Sephardi rabbis get on better with imams and Ashkenazi rabbis with priests. And I have also heard the opposite. There are just as many openminded tolerant Jews of all backgrounds and identities, as there are intolerant ones.

I just wish we Jews were more tolerant of our own differences and got on better with each other. As the late Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits used to say, “Jews are the same as everyone else, except more so.”