Ashkenazi Jews

Esther Pollard, wife of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, walks past a poster of her husband prior to speaking to press outside her home in Jerusalem, July 29, 2015. (Flash90)

Praising the Ashkenazi spy, punishing the Mizrahi dissident

For Israel, Jonathan Pollard's aiding of the Jewish state erases the criminality of his treason; Mordechai Vanunu's whistleblowing makes him a threat.

By Omri Najad December 31, 2020

Still from 'Prophets: Operation Amram.'

New web series spotlights disappeared Yemenite children

In the years following Israel’s establishment, thousands of Yemenite babies, children of new immigrants, were reportedly taken from their parents by the medical establishment and disappeared. Now two filmmakers are working to bring to light the stories of the families who were torn apart. By Tammy Riklis and Yonit Naaman The past half year saw the…

By Haokets May 7, 2017

Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett (Photo by Activestills.org)

Israel’s education minister wants to reduce Jewish history to pogroms

A new committee is tasked with exposing Israeli students to Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish history. The problem? There is more than one narrative. By Gil Gertel A committee in Israel’s Education Ministry meant to “expose Israeli students to the cultural, philosophical, social, and historical wealth of Jewish communities of the East and Spain” began its…

By +972 Magazine March 12, 2016

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Jewish immigrants from Yemen at a camp near Rosh Ha’ayin. (Photo: GPO)

The roots of anti-Mizrahi racism in Israel

The founders of the state, Jews of Ashkenazi origin raised on European ideas, viewed ‘Oriental Jews’ as backward and primitive from the moment they began arriving en masse on Israel’s shores. “An Ashkenazi gangster, thief, pimp or murderer will not gain the sympathy of the Ashkenazi community (if there is such a thing), nor will he expect…

By Edo Konrad December 1, 2015

Israelis cheer at a right-wing election rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, March 15, 2015. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

What’s an Ashkenazi leftist to do?

One Ashkenazi leftist’s view of the post-election rumblings of class warfare between the “State of Tel Aviv” and the mainly Mizrahi periphery. Last Tuesday’s election saw Likud’s traditional popular base — Mizrahim in the poor, development towns and cities of the Negev and Galilee, and poor neighborhoods and suburbs of the central region — vote for…

By Larry Derfner March 23, 2015

Jewish immigrants from Yemen at a camp near Rosh Ha’ayin. (Photo: GPO)

Behind election lurks Israel’s ethnic divide

The use of racially loaded code words at an anti-Netanyahu rally highlights the inter-Jewish racism that has plagued Israeli society and politics since day one. A look at the correlation between ethnic background and voting patterns. The anti-Netanyahu rally in Tel Aviv Saturday night was meant to be a high point of the campaign to oust Israel’s…

By Dimi Reider March 11, 2015

Mizrahi activists protest outside Finance Minister Yair Lapid's house, north Tel Aviv. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Ashkenazis, it is time to acknowledge our racism

The easiest way to avoid being called racist is to only hang out with Ashkenazis. But I hate this, and need to admit that I treat Mizrahis differently. Now all that is left is to start making a change. By Ruth Stern When my friend and poet Shlomi Hatuka asked me to write something about…

By +972 Magazine November 8, 2014

Ritalin. (photo: Sponge/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Pathologizing ethnicity: Are Mizrahim really more prone to violence?

A recent article claims that the higher rates of ADHD among Mizrahim leads them to violence. But can one really make such sweeping statements about an entire demographic group without looking at the broader social context? By Marcelo Weksler (translated from Hebrew by Anat Goldman) On March 16, 2014, Dr. Shlomi Antebi, an expert on…

By Haokets June 12, 2014

A Ukrainian klezmer wedding band, ca. 1925 (Menakhem Kipnis/Yivo Encyclopedia)

Mizrahi culture was suppressed, Ashkenazi culture is simply forgotten

Since the founding of the State of Israel, the Ashkenazi elite has suppressed the Mizrahi culture Jews from Arab countries brought with them. But almost without us noticing, those who led the Zionist project also erased whatever was left of the Ashkenazi traditions from Eastern Europe. By Edan Ring Family Day was no different from…

By Cafe Gibraltar April 29, 2013

Synagogue desecrated by Arab rioters in Hebron. (photo: Wikicommons)

How the 1929 Hebron massacre invigorated the Zionist movement

The riots made it clear that the distinctions between religious and secular Jews, or between the old established community and the newcomers were meaningless for the Arabs. That wasn’t because in the eyes of Muslims all Jews should equally be put to the death, but because at the end of the 1920s, the Arabs felt that…

By Haokets March 5, 2013