Originally Posted by
Marlowe
Wrong -there are ARAB-JEWS and I learnt they are proud of their distinct identity- If there can be French/America/English-Jews , why not Arab-Jews ?
Remove yr blinkers - come into the light - Open yr mind and learn :
"They spoke Arabic, using one of the many Arabic dialects (see also Judo-Arabic languages) as their primary community language, with Hebrew reserved as a liturgical language. They usually followed Sephardi Jewish liturgy, making them one of the largest groups among Mizrahi Jews.
In recent decades the term has come back into some usage by Jews who self-identify as Arab Jews, such as Albert Memmi, a Zionist who uses the term to claim his rights in the Middle East, and Ella Shohat, an anti-Zionist who uses the term in contrast to the Zionist establishment's categorization of Jews as either Ashkenazim or Mizrahim; the latter, she believes, have been oppressed as the Arabs have.
Other public figures who refer to themselves as Arab Jews include David Shasha, Director of the Center for Sephardic Heritage, Jordan Elgrably, director of the Levantine Cultural Center and Ammiel Alcalay, a professor at Queens College in New York who began emphasizing the importance of his identity as an Arab Jew in the 1990s Andr Azoulay, Jewish adviser to Moroccan King Mohammed VI, also defines himself as an Arab Jew,[3] as does Sasson Somekh in a recent memoi
Source Wiki
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More from Aramica :
Why don’t we hear about Arab Jews?
I hold responsible both Zionism and Arab nationalism. Zionism has always looked at the people of the East as inferior, including Jews from Arab countries. From the turn of the century, Zionists tried to bring Arab Jews to Palestine as cheap labor. Up to now, there are Arab Jews in Israel who are discriminated against within the Jewish population. It is largely the European Jews who set the tone. The rise of Arab nationalism and the forceful rise of Islam did not create a less problematic condition for diverse minorities, who have also suffered, but for the Arab Jews, it has been one of the most complicated stories, precisely because of the establishment of the state of Israel. For the first time in their history, Arab Jews had to choose between being Jews and being Arabs.
- How would you describe the position of the Arab Jews in the Arab American community?
There’s tremendous fragmentation. There are people who have been here for several generations, who speak Arabic at home, pray in the synagogues in Arabic, have Arabic culture, speak to each other in Arabic, yet, it is a community unto itself. There isn’t much exchange. It happens through the cultural realms: video stores, music stores. But there isn’t much interaction. They are very much separated, just as Arab Jews are also separated from the European Jewish community.
- What was the backlash of September 11th on Arab Jews?
If people are around their neighborhoods, or in the synagogue, they’ll speak Arabic without fear, but outside, or if they’re in their stores and customers come in, they’ll stop speaking Arabic. The immigration policies affect some of them, when their place of birth isn’t Israel.
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David Shasha is an American born Arab Jew living in Brooklyn with a Master’s Degree in Jewish/Middle Eastern Studies from Cornell University. He is an activist, an educator, an author and an archivist and the Director of The Center for Sephardic Heritage.
- What has the impact of your different opinions been on you?
I have been called “Arab lover,” “terrorist,” I get the emails. It’s a very ugly situation right now. We just found out that there’s something called “Campus Watch.” Jewish organizations are monitoring Arab professors, or professors sympathetic to the Arab position. My library in itself is expressive of my guilt. The fact that I have a full shelf of Mahfouz already makes me guilty of being an Arab sympathizer and it has hurt my ability to make a living.
FYI - There's a fair number of Arab-Jews - in London running ME Cuisine resturants etc., getting along fine with other Arabs........
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