Salim Tamari

I thought Tamari's articles were both very interesting however I felt a greater connection to “The Arab Jew in Palestine”.  Prior to reading this article I was familiar with the divide in Israel between Mizrahi (Jews from Arab countries) and Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from European countries).  I studied their differences in culture, treatment, and prejudices against both groups.  It was evident that their distinct cultural backgrounds caused a lot of tension and difficulty to achieve a sense of cohesion.  Since Zionism is a European movement, Ashkenazi Jews had greater opportunities and Mizrahi Jews suffered severe discrimination.  I was aware of the many prejudices against Jews from Arab countries; however, I was never exposed to the perspective of the internal struggle of “Arab Jews” that Shalmi highlighted.  He expressed despair regarding the religious tensions in Israel by attributing them to his fate, “Everything has lost its worth.  For what is the use of anything if we are unable to reach our goals?....This is the secret of my tragedy: when I look back at my life, I realize that everything was distorted and wrong from the foundation. 

            I found many of Tamari's other quotes from this article very interesting.  “We viewed ourselves as Arabs of Jewish Extraction, we felt even more Arab than Arabs….we did not feel we belonged to a place but that the place belonged to us.”  To me this quote depicts the difference in connection between Arab Jews and European Jews to the land of Israel. Ashkenazi Jews had a Zionistic perspective and felt as if they were returning to the land that they were entitled to in order to escape discrimination and persecution.  On the other hand, Arab Jews viewed this land as Arab land, and “the move to Palestine was not seen as a move to Zion, but from one area of the Arab world to another and thus was not considered to have any ramifications in terms of sacred geography.”   I think that the comparison of how Arab Jews and Ashkenazi Jews connected to the land clearly sheds light to the lack of cohesion amongst Jews in Israel at this time and today.

             I also found the quote, “their socialization in the reconstructed Hebrew culture was achieved at the price of disintegrating their Arab roots” interesting.  I was unaware that Arab Jews had to make a conscious effort to let go of their Arab roots in order to fit into Israeli culture.  This must have been really difficult and frustrating; moving to a land that they felt belonged to them, however being forced to drop everything to fit in a new culture.  I am really looking forward to the videoconference in class tomorrow and learning more on this subject mater.