Arab Jews were valued as abstract primordials but rejected as concrete Orientals

Evidence

On one level, they were perceived as an abstracted ideal of the primordial Jew, but their present or concrete culture was rejected and described as oriental. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 651

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the discourse on noble-savage romanticization elsewhere — projected ideal vs. actual living people. Also connects to the paradox in the ‘redemption from the East’ excerpt.
• CANDY: A crisp two-line formulation of an historical paradox, tweetable without much context.