Existing orientalism paradigms need broadening to fit historical facts about Jews

Evidence

For many central European scholars, among them Jews, orientalism was more than a system of domination. It could be genuinely celebratory and inspirational, as orientalism sometimes entailed a valorization of the Muslim Other. For Jews, such an exercise was often tantamount to a search for roots, for authenticity, and for oriental role models. Thus, rather than a straightforward means of asserting colonial, corporeal, and cultural authority, orientalism could be a profound expression of one’s own cultural anxiety and insecurity, one that could provoke deep-seated fears of inferiority. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 376 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Jewish racialization varies with historical stability and splits along West-East rather than unified lines — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 39; Jewish orientalists subverted individual claims but never escaped the orientalism framework — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 637; Orientalism links Jewish studies and postcolonial theory into a shared analytical frame — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 627 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• For Jewish scholars orientalism expressed cultural anxiety, not imperial confidence #complicates (0.76) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 376