Israel’s ethnic taxonomy fragmented Mizrahi Jews while homogenizing Ashkenazim.

Evidence

During Israel’s first decade, Jewish immigrants from Asia and Africa were known as members of ‘edot hamizrah, oriental communities. This reference carried with it a notion of fragmented bodies, with little in common save for their origins in the lands of Islam and some association with Arab culture. True, one finds in political discourse of the time use of the term ‘edot to describe all Jews, or even all of Israel’s inhabitants regardless of religion or ethnicity. Similarly, the colorful term shevatim (tribes) was also at times employed to describe the variegated origins of Israeli Jews. By and large, however, ‘edot and shevatim referred to oriental Jewry, whereas Israelis of Hungarian, Polish, or Rumanian origin were presented as melded into a coherent “Ashkenazic.” culture. Paradoxically, however, Ashkenazic dominance made possible the provision of immigrant broadcast services tailored to the desires of each national community—Polish, Rumanian, Hungarian, and so on—whereas oriental Jews received relatively little acknowledgment of the distinctions between them and Ashkenazim, or among the ‘edot themselves. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 690 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The panelists fail to respond to Hayim’s observation, based on years of experience with the consonance of ethnic and political fissuring in Beersheva, that the established Zionist political parties were themselves ethnically based; the moderate socialist party Mapai being Russian, the right-wing Herut party being Polish, and the Progressives, German. Moreover, there is no acknowledgment of the Yishuv’s long history of ethnic parties, such as the Sephardic and Yemenites lists in the Representative Assembly during the Mandate period. Instead, the oriental political activist is singled out as unique, destabilizing, and dangerous. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 716 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Israeli politics fragmented along the ethnic divide between European and Asian-African Jews.; Mizrahi Jews occupy a not-quite-white middle rung in Israel’s racial hierarchy — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 600; Mizrahi identity had to be torn apart to fit the Zionist Jew-Arab binary — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 650 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Israel categorized non-European Jews as fragmented edot while viewing Europeans as one coherent culture. #corroborates (0.97) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 690
• Mainstream Israeli parties were themselves ethnically based, unlike Mizrahi ones. #complicates (0.74) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 716