What is mizrahim

Their earliest communities date from Late Antiquity, and the oldest and largest of these communities were in modern Iraq Babylonia , Iran Persia , and Yemen. Thus, it is not uncommon to find a specifically Persian or Bukharan synagogue. Likewise, Mizrahi Jews are not united by a single Jewish language; each subgroup spoke its own tongue. The unique Mizrahi culture has penetrated Israeli mainstream society in recent years.

But the larger efforts were simple propaganda campaigns that were implemented in schools, communities, and national projects. In essence, it was a project to strip ancient peoples of their identities, which was not unlike what they tried to do to Palestinians. Zionists were trying to create a new nation with a unified people. So, they could not abide allowing parts of this population to continue to identify as Iraqi, Moroccan, Persian, Tunisian, and so on, and certainly not as Arab Jews.

At the same time, the racist impulses of colonialism could not abide putting these people on par with Jews of Europe. They could not simply be Jews in the new Jewish state. They spoke Arabic, ate the same foods as their Christian and Muslim compatriots, celebrated and partook in the same national events and traditions, lived by the same social protocols, and moved through their respective cultures as other natives did.

And despite the similarities of their cultures, Tunisians were distinct from Egyptians, who were both distinct from Iraqis, who were distinct from Moroccans, etc. Mizrahi Jews Hebrew for "Eastern". Mizrahi Jews faced marginalization upon their immigration to Israel at the hands of the politically and culturally dominant Ashkenazi Jews. Jews coming from Arab and Muslim countries were usually settled in under-serviced development towns far from Israel's major population centers, endured systemic discrimination, and were treated as culturally inferior.

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