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Reflections of an Arab Jew »

Posted by: hyperbola 1 year, 9 months ago

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Zionism is destroying much of judaism. For Sephardic (oriental) jews, Israel does not represent aliya (ascent), but rather a yerida (descent). Oriental-Sephardic peace movements not only call for a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians, but also for the cultural, political, and economic integration of Israel/Palestine into the Middle East.

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hyperbola

Military brat (14th generation American) with unassuaged wanderlust. By age 11, schools in four states and three foreign countries (in 3 languages). Left home at ...

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hyperbola
Feb. 4, 2008, 2:21 p.m.
from the article:
I am an Arab Jew. Or, more specifically, an Iraqi Israeli woman living, writing and teaching in the United States.
When my grandmother first encountered Israeli society in the `50s, she was convinced that the people who looked, spoke and ate so differently -- the European Jews -- were actually European Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably associated with Middle Easterness.
My grandmother, who still lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic, had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had always been "Muslim," "Jew" and "Christian," not Arab versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a common shared culture and language, albeit with religious differences.

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