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We would like to utilize this post to reflect on a disarming trend taking place on college campuses across the country: the alarming rise of Anti-Semitic, Anti-Normalization, BDS activity. It is impossible to address Anti-Semitism on campus without confronting the growing anti-Israel sentiment. Though veiled as political activism, BDS campaigns are in effect vehicles for Anti-Semitism, as they target the world’s only Jewish State, and lead to silencing and bullying of Jewish and pro-Israel students. BDS and anti-Israel activism relies a false narrative which portrays Jews as white European colonialists who invaded a third-world country, displaced a significant portion of the indigenouspopulation, oppressed and segregated the remainder. As North America’s primary organization representing Jewish refugees from the Middle East & North Africa, JIMENA is uniquely positioned to refute these myths by empowering students with the personal narratives of former Jewish refugees indigenous to Arab countries and Iran. We teach students that: “Jews and Israelis are not white colonists, we are indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. We speak Arabic. We have been made refugees from countries we lived in for over 2,500 year. In today’s value, we had $6billion confiscated when we fled.” BDS messaging preys on college student’s ideologies of empathy and support for the “third-world victim” while singling out those with “white privilege” as the oppressors. This has had a catastrophic effect on Jewish students confidence, willingness, and ability to support Israel. This damaging BDS messaging has effectively served to isolate, unaffiliated, and disempower many of our Jewish students and potential student supporters of Israel. There is no better counter defense to this propaganda than the story of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. JIMENA is the only organization who can balance Palestinians exclusive monopoly on Middle Eastern refugee claims by exposing current and past ethnic cleansings and refugee crises in the region. Contrary to the BDS narrative of Jews in Israel as European settler colonialists, Jewish communities lived and thrived throughout the Middle East & North Africa continuously for over 3,000 years – predating the Arab Islamic conquests by centuries. Only as recently as the 20th century, 850,000 Mizrahi & Sephardic Jews were forcibly displaced from Arab countries and Iran as a result of ethnic cleansing and brutal, systemic anti-Semitic violence. Of the suddenly stateless, penniless Mizrahi refugees, an overwhelming 60% sought refuge in one of the only countries in the world that would accept them: the State of Israel. Today, Mizrahi refugees and their descendants comprise over half of Israel’s Jewish population, and are intrinsic to the country’s society and cultural fabric. Sharing the histories of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa is a potentially paradigm-shifting tool. Yet their stories remain largely unknown to students, Jewish communal staff and professors at universities across North America. **Facets of JIMENA’s established on-campus programming include:** – **JIMENA Student Internship**: students develop and implement JIMENA-themed academic projects, engage their peers in on-campus JIMENA events, and expose their campus community to the personal and communal stories of former Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa – **Mizrahi & Sephardic Speakers Bureau**: our 40-member Speakers Bureau, which has presented at over 100 campuses, serves as the North American voice of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. The Bureau is composed of former refugees, experts and cultural ambassadors who have compelling first-hand stories and the knowledge to represent Jews from Arab countries. **– Advocacy Training and Kit**: a comprehensive guide for students & faculty to address the story of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. It includes 11 country-specific histories and statistics on Jewish population and migration within the last century; public speaking tips and debating best-practices; a comprehensive bibliography and list of resources for learning more; and ideas for events and possible programming on college campuses to stay involved. – Collaborations: JIMENA has worked with a diversity of campus student organizations, including Muslim and Christian groups. Numerous on-campus student organizations such as Stand With Us, CAMERA, Jewish Agency for Israel Fellows, Hillel and numerous Jewish high schools continuously rely on JIMENA’s resources to educate and empower their students on the subject of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Our speaker’s presentations, film screenings, Sephardic cultural engagement programs, and advocacy trainings have been regularly utilized by all leading student organizations. JIMENA remains the central resource center on issues related to refugees from Arab countries and Iran. Moving Forward. In these critical times, JIMENA seeks to expand our impact. Some of our campus programming goals include: - JIMENA’s goal is to become the central resource and distribution center for campus activities and resources promoting the history of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. We aim to strengthen our relationship with Jewish student organizations who have students on the ground and an expressed interest in JIMENA’s narrative. - Through our partnerships with on-campus organizations, we’d like to provide JIMENA produced, Mizrahi Refugee Advocacy Kits, Forgotten Refugees films, and JIMENA Speaker Presentations to Jewish student groups, interns and fellows, on every North American college campus. This will ensure that Jewish students have access to a plethora of information and speakers who can empower and teach them how to effectively incorporate the Mizrahi refugee narrative in their Israel advocacy. - Incorporating the Sephardic and Mizrahi refugee experience into Jewish Day School curriculum will strengthen students’ ability to properly advocate for Israel and will enrich their understanding of Jewish diversity, and Middle Eastern history and demography. JIMENA “Journey to the Mizrah” initiative is producing Mizrahi and Sephardic content that incorporates issues of Jewish refugees, Jewish multiculturalism, current Jewish demographics, and Middle Eastern diversity, refugee, and humanitarian issues and to create incentivized teacher training blocks. - Provide JIMENA Speakers Bureau advocacy and cultural programming at campuses throughout North America. Ideally, we’d like to have a JIMENA speaker present at every major North American campus in 2015/16. Articles written by JIMENA Student Interns Remembering the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa. Ha’Am UCLA’s Jewish Newsmagazine Keeping prejudice under control: The Jewish people deserve the security of a homeland. The Daily Californian Visits to Stanford Exhibit Israeli Multiculturalism. Stanford Review Summertime discovery about by Mizrahi heritage. J Weekly UC Berkeley Student Leader Testimonial. Youtube Jewish Refugees From Arab Countries on College Campuses Shared history of persecution unites Mizrahi, Sephardic Jews. Jewish Journal The Forgotten Refugees: CAMERA Fellows Event Tent at Cal: No flaps, only civil discourse about Israel. Jweekly Israel ‘apartheid’? Absurd BDS claim debunked at Cal. Jweekly Jewish woman describes family’s flight from Tunisia, Virginia Commonwealth University No Holds Barred: Bringing the fight to Students for Justice in Palestine. JPOST JIMENA Against BDS at UC Berkeley
Below is Kate Fitz Gibbon’s statement to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee at the US Department of State during their July 19th session to discuss the **Libyan government’s request** for a **Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)**. The requested MOU provides legal recognition of Libyan claims to Jewish property and bars entry of Libyan Jewish patrimony to the USA, setting a dangerous precedence for neighboring countries to follow suit. Kate Fitz Gibbon is a practicing attorney and the Executive Director of **Committee for Cultural Policy**, a 501c3 that was formed to address an urgent need – to reform UC cultural policy to become transparent, accountable, and consistent with public benefit. We thank her for advocating for Libyan Jews. “I am speaking today on behalf of *ATADA* (Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association), a nonprofit professional organization representing art dealers, private collectors, and museums that exhibit ethnographic and tribal art. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. Written submissions by ATADA, which I represent, the *AAMD* (Association of Art Museum Directors), and others have laid out just how the Libyan request fails to meet the four criteria mandated by Congress. They have also addressed Libya’s lack of qualification for an emergency Agreement. Even the official Summary, which tries to put the best face possible on the Libyan request, makes clear that the losses taking place in Libya are due to negligence and deliberate destruction enabled by the Libyan government, or its current lack of a government, not to an international market for looted Libyan artifacts. This is a clear failure to meet Determinations 1 and 2. As time is very short, I want to focus on two elements of the request. The 7-day time frame for public comment has meant that American Jewish organizations were unaware of this request in time to comment or speak. I have been given additional information by a number of US Jewish organizations in the last few days. They are outraged that this request would grant the Libyan government rights to Jewish property and bar entry of Libyan Jewish patrimony to the USA. This MOU would not only set a dangerous precedent for neighboring countries, it will place both the community and private property of Libyan Jews, seized by the repressive governments that drove them out of the country after thousands of years, in the hands of yet another intolerant and destructive regime. The jeopardy of pillage is from the various Libyan factions, including the current government in Tripoli. This deliberate destruction of the Jewish community has a long history. Considering only the 20th and 21st century, this includes massive seizures of property, concentration camps in the desert, forced emigrations, and Jews having to abandon virtually all assets. Libya’s Jewish population has been reduced from about 40,000 individuals in the early 20th century to just one in 2003, an elderly lady found in a nursing home and airlifted to Italy. This regime has denied access to ancestral homes and synagogues in the recent post-Gaddafi years as well, as David Gerbi discovered when he returned to try and rebuild a synagogue, which was shut against him after two days. Dr. Gerbi also wrote to me about boxes of Jewish bones filling a room in Benghazi. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a photo of the beach at Tripoli with buildings in the background. This is called the Bourge El Fatah, and it is built on top of an ancient Jewish cemetery. The bones and headstones were just thrown aside in construction. This MOU will be an opportunity to continue to desecrate, not preserve, Jewish artifacts. There is a second issue to address with the Libyan Request. The CPIA requires that ethnographic material be “important to the cultural heritage of a people because of its distinctive characteristics or comparative rarity.” In no way does Tuareg material from Libya meet congressional criteria. Yet the Libyan government appears to claim ownership and control over Tuareg and Berber ethnological materials up to 1911, the date of Italian colonization. There are perhaps 3 million Tuareg living in eight Saharan countries. Of these, only 15-20 thousand live in Libya. A tiny percentage. Of the over 2900 Tuareg artifacts in the Musee Du Quai Branly in Paris, only 4 items are identified as coming from Libya: a tambourine, a talisman and 2 photographs. The Tuareg are traders. They make household goods and jewelry. They trade with other Saharans and sell these folk crafts in Europe and the UK as well as the U.S. There is no meeting of Determinations 1 or 3. There is no way to distinguish between a Tuareg item of 50-100 years of age that would be lawful to import under an MOU and one 120 years old that would be unlawful, or to tell apart Libyan items from those of other Saharan nations. The 1983 CPIA, used as Congress intended, is a tool that can preserve at-risk archaeological sites and benefit the US public by encouraging cultural exchange. Neither interest is served in the Libyan request, which places nationalism, a colonial concept if there ever was one, above both humanitarian concerns and the public interest.” To read more about this issue please click here.
Students at Jewish Community High School of the Bay in JIMENA garb during Mizrahi Commemoration Month **Community Outreach, Engagement and Education** - JIMENA is very proud to have produced 96 events nation-wide, which reflected the diversity, multiculturalism, and religious pluralism of the Jewish people. - This year was unique, in that it was our first time outreaching to the children and grandchildren of Jews born in North Africa and the Middle East. We effectively empowered many of them to assert their family histories and their culture by becoming JIMENA speakers, ambassadors, and joining one of our two young adult committees. - JIMENA led two community-wide Moroccan Mimouna Celebrations that engaged a total of 500 individuals in San Francisco. We also co-sponsored a young adult Mimouna in Los Angeles. - In the Spring and Summer, JIMENA led the following programs as part of our San Francisco Young Adult Engagement series: *Our Stories: A Showcase of Jewish Pluralism*, *Millennial Reflections: A Celebration of Young Sephardic Life*, *Taste of Sefarad: Cooking and Storytelling from North African Jewish Kitchens*, and *Henna Gatherings*. - We brought Erella Teitler’s exhibit, “Not Forgotten” to San Francisco and displayed it the at Oshman Family JCC, San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, and Congregation Beth Shalom. - Produced a Moishe House micro-grant program, which enabled 25 Moishe Houses to lead their own unique Mizrahi commemoration program. - JIMENA’s Los Angeles chapter continued to grow as we produced and co-sponsored close to 20 events and created a Young Adult LA Committee and an LA Advisory Board. Event highlights included: a Human Rights Series we produced at Congregation Kol Ami, A Taste of the East with Reboot, multi-generational, community-wide Shesh Besh Touranment, and Mizrahi Shabbat dinners at USC and UCLA. **Oral History and Digital Experience Project** - Our central website received over 300,000 website hits per month and earned #1 Google rankings for our Arabic JIMENA Experience websites, thus educating hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. - This past year the focus of the Oral History and Digital Experience Program was on developing our relationship with Ben Gurion University in order for them to serve as an official repository for JIMENA’s Oral History archive. Moving forward, all of JIMENA’s Oral History content will be preserved in perpetuity at The Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism at Ben-Gurion University. - Together with BGU, we oversaw the work of an international team of seven grad-student interns who were responsible for transcribing, abstracting, and adding our videos to BGU’s server and YouTube page. ***Work on College Campuses*** - In the last year JIMENA led over 40 programs, reaching an estimated 4,000 students on the following campuses: American Jewish University, American University, Ben Gurion University, Bar Ilan University, Capitol University, Chico State University, Eastern Carolina University, George Washington University, Kent State University, Loyola University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pace University, San Francisco State University, Santa Monica College, University of California Berkeley, University of California Davis, University of California Los Angeles, University of Nebraska, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of North Carolina, University of Oregon, University of Southern California. - JIMENA content, like The Forgotten Refugees film and information from the JIMENA Digital Experience Project, was distributed and utilized by students on over 100 college campuses - JIMENA had an international team of college interns who executed a number of impactful projects on their respective campuses including: a French Social Media initiative (USF) and an Oral History transcription and abstraction project for a group of BGU interns from sub-Sahara Africa and China. - Campus programs included JIMENA Speaker talks, henna gatherings, Mizrahi cooking classes, Mizrahi Shabbat dinners, Mimouna, and Forgotten Refugees presentations. - Our work on college campuses was done in careful partnership with the following organizations: Hillel International, Chabad, Jewish Agency for Israel, Students Supporting Israel (SSI), Alpha Epsilon Pi, and a number of other grassroots, student-led campus organizations. Testimonial from Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel **Advocacy and International Work** - JIMENA led a number of national and international campaigns including: *Campaign to bar entry of Anti-Semitic Iranian regime sponsored comedian, Akbar Abadi*; *Nakba Museum Campaign; initiatives to support Yezidis and religious minorities in the Middle East and North Africa; Voices of the Middle East: Iran project, Sephardic Advocacy Engagement at AIPAC Policy Conference*, *Save the Iraqi Archive Campaign*, Haj Amin Al-Husseini and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World campaign, inclusion of Mizrahi heritage in Israeli Curriculum and various redress initiatives. - In conjunction with Israel’s November 30th Day to Honor Jewish Refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Iran, JIMENA lead successful Mizrahi Commemoration Month programming at over 30 college campuses, 20 Moishe Houses, synagogues, and community centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. We also helped develop, publish and distribute a Mizrahi Remembrance Month Curriculum for Jewish High Schools. In 2015, JIMENA leadership worked closely with Minister for Social Equality, Gila Gamliel, and with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure effective implementation of the Day of Commemoration - Much of our advocacy work could not have been done without the support of our partners. We owe the utmost gratitude to the following organizations for their continued friendship and support: Israel Association of Jews from Arab Countries, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, Harif: UK Association of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East, 30 Years After, Sephardic Education Center, Jewish Agency for Israel, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, B’nai Brith International, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iranian American Jewish Federation, Yezidis International, and Coptic Solidarity. For photographs please visit our **facebook photo albums** or our **JIMENA\_Voice istagram** account. \#jimenavoice
JIMENA has been an outspoken advocate of the IHRA definition for many years. Given the horrific attacks against Israel and the Jewish people, our support took on ever greater importance and we accelerated our efforts.**\[PDF\] A Brief Guide To The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition Of Antisemitism** JIMENA along with our co-signers believe strongly that California must adopt a singular definition of antisemitism in order to properly counter it. In California’s education system, on college campuses, and amid other public displays and violent acts, antisemitism is increasing at a rapid rate. It is imperative that our state define antisemitism in order to help our public agencies identify and understand what it is. Our letter notes, “Now, more than ever before, we firmly believe that the non-legally binding IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism is an invaluable tool in comprehending and combating antisemitism, in all its manifestations. It is a framework that can be employed in complete alignment with the fundamental rights of every individual in our state.” We appreciate Governor Newsom’s support and leadership at this critical moment. Please see full letter below or by **clicking here**. As of December 1st, 2024 the following organizations have signed on to the request: - Alpha Epsilon Pi - Anti-Defamation League (ADL) - American Jewish Committee (AJC) - Association of Jewish Educators - B’nai B’rith International - Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC) - California Israel Chamber of Commerce - Combat Antisemitism Movement - Educators Caucus for Israel - Hadassah - Hillel at Davis and Sacramento - Hillel San Diego - Hillel at UCLA - Holocaust Museum LA - Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) - Israeli-American Civic Action Network - Israeli American Council (IAC) - Jewish Federation of San Diego - JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa - NEA Jewish Affairs Caucus - Progressive Zionists of California - Sephardic Education Center - Simon Wiesenthal Center - Stand With Us - WIZO: Women’s International Zionist Organization - 30 Years After
We, the organizations listed below, represent Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish communities in the state of California. We are writing to express our denunciation with multiple antisemitic statements made by California Democratic Party (CDP) leader Hussam Ayloush. As an institution whose mission is to be a “leading advocate for justice and mutual understanding” and whose Los Angeles Executive Director, Hussam Ayloush, currently serves as an Assembly District Delegate to the CDP, we are deeply concerned by CAIR LA’s (The Council on American Islamic Relations LA) role in influencing California’s Democratic Party with revisionist lies about Israel and the Jewish people, and the Middle Eastern Jewish community in particular. These lies are contributing to the rising tides of antisemitism our communities are currently experiencing, and are making the CDP an increasingly hostile place for many Jews – particularly those of North African and Middle Eastern descent. We feel it is critical to open this letter by asserting that the vast majority of Jewish people are indigenous to Israel. As Mizrahi Jews, our ancestors lived continuously in the Middle East since the dawn of Judaism itself. In the mid to late 20th century, state-sanctioned antisemitism—frequently taken under the banner of anti-Zionism—led to the ethnic cleansing and displacement of close to one million Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews from countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. About 650,000 of these Jews fled to Israel as stateless refugees and the remainder scattered to countries around the world, including the USA, with an estimated 200,000 residing in California. Today, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews comprise over half of Israel’s Jewish population. Since 2014, former CDP Executive Board member Hussam Ayloush has gone on record with antisemitic, genocidal calls for the state of Israel to be “terminated.”\[1\] We are deeply disturbed to learn that Mr. Ayloush has also referred to those who support Israel as “heartless hateful bloodthirsty humans\[2\]” and compared them to Nazis\[3\]. Mr. Alyoush has repeatedly refused to recognize the positions, needs, and interests of California’s diverse Jewish communities who are predominantly Democrats and avowed Zionists. We are deeply troubled by Mr. Alyoush’s influence over CDP positions and policies as it relates to Israel and the Jewish people and we believe that it is not only irresponsible but extremely dangerous for a party leader to call for the destruction of any nation, even those whose policies they disagree with. We are also deeply concerned that Mr. Ayloush’s ongoing and repeated characterization of Zionism as a “political ideology whose tentacles are rooted in racism\[4\]” is directly contributing to antisemitic, revisionist histories of the Jewish people. As a coalition of 40 international Sephardic organizations have clarified in a letter to Jewish Voice for Peace\[5\], “Zionism has been the yearning of Jews throughout more than 2,500 years of diaspora. Today the majority of the Mizrahi and Sephardic community resides in Israel, and the vast majority of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, in Israel and in diaspora, are self-identified Zionists.” In seeking to obscure these realities in service of his own ideological ends, Mr. Ayloush is promulgating an antisemitic message that seeks to portray Jews as foreign interlopers in Israel and the larger Middle East. This lie is directly contributing towards the catastrophic rise of antisemitism our state is currently experiencing. Mizrahi Jewish communities in our state watch with growing concern as the same antisemitic sentiments and rhetoric that led to the oppression and ethnic cleansing of one million indigenous Jews from the Middle East seem to be infiltrating California’s influential civil rights organizations and the CDP, particularly after the recent war between Gaza and Israel. Members of our Mizrahi communities remember how antisemitic sentiments sprouted into full-fledged, state-sanctioned anti-Zionism in countries throughout the Middle East. Not unlike the current climate we are living in, Zionism in the Middle East and North Africa was hardly ever defined, and this ambiguity enabled terrible acts of antisemitism to occur under the mask of anti-Zionism. We recently watched in horror as Iranian Jewish Americans in our state were violently targeted by “Pro-Palestinian” activists who were shouting antisemitic slurs on the streets of Los Angeles. For many in our Jewish Middle Eastern communities these violent acts of antisemitism elicited visceral fears and memories of similar events many experienced in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. At a time when hate crimes against Jews account for over half of religious-based hate crimes in the USA and when antisemitism continues to be the most prevalent religious-based hate crime in California up a disturbing 72% since 2016, it is essential for the Democratic Party and all civil rights organizations in the state to draw clear redlines against language and activities that explicitly and implicitly target California’s Jewish communities. The CDP Code of Conduct\[6\] states: > The CDP expects all leaders, members, employees, and others associated with the CDP to act professionally, respecting the personal rights and dignities of all individuals involved with the party so as to create a productive, inclusive environment for all. > > All individuals should feel welcome and safe within the CDP, regardless of their sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, race, color, **ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, religion, creed,** age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, body size, domestic violence victim status, or any other legally protected classifications. > > The CDP’s behavior standards are not limited to CDP conventions and other meetings. Harassment will not be tolerated at any and all events sponsored by or affiliated with the CDP, as well as in CDP-related calls, texts, emails, and social media like Facebook, Instagram, and SnapChat. We believe that Mr. Ayloush’s harmful rhetoric violates the CDP Code of Conduct, and we strongly urge the leaders of the CDP to take appropriate action to help ensure that state party leaders are not allowed to denigrate the “ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, religion, creed” of others, and that the CDP remains a welcoming and safe place for Jewish Democrats, including Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. Sincerely, Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh,Co-President30 Years After Jasmin NikuCo-President30 Years After Susan AzizzadehPresidentIranian American Jewish Federation Gina Bublil-WaldmanPresidentJIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa Sarah LevinExecutive DirectorJIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa Rabbi Daniel BouskilaRabbi/DirectorSephardic Education Center Neil J. SheffPresidentSephardic Education Center Rabbi David WolpeMax Webb Senior RabbiSinai Temple \[1\] “The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR),” Anti-Defamation League Webpage, https://www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair \[2\] Hussam Ayloush, Facebook post. August 3, 2014 https://www.facebook.com/hussam.ayloush/posts/10152354069969825 \[3\] Hussam Ayloush, Tweet. August 4, 2014 https://twitter.com/HussamA/status/496388844443287552 \[4\] Hussam Ayloush, “A Slur on Muslim Community.” Orange County Register, December 1 2002 https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/8156/column-a-slur-on-muslim-community \[5\] Sephardic and Mizrahi Communal Response to Jewish Voice for Peace. January 23, 2019 https://www.jimena.org/sephardic-and-mizrahi-communal-response-to-jewish-voice-for-peace/ \[6\] California Democratic Code of Conduct. https://cadem.org/code-of-conduct/
In a letter to Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), JIMENA, along with a coalition of Sephardic and Mizrahi synagogues and communal organizations called on JVP to remove all references to Mizrahi and Sephardic history in their organizational literature. We, the organizations and congregations listed below, represent Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish communities in countries around the world – including Israel. We are writing to express our denunciation with Jewish Voice for Peace’s (JVP) latest document, “Our Approach to Zionism”, which tokenizes, appropriates, revises and explicitly lies about Mizrahi and Sephardic history and experiences in order to promote a hostile, anti-Israel agenda. As Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, we reject JVP’s framing of the Mizrahi and Sephardic experience as a driving force of their anti-Zionism and we request that JVP remove all references to Mizrahi and Sephardic history in this document and in all other organizational literature. We ask them to stop in their failed attempts to represent Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, in any capacity. JVP’s latest statement is built on the erasure of Mizrahi and Sephardic voice, truth and history and ultimately promotes an agenda which is harmful to Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews. Because it cannot accept the simple historical truth that most Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews are and continue to identify as Zionist, JVP instead propagates a portrayal of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews as pawns without any agency. We reject this revisionism, and call it out for the orientalism and racism that it is. Because it does not fit with its authors’ preconceived views about Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, the JVP document fails to reference the genuine importance and communal role of Zionism in the lives of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews. Zionism is an embedded religious principle of our faith, demanded in our Bible, fulfilled by our ancestors, Judges and Kings, by our First Temple and Second Temple Commonwealths. It has been the yearning of Jews throughout more than 2,500 years of diaspora; the Babylonian Diaspora, the Byzantine Diaspora, the Spanish Diaspora, the European Diaspora and the Middle East and North African Diaspora. The Establishment of the State of Israel in the lands of Ancient Israel is the fulfillment of that religious imperative. Moreover, political Zionism was a part of Jewish communal life in nearly every country in the Middle East as is evidenced by the underground Zionism clubs that existed throughout the region. Today, the majority of the Mizrahi and Sephardic community resides in Israel, and the vast majority of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, in Israel and in diaspora, are self-identified Zionists. In seeking to obscure that reality in service of its own narrow ideological ends, the JVP statement perpetuates a history of racist exclusion where Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews are spoken for and spoken over. The document fails to recognize and address the rampant state-sanctioned anti-Semitism – frequently taken under the banner of anti-Zionism in the20th century. Under the color of law, one million indigenous Jews from the Middle East and North Africa were persecuted, dispossessed and ultimately fled or were ethnically cleansed from countries their ancestors lived in for millenia. Of those, 650,000 found refuge in Israel, the place where they regained freedom, rights and a sense of personal security. It fails to grapple with the terrible truth that the most tangible political accomplishment of anti-Zionism in the 20th century was not to establish a Palestinian state, but to engender the decimation of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish communities across the Middle East. As a (now-publicly) anti-Zionist organization whose spokespeople and leadership continue to be predominantly Western and Ashkenazi, JVP must reckon with the deeply-embedded anti-Mizrahi and Sephardic orientation inside the anti-Zionist movement. We acknowledge the history of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish marginalization in Israel, as many of the undersigned organizations have been at the forefront of efforts to overcome that history and dismantle discriminatory barriers. Yet JVP’s ‘discrimination’ narrative is a blunt and outdated Israel-bashing tool. Many charges of early cultural discrimination no longer hold true in 21st century Israel. Mizrahi and Sephardic culture is a central element Israeli society, and today Mizrahim have held every government post except prime minister. Inter-ethnic Jewish marriages in Israel is running at 25 per cent and the mixed Israeli family is fast becoming the norm. But most importantly, JVP deliberately overlooks how, with the exception of handful of post-Zionist Mizrahi academics who are non-representative, the Mizrahi and Sephardic community in Israel overwhelmingly has asserted its demands for equality as an instantiation of, not departure from, Zionist ideals. For JVP to now appropriate our struggle as part of a political campaign that most Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews reject is deeply disrespectful, yet sadly predictable from an organization whose interest in the Mizrahi community has always proven to be instrumental and transactional in character. Indeed, we have seen first-hand how exclusionary and isolating practices promoted by JVP—including the opportunistic elevation of cherry-picked voices whose views stand far outside the Mizrahi and Sephardic mainstream, and the endorsement of BDS and anti-normalization movements which attempt to cut off Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish activists from allies and resources around the world. Simply put, in the fight for Mizrahi equality, JVP has not been and is not now an ally, and more often than not it is has explicitly aligned itself with those who have done us harm. We condemn its self-congratulatory and ahistorical attempt to position itself as a friend of the Mizrahi community even as it continues to talk over and erase actual, extant, and living Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish community organizations. Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish history has long been abused as a talking point for this or that ideological agenda, and for years JVP has been among the primary offenders. Their statement on Zionism is only the latest example of a long history of patronizing hostility towards Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, and should be rejected by anyone who considers themselves an ally of the diverse voices in the Jewish community. For those interested in genuinely hearing and engaging with the Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish community, the organizations undersigned below stand ready to educate you. 30 Years After A.A. Society Inc Babylonian Heritage Center of Great Neck, New York Beth Abraham Synagogue of the Sephardic Congregation of New England Coalition of Organisations of Jews from Arab and Islamic Countries in Israel composed of: Association of Jews from Damascus, Syria E’eleh BeTamar: Association of Jews from Yemen Eli: Association of the Jews from Lebanon Kedem for Information on Orientalism Merage Foundation for Jews from Iran Moriah: Association of Jews from Algeria Organisation of the Jews of Kurdistan Orot Institute for Moroccan Jews Shemesh: Organization of Jews from Iraq The Jews of Harat-Afganistan in Jerusalem The World Federation of Tunisian Jewry Union des Juifs d’Egypte en Israel Congregation Bene Neharayem of Jamaica Estate, New York Congregation Ezra Bessaroth of Seattle, Washington Historical Society of Jews from Egypt Harif, UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa Iranian American Jewish Federation JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa JJAC: Justice for Jews from Arab Countries Kahal Joseph Congregation of Los Angeles, California Magain David Sephardim Congregation of San Francisco, California Manhattan East Synagogue S&P Sephardi Community of London incorporating: Bevis Marks Synagogue Lauderdale Road Synagogue Wembley Sephardi Synagogue Sephardic Community Alliance Sephardic Congregation of Evanston, Illinois Sephardic Congregation of Florida Sephardic Educational Center Sephardi Federation of Palm Beach County Sephardic Jews in DC Sephardic Legacy Project Sephardic Minyan of the Boca Raton Synagogue Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation of Seattle, Washington World Organization of Jews from Iraq
The past few years have seen an extraordinary flowering of interest in Middle Eastern Jewish life and history. Internationally, the Abraham Accords have opened new opportunities to excavate and reinvigorate Jewish culture and history in Arab nations, while Israel has increasingly paid heed to ensuring that Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish life is incorporated into collective national narratives. Domestically, we have seen an unprecedented rate of growth in academic initiatives focused on the histories and culture of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, from K-12 through higher education. Most recently, the US National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a nearly $250,000 grant to fund a scholarly project dedicated to “Reimagining Jewish Life in the Modern Middle East, 1800 – Present.” As organizations representing Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, Jewish communities from the Middle East and North Africa, we view the growth in interest in Middle Eastern and North African Jewish history as a welcome and long overdue development. This federally funded NEH grant exhibits growing public interest in our communal histories and as a publicly funded project, invites citizen engagement. As American citizens from the communities the grant seeks to “reimagine” we issue this statement to the NEH to sound a note of caution regarding certain trends which, regrettably, we have regularly seen manifest in writings about Middle Eastern Jews. We do so in the hopes that we can forestall potential distortion and politicization, and intolerable weaponization, of the memory and history of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry. Too often there exists a marked gap between those writing about Middle Eastern Jews, on the one hand, and the views and experiences of the Middle Eastern Jewish community itself, on the other. Frequently, this gap manifests in ill-conceived, tendentious, and often ideologically-motivated “histories” that opportunistically flatten our experience to fit contemporary political agendas. Such works are typically self-consciously partisan and fail to do justice to the complex and layered relationship Middle Eastern Jews have with, among other things, Arabic or Persian language and culture, Zionism and anti-Zionism, Israeli state policies of inclusion and of exclusion, and experiences of dispossession and expulsion in lands Jews had called home for millennia. That these are fraught and politically-contested topics does not justify polemicists deciding to rewrite our stories and histories for their own partisan ambitions. Other times, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews are “represented” via interactions with an unrepresentative and marginal set of activists and scholars whose views are presented as authoritative even as they characterize only a small sliver of Middle Eastern Jewish perspectives. Individual books, articles, and theses have been cherry-picked and wrongly presented as if they are the only authoritative word on Middle Eastern Jewish life. The result has been to render narratives about Middle Eastern Jews, including those found in major textbooks or public discourse, often virtually unrecognizable to Middle Eastern Jews. This, in turn, has profoundly alienated many in our community from the very projects and literature that should be most essential in preserving our history and facilitating our place in Jewish, Middle Eastern, and global society—an inestimable tragedy for Middle Eastern Jews and, we submit, for the scholarly community that should be more invested in accurate historical narration than in scoring transient political points. Middle Eastern Jews in America, Israel, and around the world must not be rendered tertiary characters in our own stories; a frequent occurrence when minority communities become the academic subjects of mainstream, Western scholarship. Some in our community have expressed concern that the new NEH-funded project, helmed by Professors Lior Sternfeld, Michelle Campos and Orit Bashkin, may replicate these well-known and harmful trends in scholarship about Middle Eastern Jews. It is, of course, impossible to judge a book that has not yet been written. However, some of the authors have made concerning statements that suggest either unfamiliarity with, or derision towards, already-existing histories and accounts of Middle Eastern Jewish perspectives. It is entirely true, as one co-author put it, that Middle Eastern Jews were not merely “a group of people waiting for redemption by Zionism but” were also people who “live\[d\] and prosper\[ed\] and work\[ed\] and suffer\[ed\] … in the Middle East as part of Middle Eastern societies.” It is not remotely true to suggest this is a novel observation representing the need for a full-scale “reimagining” of Jewish life in the Middle East, or that existing literature from Mizrahi Jewish writers have presented their accounts in such a flat and superficial manner. Our intention in writing this letter is to insist that all scholars partaking in the emergent wave of scholarship about Middle Eastern Jews, of which this project is but one, take affirmative steps to guard against painting a false or misleading portrayal of Middle Eastern Jewish history that is more loyal to ideological or political commitments than to complex social histories. This includes avoiding, downplaying, or misrepresenting the state of existing scholarship and history about Middle Eastern Jewish communities, as well as denigrating or denying the values and choices Middle Eastern Jews have made, past and present, including those about Zionism and Israel. The undersigned groups, deeply rooted in our communities’ daily life and with decades of experience collecting and curating the history of diverse Middle Eastern Jewish communities welcome the opportunity to collaborate and contribute to this new wave of academic interest in our heritage and history. Finally, we recognize that the flowering of new research on Middle Eastern Jewish experience will inevitably produce articles, chapters, or manuscripts that provoke significant controversy and debate. This is unavoidable and part and parcel of a laudable commitment to academic freedom and free inquiry, however, we the undersigned organizations insist on the lodestone commitment that discussions about these controversies and debates do not sideline Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish voices. No single author or manuscript can be expected to capture the full richness and diversity of Middle Eastern Jewish experience, nor do any write upon a blank slate. The new wave of emergent scholarship can and should be placed into conversation with the many excellent works that already exist. As we await the fruits of the next generation of research, and the inevitable discussion, debate, and disputation that will arise, we would like to bring attention to this bibliography of academic works on Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews, that can help guide learning about our community in a way that is respectful of, and resonant with, our own lived experiences. Signed, 30 Years After A.A. Society Beit Sasson – The Sephardic Congregation of Newton Congregation Bene Naharayim of Queens, New York Eretz Synagogue and Cultural Center Iranian American Jewish Federation JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa JJAC: Justice for Jews from Arab Countries SAMi: Sephardic American Mizrahi Initiative Sephardic Congregation of Paramus, New Jersey Sephardic Education Center Sephardic Jews in DC Sephardic U Sephardic Voices Sinai Temple of Los Angeles Temple Moses Sephardic Synagogue of Miami
Dear Mr. Bennett, As the November 30th Day of Commemoration for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran approaches, we representatives of the international Mizrahi, Sephardic, and Iranian Jewish communities turn our attention towards education of Israeli and Diaspora Jews about our history and heritage. We commend your Ministry’s efforts to support this cause by creating curriculum and teaching materials relating to the history of Middle Eastern & North African Jewry. We are thrilled to have a Minister of Education in office whose values are so aligned with our own, in your championing of heritage studies, affirming the cultural diversity of Israel and recognizing the importance of Mizrahi history. So far, the Israeli government has left the teaching of Mizrahi history and heritage to the discretion of schools. We ask that you continue to support this initiative by ensuring that the Mizrahi history curriculum be made compulsory and that all schools observe the Day of Commemoration. As you know, Israeli students of all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds must be given the tools to gain awareness and understanding of Mizrahi history, as it is integral to the fabric and foundation of Israeli society. In order to help disseminate the Day of Commemoration curriculum internationally, we also request that the educational materials be translated into English. The upholding of the Day of Commemoration curriculum is vital not only to Israeli Jewry but also to those of us in the Diaspora who are not being exposed to the history of Jews from Arab countries and Iran. Israel will set the precedent for Jewish education and Israel advocacy in the United States and beyond. In western countries, students are not being exposed to the history of Jews from Arab countries and Iran. Most westerners, including Diaspora Jews, have a skewed understanding of Jews as a homogenous European people without roots in the Middle East. In turn, they lack an understanding of Israeli society and Israel’s role as a multi-ethnic safe haven for Jews from all parts of the world. It is vital for all students to learn that over 50% of Israeli Jews descend from Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran. By implementing Mizrahi heritage studies, students in the Diaspora would be far better equipped to advocate for Israel. In order to effect this change, and influence our Jewish institutions, we depend on Israel to lead by example. We have greatly appreciated all that you have done so far to carry out this initiative, and look forward to your continued partnership. Sincerely, Sam Yebri, President30 Years After David Dangoor, PresidentAmerican Sephardic Federation Maurice Maleh, ChairmanAssociation of Jews from Egypt (UK) Andre Dehry, PresidentFederation des Associations Sepharades de France Lyn Julius, PresidentHARIF: UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa Susan Azizzadeh, PresidentIranian American Jewish Federation Levana Zamir, PresidentIsraeli Association of Jews from Arab Countries Gina Bublil-Waldman, PresidentJIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa Rabbi Ellie Abadie, PresidentJJAC: Justice for Jews from Arab Countries Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, International DirectorSephardic Education Center Yehuda Azoulay, FounderSephardic Legacy Project
During the 20th century, one million indigenous Jews from the Middle East and North Africa were ethnically-cleansed or forced to flee lands their ancestors lived in for over two-thousand years. Virtually all of their personal and communal property was confiscated. The dispossession and denationalization of nearly one million Jewish refugees was done under the color of law and today there are very few Jews remaining in most of these countries. UN resolution 242 stated that Jews fleeing Arab lands were bona fide refugees under international law. In today’s values, Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran were forced to leave behind billions of dollars worth of private and communal property and land that’s four times the size of the state of Israel. The ultimate objective of JIMENA is redress for former Jewish refugees and their descendants in the form of official international acknowledgment, uniformly articulated across all branches of US government policy and mainstream Jewish communal life. We aim to educate and mobilize the American public and policy makers to protect the confiscated property and the basic human rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran, as well as other threatened minorities in the region. JIMENA’s advocacy work is done in partnership with various Jewish institutions, lawyers, strategists and experts. We work to support government policy the provides justice, redress and protection for the confiscated assets and Jewish cultural patrimony of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. JIMENA is interested in protecting moveable and non-moveable Jewish property that was confiscated from Jewish individuals and communities as they fled or were ethnically cleansed from Arab lands and Iran. JIMENA speakers have provided personal testimonies and briefs at the UN Human Rights Council, UNESCO, US Congress, US Department of State, Israeli Knesset, British House of Lords, Italian Parliament, and Canadian Parliament. We’ve played a lead role in the advancement and passage of national and international legislation and policy that protects the rights of exiled Jewish communities and we are committed to continue working hard on active campaigns that pursue justice for Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran.
As members and leaders of the Bay Area Middle Eastern community, we write you this letter urging you to vote against Resolution SB 160: “A Peaceful Step Towards Neutrality: Targeted Divestment from Companies that Profit from Israel’s Occupation and Settlement Construction.” Not only does the bill harm Palestinians and Israelis, but if fosters an on-campus culture of divisiveness that is counter to the ideals of inclusiveness, democracy, discussion and cooperation that UC Berkeley students pride themselves on. As a human rights organization representing the 850,000 Jewish refugees indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa who were expelled and fled Arab countries, JIMENA is deeply concerned about the well-being of all refugees in the Middle East and North Africa, including Palestinian refugees. As was cited in the New York Times op-ed piece, End the Arab Boycott of Israel, by Ed Husain on March 6, 2013 Palestinian Imams have called for an end to the boycott movement. Jewish refugees from the region have a deep understanding that divestment, and other actions that foster polarization of these two fragile communities, will only serve to disempower the disadvantaged and harm individuals and organizations working for just and equitable solutions to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. JIMENA strongly encourages student leaders to find points of connection between their communities and work together in creating potential solutions for conflicts both domestic and international. As UC Berkeley is a center for some of the best and brightest minds in North America, JIMENA believes UC Berkeley students have the potential to find alternative solutions and we urge the student senate to uphold a strong ethical code of cooperation, respect and innovation rather than follow a divisive approach other student governments have taken that will not bring any solutions to a longstanding problem. Sincerely, JIMENA staff, board, and volunteers
Displaced Mizrahi Jews from Arab countries in a temporary Israeli refugee camp known as Ma’barot On June 13, 2015, “The Nakba Museum Project of Memory and Hope” plans to open their first exhibit, “Reclaiming the Lost Future,” in the Festival Center of downtown Washington D.C. Their ultimate goal is to build a museum that is dedicated to sharing Palestinian experiences of the “Nakba” – the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” used to describe Palestinian displacement following the establishment of the State of Israel. As North America’s primary organization representing and preserving the experiences of Jewish refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, JIMENA supports the empowerment of all refugee voices. But we are concerned that The Nakba Museum will fail to raise awareness about the true perpetrators of the Palestinians’ ongoing victimhood and catastrophe: Arab League nations who, as a political weapon in their ongoing battle against Israel, deliberately refuse to resettle and absorb Palestinian refugees; and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), who perpetrates the Palestinians’ never-ending refugee status. We are also concerned by the silencing of this conflict’s forgotten refugees: the nearly one million Mizrahi Jews expelled from their country’s of origin in the Middle East & North Africa in the 20th century. JIMENA aims to shed light onto the untold story of the “Jewish Nakba.” An estimated 850,000 Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews were forcibly displaced from Arab countries as a backlash of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Their government-sanctioned persecution, murder, torture, imprisonment, and forced surrender of their homes, assets and nationalities was one of the most catastrophic events and immense losses in Jewish and Middle Eastern history. Yet this painful chapter of history is largely forgotten and ignored. There is no museum – and rarely even a single exhibit in any museum, Jewish or otherwise – dedicated to preserving and sharing the experiences of the 850,000 Mizrahi Jewish refugees. The Nakba Museum believes that “sharing stories is a powerful tool to change perceptions, and to transform systems and conflicts.” While JIMENA may agree with this premise, we recognize that individual and collective Palestinian stories of displacement have long dominated Middle Eastern refugee narratives and discourse. The international community’s attuned attention, and in some cases obsession, with Palestinian suffering has not helped to positively influence the policies of UNRWA and Arab League nations. Instead, these entities continue violating Palestinian refugees’ rights by refusing to resettle and absorb them. For the sake of ending Palestinians’ suffering as stateless refugees in camps throughout the Middle East, we urge leadership of The Nakba Museum to avoid appropriating the Palestinian refugee experience for the purpose of singling out Israel. Rather than promoting unrealistic solutions to the Palestinian refugee problem, we hope they will responsibly use the opportunity of storytelling to critically examine the root problems and innovative, yet realistic solutions towards restoring Palestinians’ human rights and quality of life. JIMENA continues to be concerned that the global obsession with the “Palestinian Nakba” has left a negligible gap of public awareness and attention towards the historical and current plight of millions of other displaced people in the Middle East including Syrians, Iraqis, and oppressed religious minority refugee groups such as Yezidis, Assyrians, Coptic Christians, and Jews. We believe that all refugee stories need to be acknowledged, and we remain committed to voicing the stories of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. We encourage well-established Jewish museums and educational institutions to join us by doing more to uphold and share the histories and cultures of Mizrahi refugees and their descendants. For more information, we encourage you to read the following articles: **As the Nakba comes to Washington, a wasted opportunity**Ben Cohen, jns.orgMay 7, 2015 **What about the Jewish Nakba?**Ben-Dror Yemini, ynetnews.comNovember 28, 2014 **The Continuous Nakba: Two Arab refugees**Joe Samuels, Times of IsraelMay 20, 2015 **Their Nakba and our refugees**Dr. Edy Cohen, Israel HayomMay 14, 2015 **Iranian Jewish Refugees still not over forced exile from Iran**Karmel Melamed, Times of IsraelMay 18, 2015
In today's turbulent Middle East, one of the region's most ancient indigenous populations is now among the most brutally persecuted: the Yezidi people. In Iraq, 10,000 Yezidi lives have already been claimed by ongoing torture and murder, an atrocity that has led UN human rights investigators to accuse ISIS of genocide.