TIL that the term "Mizrahi" is a reclaimed term, originally a racist term and slurrish, it's since been reclaimed by those Jews as a way to self-identify, especially for those Jews who live in Israel.
I've only heard it in the context of its reclaimed use, but knowing the history is important.
@serge the therm #Mizrahi is in fact a repurposed term, #Ostjuden, used by #Ashkenazi Jews to refer to #Yiddish speaking Jews in Eastern Europe. The preferred term by some Israelis (and non Israelis) these days is #ArabJews, as in European Jews etc.
Further education, if I may:
How the Polish Peddler Became a German Intellectual: Orientalism, Jewish Identity, and the Antecedents to Social Closure in Israel
there is no such thing as an arab jew, jews are pretty adamant about this, and to keep intimating that there are, is simple antisemtisim, thanks for playing
The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=8405
Also, “Arab Jew” is self referential, and has nothing to do with #antisemitism. For example, both the Yehouda SHENHAV (above) and Masoud HAYOUN, the author of “When We Were Arabs”, are Jews identifying as Arab Jews.
Joe, there are Jews who identify as Arab Jews, but there are enmormous complexies around doing so, and it's a political statement, rather than a messianic one.
The choice to use the term by non-Jews is often (though not always) used as a form of Mizrahi erasure, such as when Al Jazeera publishes articles/op-eds about the "myth" of the Mizrahi Jew, calling them Arab Jews instead.
Any time someone overrides someone else's self-identification labels, we need to take a look at their motivations.
there are no such thing as arab fucking jews, serge, it's not messianic, it's islamic, for fucks sake, arabs have hated and massacred jews throughout our entire existance, it's like saying nazi jew. you're either a jew or you're an arab, we're all pretty rock solid in this belief, and to promote it not being the case if fucking nuts.
@josephramoney well we have those as well… Baruch ashem … 🙏 the #Ashkenazi eugenicist Arthur Ruppin, for example, a prominent #Zionist leader who met with Himmler's mentor, Hans F. K. Günther. Ruppin was also Ben Gurion’s mentor, so I guess the ethnic cleansing of #Palestine was not an accident.
More information here:
Arthur Ruppin's Concept of Race
In: Amos Morris-Reich, Israel Studies , Fall, 2006, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Fall, 2006), pp. 1-3.
While I am am Ashkenazi, if someone identifies as a Mizrahi, you do not have the right to call them an "Arab Jew". You should always use the term that they use for self-identification.
In addition, I did not ask to be put on these groups, nor do I wish to engage with you any further.
If someone identifies as Sephardi or Mizrahi and someone else "re-classifies them" "Arab Jew", this is a form of erasure and possibly harassment.
@serge@dorit@histodons@israel yeah… right. I’m sure موسى بن ميمون (aka #Maimonides), author of دلالة الحائرين (The Guide for the Perplexed), only the most influential #Torah scholar, and author of the most important philosophical and influential work in Judaism written in عربية يهودية (Judeo-Arabic), is rolling in his grave.
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