Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa

Last updated

Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) is a non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California that is dedicated to the preservation of Mizrahi and Sephardi culture and history, and seeks to educate the public and advocate for Jewish refugees from the Middle East.

Contents

Historical Background

The Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands in the 20th century was a result of the expulsion and mass departure primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background from Arab and Islamic countries. The migration started in the late 19th century, but accelerated after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. According to official Arab statistics, 856,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries from 1948 until the early 1970s. Some 600,000 resettled in Israel, [1] leaving behind property valued today at more than $300 billion. [2] [3] Jewish-owned real-estate left behind in Arab lands has been estimated at 100,000 square kilometers (four times the size of the State of Israel). [1] Thus, of the nearly 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands, approximately 600,000 were absorbed by Israel; the remainder went to Europe and the Americas. [4] [5]

Political Activities

JIMENA played a key role in the unanimous passage of House Resolution 185 by the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. [4] [6] This resolution urges the President to ensure that when refugees from the Middle East are discussed in international forums, any reference to Palestinian refugees be matched by a similarly explicit reference to Jewish and other refugee populations. [7]

In December 2007 JIMENA briefed Iraqi-born Ruth Pearl, mother of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, before her meeting with the President at the Hanukka White House party. She informed President Bush, for the first time ever, of the plight of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. During the President's recent visit to Israel, he was reported to have mentioned the importance of including the Jewish refugees in future negotiations about refugees of the Middle East. [8]

In March 2008, JIMENA testified at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on behalf of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. [9] [10] [11]

Joe Wahed was the co-founder of JIMENA. [12] Current board members include noted human rights advocate Gina Waldman, executive film producer and co-founder of the David Project Ralph Avi Goldwasser, Varda Rabin (wife of the noted Jewish philanthropist Irving Rabin), and Professor Henry Green of the University of Miami, director of the Sephardi Voices project.

In January 2019, JIMENA issued a "Sephardic and Mizrahi Communal Response" to Jewish Voice for Peace. JIMENA criticized JVP's anti-Zionism and invocation of Mizrahi and Sephardi history to critique the State of Israel. [13]

In 2021, JIMENA lobbied the California Department of Education to include a lesson titled, “Antisemitism and Middle Eastern Jewish Americans,” [14] into their Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. This is the first time a state-level department of education has included materials on Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in a social studies framework. [15]

Educational Activities

In January 2020, JIMENA hosted a conference in San Francisco, California called “Journey to the Mizrah.” [16] The purpose of the conference was to train educators on how to integrate Sephardic scholarship, spirituality, history, and contemporary heritage into classrooms and learning spaces. JIMENA has since expanded the curriculum into a guide for implementation in classroom settings.

Three years later, JIMENA adapted the original Journey to the Mizrah framework into a Sephardi & Mizrahi Education Toolkit with a stated mission as a, “compendium of recommendations, strategies, and resources to help educators learn about Sephardi and Mizrahi heritage and shape inclusive school environments.”

JIMENA offered educational programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as virtual opportunities to explore the Jewish history of Kurdistan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Yemen. [17] During this time, the nonprofit also inaugurated its Sephardic Leaders Fellowship with support from the Jewish Community Federation and the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund.

In 2023, JIMENA published Distinctions Journal , an online quarterly journal highlighting voices of Sephardi and Mizrahi scholars, researchers, artists, and activists.

See also

Social Media Pages

Related Research Articles

In the 20th century, approximately 900000 Jews migrated, fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries throughout Africa and Asia. Primarily a consequence of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the mass movement mainly transpired from 1948 to the early 1970s, with one final exodus of Iranian Jews occurring shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979–1980. An estimated 650000 (72%) of these Jews resettled in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sephardic Jews</span> Jewish diaspora of Spain and Portugal

SephardicJews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad, can also refer to the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, who were also heavily influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiled families also later sought refuge in those Jewish communities, resulting in ethnic and cultural integration with those communities over the span of many centuries. The majority of Sephardim live in Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maghrebi Jews</span> Jewish diaspora of Northwest Africa

Maghrebi Jews or North African Jews, are a Jewish diaspora group with a long history in the Maghreb region of North Africa, which includes present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. These communities were established long before the Arab conquest, and continued to develop under Muslim rule during the Middle Ages. Maghrebi Jews represent the second-largest Jewish diaspora group, with their descendants forming a major part of the global Jewish population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mizrahi Jews</span> Jews of the Middle East and North Africa

Mizrahi Jews, also known as Mizrahim (מִזְרָחִים) or Mizrachi (מִזְרָחִי) and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or Edot HaMizrach, are terms used in Israeli discourse to refer to a grouping of Jewish communities that lived in the Muslim world. Mizrahi is a political sociological term that was coined with the creation of the State of Israel. It translates as "Easterner" in Hebrew.

Mizrahi Hebrew, or Eastern Hebrew, refers to any of the pronunciation systems for Biblical Hebrew used liturgically by Mizrahi Jews: Jews from Arab countries or east of them and with a background of Arabic, Persian or other languages of Asia. As such, Mizrahi Hebrew is actually a blanket term for many dialects.

Jewish ethnic divisions refer to many distinctive communities within the world's Jewish population. Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, mixing with local communities, and subsequent independent evolutions.

Arab Jews is a term for Jews living in or originating from the Arab world. Many left or were expelled from Arab countries in the decades following the founding of Israel in 1948, and took up residence in Israel, Western Europe, the United States and Latin America. The term is controversial and politically contested in Israel, where the term "Mizrahi Jews" was adopted by the early state instead. However, some anti-Zionist Jews of Arab origin actively elect to call themselves Arab Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Wahba</span>

Rachel Wahba is a writer of Mizrahi/Sephardic Jewish topics and a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and in Marin County. She has written extensively about her mother's traumatic experience during the Farhud, the pogrom carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad in June 1941.

Musta'arabi Jews were the Arabic-speaking Jews, largely Mizrahi Jews and Maghrebi Jews, who lived in the Middle East and North Africa prior to the arrival and integration of Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Following their expulsion, Sephardi Jewish exiles moved into the Middle East and North Africa, and settled among the Musta'arabi.

Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis comprise Israel's largest ethnic and religious community. The core of their demographic consists of those with a Jewish identity and their descendants, including ethnic Jews and religious Jews alike. Approximately 99% of the global Israeli Jewish population resides in Israel; yerida is uncommon and is offset exponentially by aliyah, but those who do emigrate from the country typically relocate to the Western world. As such, the Israeli diaspora is closely tied to the broader Jewish diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sephardi Federation</span> Sephardic jewish organization

The American Sephardi Federation, a founding member of the Center for Jewish History, is a non-profit Jewish organization that strengthens and organizes the religious and cultural activities of Sephardic Jews, preserves Sephardic heritage, tradition and culture in the United States, and assists in the publication of books and literature dealing with the Sephardic culture and tradition. The federation also works to further awareness of the former existence of large Jewish communities in the Muslim and Arab world.

<i>The Forgotten Refugees</i> 2005 film

The Forgotten Refugees is a 2005 documentary film directed by Michael Grynszpan and produced by The David Project and IsraTV with Ralph Avi Goldwasser as executive producer, that recounts the history of Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa and their demise in the face of persecutions following the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948.

Racism in Israel encompasses all forms and manifestations of racism experienced in Israel, irrespective of the colour or creed of the perpetrator and victim, or their citizenship, residency, or visitor status. More specifically in the Israeli context, racism in Israel refers to racism directed against Israeli Arabs by Israeli Jews, intra-Jewish racism between the various Jewish ethnic divisions, historic and current racism towards Mizrahi Jews although some believe the dynamics have reversed, and racism on the part of Israeli Arabs against Israeli Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nahalat Shimon</span> Historical Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem

Nahalat Shimon was a Jewish religious neighborhood of about 40 Jewish families in East Jerusalem in the area currently known as Sheikh Jarrah. It was founded in 1891 by Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish Kollels, to house poor Yemenite and Sephardi Jews. The cornerstone of the neighborhood was laid in 1890, near the Tomb of Simeon the Just.

The Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran is a National Day of Commemoration in Israel, observed every year on November 30 to memorialize the departure and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and Iran.

Mizrahi Jews constitute one of the largest Jewish ethnic divisions among Israeli Jews. Mizrahi Jews are descended from Jews in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia and parts of the Caucasus, who had lived for many generations under Muslim rule during the Middle Ages. The vast majority of them left the Muslim-majority countries during the Arab–Israeli conflict, in what is known as the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. According to a survey conducted in 2005, 61% of Jewish Israelis identified as either Mizrahi or Sephardic.

Ashkenazi Jews in Israel refers to immigrants and descendants of Ashkenazi Jews, who now reside within the state of Israel, in the modern sense also referring to Israeli Jewish adherents of the Ashkenazi Jewish tradition. As of 2013, they number 2.8 million and constitute one of the largest Jewish ethnic divisions in Israel, in line with Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews. Ashkenazim, excluding those who migrated from the former USSR, are estimated to be 31.8% of the Israeli population in 2018.

Henry Alan Green is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami, and has taught there since 1984. After completing postgraduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Oxford, and the Sorbonne, he received his Ph.D. in Religion from St. Andrew's University in 1982. He is the published author or co-author of four books and numerous articles, and has received recognition for his work on documenting the exodus of Jews from Arab countries after the Second World War.

Ashkenormativity refers to a form of Eurocentrism within Ashkenazi Jewish culture that confers privilege on Ashkenazi Jews relative to Jews of Sephardi, Mizrahi, Ethiopian, and other non-Ashkenazi backgrounds, as well as to the assumption that Ashkenazi culture is the default Jewish culture. The term is most commonly used in the United States, where the majority of Jews are Ashkenazi. Ashkenormativity is also alleged to exist in Israel, where Ashkenazi Jews experience cultural prominence despite no longer constituting a majority.

References

  1. 1 2 Adi Schwartz (January 3, 2008). "'All I wanted was justice'". Haaretz. Archived from the original on January 10, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  2. ↑ Warren Hoge (November 5, 2007). "Group Spotlights Jews Who Left Arab Lands". The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  3. ↑ Lefkovits, Etgar. "Expelled Jews hold deeds on Arab lands. The Jerusalem Post . 16 November 2007. 18 December 2007.
  4. 1 2 Congress mulls Jewish refugee cause by Michal Lando. The Jerusalem Post . July 25, 2007
  5. ↑ Historical documents. 1947-1974 VI - THE ARAB REFUGEES - INTRODUCTION MFA Israel
  6. ↑ "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the creation of refugee populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf region as a result of human rights violations. (2008 - H.Res. 185)". GovTrack.us. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  7. ↑ "Jimena Voice" (PDF). JIMENA. April 2008. pp. 2–3. Retrieved April 22, 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  8. ↑ Devora Mandell (December 12, 2007). "Chanukah At The White House". The Jewish Press. Archived from the original on February 20, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Testimony at the UN - UN Watch". Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2008.
  10. ↑ Breaking News - JTA, Jewish & Israel News [ dead link ]
  11. ↑ Paul Lungen (27 March 2008). "Rights Council hears from Jewish refugee". The Canadian Jewish News. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011.
  12. ↑ Pine, Dan (10 January 2014). "Joseph Wahed, a founder of JIMENA, dies at 77". J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  13. ↑ "Sephardic and Mizrahi Communal Response to Jewish Voice for Peace". JIMENA. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  14. ↑ https://www.jimena.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CDEEditedAntisemitism-and-Jewish-Middle-Eastern-Americans.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  15. ↑ "Exploring the Role of JIMENA in K-12 Ethnic Studies and Antisemitism Prevention".
  16. ↑ "JIMENA conference urges teachers to include Sephardic heritage in the classroom". 11 November 2022.
  17. ↑ "Join JIMENA on a Journey through the Middle East and North Africa". 16 February 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.