An Intersectional Failure: How Both Israel’s Backers and Critics Write Mizrahi Jews Out of the Story

[shira]

The watchword of the day in activist circles is “intersectionality.” The term was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to recognize the role that multiple identities (i.e., the intersection of race and sex) have in creating unique lived experiences for individuals. Prior to this theory, our society’s understanding of a given group’s experience of oppression was dominated by the voices of those holding power within that social group. For example, the experience of “Black women” was mistakenly conceived in terms defined by the experiences of more prominent Black men and White women. This elided the distinct oppression Black women faced within the women’s rights and civil rights movements. Intersectionality theory recognizes this phenomenon and aims to fill in these gaps, strengthening our understanding of power and privilege by giving voice to the previously voiceless.

Interrogating how intersectionality applies to the Jewish community has evoked a flurry of commentary over the past several weeks—David Bernstein and James Kirchick leveling sharp critiques, Amna Farooqi and Henry Rosen and Max Fineman rallying in passionate defense. Yet revealingly, none of these columns mention those Jews who perhaps most obviously embody the situation intersectionality was designed to tackle. As we explore what intersectionality means in the Jewish context, it is worth asking—yet again—why so many of our conversations ignore Mizrahi, Sephardic, and other non-Ashkenazi Jews.

The omission of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews in intersectional discourse is symptomatic of a larger problem. In the global imagination, the easy conflation of “Jews” and “white” has blinded many to the internal ethnic diversity within the Jewish community—especially in Israel. Non-Ashkenazi Jews are typically ignored in public discourse or respected only insofar as they confirm the prejudices and ideologies of others. While there are some organizations, such as JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa), devoted to elevating the profile of Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish concerns, in general American Jewish organizations right, left, and center are notorious for being Ashke-normative—in other words, making the Ashkenazi experience the de-facto Jewish experience. This is similarly the case among critics of the American Jewish establishment, both Jewish and not.

Mizrahi Jews represent a conundrum for Jews and non-Jews alike accustomed to the typical Eurocentric modes of characterization. “Jews living in the Middle East? North Africa? Jews identifying as Jewish and Arab? Jews having Arab names and speaking Arabic?” Yet for more than 2000 years, Jews lived among Arabs, spoke their language, and shared many of their customs. These Jews were responsible for contributing the Babylonian Talmud, and centuries later were crucial in revolutionizing the economies of cities including Aleppo, Baghdad, and Cairo.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/197169/an-intersectional-failure-how-both-israels-backers-and-critics-write-mizrahi-jews-out-of-the-story

[shira]

1. How Intersectionality Makes You Stupid

A gay-rights group, caving to anti-Israel extremists, decides to cancel an ‘intensely divisive’ Jewish event—and then, under opposite pressure, decides to include it. The flawed lesson? The victim who shouts the loudest gets what they want in today’s hyper-politicized cultural climate.


As I write this, ISIS is hunting gay men to toss from the rooftops of Raqaa, and nearly 80 countries proscribe homosexuality. Yet for a 36-hour period earlier this week, the National LGBTQ Task Force chose to ally itself not with the one country in the Middle East that guarantees and protects the human rights of LGBTQ people, but with those who hang them from construction cranes....

cont'd:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/196754/intersectionality-makes-you-stupid