"Those" Sephardim

On Monday, in my History of Modern Israel class, we learned about the fall of the Labor parties and the way MAPAI screwed the Sephardic immigrants, leading to decades of tension between the Ashkenazi and the Sephardim. Not only were all these people condemned to live in isolated villages far from the city, not only were they put at an economic disadvantaged, but they also sufferend from the dehumanazing, contemptuous behavior of the arrogant MAPAI. To my shock, I saw the way Yemeni immigrants were covered with Lysol as soon as they set foot in the airport, and how they were considered dirty, and in many ways inferior to the European immigrants. I remembered a horrible article I've read in one of my anthropology classes earlier, which concerned the mass disappearance of the Yemeni children. Rumors have it, they were forcibly taken from their families and given up for adoption to Ashkenazi and European families, given up illegally for large sums of money, whereas their parents were led to believe that the children died. The article was shocking, yet, in light of what I've learned in the class, I found it a lot more credible, as opposed to the conspiracy theory I once believed it to be.

I also learned about the riots by the Ethiopian and other Middle Eastern Jews, because of the way they were being treated... the resentment many non-Ashkenazis felt towards Soviet refuseniks who were given special priviledges by the government. In all fairness, this same resentment can be felt by the new wave of ex-Soviet immigrants to the United States. We were given the status of refugees and offered certain kinds of help upon our arrival, help that our predecessors, who came in the 70s, did not get. The "old wave" often complains about the newcomers and the unfairness of the difference in treatment. There's not much I can say to that, to tell you the truth. I cannot offer any moral critique of the resentment the Sephardim felt towards the Soviet immigrants, because of the economic advantages. It must have been very difficult. But I don't think it's fair to blame the immigrants themselves for the extra help they got, (nothing tremendous, I'm sure). Rather, the arrogant political coalition was to blame - and it eventually came to suffer political defeat, for a good reason.

Anyway, as we went on to discuss various prejudices agains the Sephardim, I realized that the whole situation sounds very familiar to me. OK, so I don't have much contact with Sephardim, given where I live and study (a Russian-speaking area of Brooklyn + the Upper West Side), but of course they don't go completely unmentioned... and though, I don't stop to think about it too much, I feel like I share in some of those prejudices, at least in part. As a child, growing up, I knew that I would marry a Jew, if I marry at all. It wasn't just a cultural expectation, in fact, my parents didn't even start mentioning that till I was older, and by then, my mind was made up on my own. I didn't give too much thought about what kind of Jew it would be; the only thing I knew is that he would have to be someone OUTSIDE the Russian-speaking community, because I really hated some details of the ex-Soviet mentality - another post altogether.

That's it. However, as I got older, I just knew, somehow, naturally, that the Jew I'd marry would be an Ashkenazi like me. My parents didn't have any lengthy direct conversations about it, nor did I come in any direct negative contact with the Sephardim. But phrases would slip through. My parents would *imply* certain things. They never made any derogatory statements about the Sephardic Jews. Just that they were different, they had a different culture, a different mindset, and many of them were much more religious than we are. Did I want to become very religious as well? No, of course I didn't. There was some expectation of narrow-mindedness and chauvinism coming from our Eastern brethren. In part, that was because they lived in very conservative regions, many of which were actually Muslim countries, and were assimilated enough to adopt certain types of mentality, none of which my parents were comfortable with. Up to recent few years, the only type of Sephardic Jews I came in contact with were from Bukhara/other parts of Central Asia and Dagestan. None of them I knew well enough to judge in any way.

Now, my parents never, EVER made any racially intolerant remarks about Sephardim. On the contrary, they were more than encouraging in teaching me about all the different types of Jews, from various reasons. I knew that some Jews came from well-developed regions, and others came fromless, but whatever characteristics they had, it had nothing to do with what they looked like. So no, the prejudices we had against the Sephardic Jews were not of racial/biological type. On the contrary, as a child I was pretty envious of their jet-black hair and tan complexion, because I thought that made them more Jewish-looking than me. I thought that the darker a Jew was, the closer he was to the original Middle Eastern ancestory-type, and thus, somehow more "authentic". That illusion, of course, disspelled with years, but this just go to show that I had no problem with *outward appearance*.

It's funny, however, how I never did stop to question my parents about the Sephardic Jews and their "different mentality" or level of religious observance. Probably because it didn't matter either way, we had no way of contacting them too much, and whenever my parents met some of them, they got along perfectly fine, and everyone behaved in a civil manner. Of course, there was no chance for me to develop close friendships with some, because of the physical distance. But I didn't think my problems would have any problem with that; after two of my best friends are Chinese, not at all Jewish, so that's as different as you could get, and my family's perfectly fine with that. In college, I met a few more, but we didn't have too many things in common, simply because we were very different people. We were OK, no problems, and I didn't give it any more thoughts.

My first *real*, direct encounter came during an anthropology project in freshman year, when I wound up visiting a Dutch synagogue not too far from my college. It was the oldest synagogue in the United States, and its tradition was mostly Portuguese. Its congregation consisted of Sephardic Jews of various backgrounds, and although I was a little intimidated by the formality of the service, I wound up mixing with a number of people during a kiddush. I saw there was nothing wrong with people there. An Ethiopian girl, who stood next to me during the service was very kind and helped me through parts I didn't understand, which was mostly everything, since I don't know any Hebrew at all. (Which makes service at Orthodox synagogues hell for me!) Afterwards, I was seated at a table, with all the individuals from Sephardic background. One turned out to be British, and I was fascinated by his accent (sorry, I'm ready to swoon whenever I hear British accent, except Cockney which is totally ridiculous) and told us fascinating stories. He was a nice old guy. It was only later that I learned that most British Jews are actually Sephardic, Jews that were thrown out of Spain back in 1492 and who made their way to other parts of Europe. Two women were telling us about their parents, who came from Spain and Portugal, and who still knew some Ladino. It was awesome, given that I was (and still am) studying Spanish at an advanced level, and here I had real live Jews who knew it as well. But that contact was very short-lived as I moved on with the project and my life.

The next encounter with Sephardic Jews was somewhat of a shock. I didn't write anything about it at a time, for reason direclty related to what I was doing, but enough time has passed, I think, that I can mention some general details, without giving away any names. It happened last summer, as I was interning at the Brooklyn DA's office. I was getting really cool cases to process, and I was hoping to get at least one of every "interesting" type of case out there. I lucked out and my wish came true. One day, I wound up with what turned out to be a real Bias (Hate Crime) case on my hands, which was a shock to the whole office, because those cases are very rare and hard to prove. You have to establish the intent, and it's very difficult to do. Anyway, the case started out as a very simple misdemeanor tresspassing case. Two neighbors had an argument, and one of them into the apartment of the other without permission. I looked at the case and groaned. You had a million of such cases every day, and it was going to be simple and boring.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I took a look at the victim's name and it turned out to be someone Russian-speaking. That added an element of spice, because it meant that now, at least, I had a chance to translate, a part of my job I was always looking forward to doing. It made me feel special and needed. What's more, it turned out that the perpetrator was Russian-speaking as well. Kewl. A dispute in my own community. The woman sounded like someone from Central Asia. I was feeling pretty cynical and figured that it was one of the many illegal immigrants we had. Anyway, I called her up, and as I started interviewing her about the details of the case, it turned out that she, in fact, was an Uzbeki Jew, and the case was one of the many incidents of anti-Semitic attacks against her by that very neighbor.

I won't go into details of what happened, which was nasty enough to be sure. What's much more relevant to the past, is that during the telling of her story, the woman burst into tears and told me how scared she was, that she could no longer feel safe. She was a refugee from Uzbekistan, she fled from the widespread anti-Semitism there, and told me how she's gotten beaten up by the number of Muslim individuals there because she was Jewish. And now this! Well, suffice it to say, I almost burst out into tears myself. Fortunately, I controlled myself with enought to do everything I could with the case, and to send it on its way with a special label. I have no idea what happened with it afterwards, but believe me, *I* did everything in my power to make as much fuss about it as was possible.

So here I am, running around, trying to demonstrate intent in order to prove the "bias" part of the crime, and meanwhile, I'm thinking: "Oh my gosh! I have a chance to help a fellow Jew, if not in the long run, then at least by doing what I can, by giving her a tiny bit of hope. A fellow Jew, who's faced the common problem of Jews - anti-Semitism!" I was incredibly touched, and not until much later did I stop to think that this woman, who sounded just like me, was, in fact, Sephardic. She sounded just like me! She didn't sound like a crazy religious fanatic, or someone completely backward. She was a normal woman trying to make a living with her family - and under attack for her Jewishness. How different was she from any of us, other immigrants? How different was she from someone who came from the Ukraine? From my cousin, who got into fights in school, because someone called her a "kike"? Not different at all. It was a shock and a revelation, the ability to relate to someone supposedly very different from you on such a human level.

Of course, this one incident did not go to solve a long history of cultural divide. But it did spark in me enough curiousity not to actively shirk Sephardic Jews if ever I encountered them, but rather to find out what's up with that fabled tension between two groups of Jews in Israel and beyond. Shame on us; we're not supposed to be fighting. Don't we have enough problems as it is?? Cultural divide, intensified by years of government discrimination and various economic issues, is not an easy problem to solve. I'm not under any illusion regarding that. But I do think that with time, even cultural differences will become more acceptable, and the two groups will learn to give each other a chance, to tolerate each other a little more, and to relate a bit more to each other as members of the same nation. After all, at the end of the day, both Ashkenazi and Sephardim are members of the same Tribe, NOT enemies. And in Israel, as well as here, we're all working towards common goals - individual happiness and communal prosperity, the success in personal endeavors, and the success of the country in which we live, be it Israel or the United States. It won't be easy; it'll take a long time, but I think it's *possible*. Or am I being too idealistic here?

Hopeful,
Irina