[Spotykach] Uri Avnery says:

[glitz at lessonplanproject.org]

it's a bit more complicated than that.

- "ashkenazim" are jews from communities originating in eastern and central
europe;

- "sefardim" are jews from communities tracing their origins to pre-expulsion
(pre-1492) spain and portugal;

- "mizrakhim" ('easterners') is originally an israeli government catch-all term
for all non-ashkenazi jews, including sefardi, romaniote (greek), beta israel
(ethiopian), baghdadi (baghdad/iraq), bukharan (central asia), etc.  not just
jews from arab countries or the muslim world; not all "erroneously" called
sefardim - some are sefardim, some aren't.

note that these are cultural markers, not strict geographic ones (even before
1939 and 1948).  historically, there have been sefardi communities in the
balkans, central europe, england, holland, etc, as well as north africa and
west asia; there have been ashkenazi communities in turkey, shanghai and
elsewhere; but there are also non-sefardi north african and west asian
communities, and several distinct jewish cultural groups in the caucasus, in
south asia, etc.

but over the past few decades (mainly in israel and the u.s.), different
political and social movements have used either "sefardi" or "mizrakhi" as an
identity term to organize against ashkenazi dominance in jewish communities and
in the israeli state.  so at times (and now, generally) avnery is right and
'mizrakhi' is the most useful term for 'non-ashkenazi'.  but at times 'sefardi'
has been used to mean the same thing, by folks who are not necessarily from
communities that go back to the iberian expulsions.

for more on this, and on the kick-ass history of mizrakhi and sefardi
radicalism, read ela shohat's "zionism through the eyes of its jewish victims",
ammiel alkalay's writings, and anything you can find on the israeli Black
Panthers (sami shalom chetrit made a movie in 2003 or so, there are a few
articles and books out there).

dos gezunt iz in dir / la salute e in voi

rozele


Quoting Karl-Heinz Thier <K.Thier at gmx.com>:

> "Eastern" is the now generally accepted term for Jews from Arab and other
> Muslim countries and their descendents, who used to be called, erroneously,
> "Sephardim". The "Ashkenazim" are immigrants from European countries and
> their descendents, named for the Medieval Hebrew appellation for Germany.
> 
> Transmitted by
> 
> Karl-Heinz  




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