Multilayered Israel-Diaspora Relations: a Sephardi-Mizrahi Lens

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

The panel aims to delve into the intricate tapestry of Israel-diaspora relations by centering on the often-overlooked Sephardi-Mizrahi component, especially in the context of global migration and during the early years of Israel. Traditionally, narratives of Homeland-Diaspora ties were confined to fixed categories, but the 1990s witnessed a paradigm shift as scholars began emphasizing the fluidity of cultural constructions underpinning them. Relatedly, Israel Studies and MENA studies have recently begun grappling with global migration and multi-sited diaspora-making questions. Still, there are substantial gaps in understanding the transregional connections and hierarchies within Sephardi-Mizrahi communities on the move or how these movements and connections have shaped broader Jewish diaspora experiences and attitudes. Focusing on Sephardi and Mizrahi experiences in Argentina, Israel, and Morocco and France, the three papers describe how Sephardi and Mizrahi interactions across various diasporas and centers shaped possibilities, limitations, and hierarchies that brought about intra-community conflict that impacted the Jewish world at large. The panel seeks to challenge conventional understandings of Israel-diaspora relations in the context of migration and new diaspora formation and foster dialogue around the diverse and often intersecting nature of MENA, Sephardi, and Jewish communities on the move, especially during the early years of Israel. In their paper, Adriana M. Brodsky and Aviad Moreno delve into the international struggles of Sephardi-Mizrahi leaders against marginalization by Zionist-Ashkenazi hegemonies, focusing on Eliayu (Elie) Eliachar's contentious visit to Buenos Aires in 1948. Tamar Yael Gibli examines the formation of Israel's ethnic divides through the diasporic lens of US Jews. By analyzing the Jewish American press coverage of Israel's Sephardi and Mizrahi communities during Israel's first two decades leading up to Israel's Black Panthers protests in the early 1970s, Gibli sheds light on the complexities of Jewish diasporas. Yolande Cohen explores the transmigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel through France, as they were displaced in transit camps. Attention to the trajectory within these larger transnational contexts allows for understanding the importance of those camps, and the interactions that happened in them, in shaping the options available to the migrants as they moved.

Sub Unit

• Sephardi/Mizrahi Studies

Chair

• Roy Orel Shukrun, Utrecht University

Individual Presentations

• Sephardi Solidarity and its Global Hierarchies: Cross-Diaspora Networks Between Israel and Argentina, 1948-1951 - Adriana Brodsky, St. Mary's College of Maryland; Aviad Moreno, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

• Israel's ethnic divides: North American Jewish perspectives, 1948-1973 - Tamar Gibli, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

• Zionism and the transmigration of Moroccan Jews through transit camps in France - Yolande Cohen, UQAM

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 12