The Invention of the Mizrahim

Abstract

This essay examines the paradoxical effects on Arab Jews of their two, rival essentialist nationalisms-Jewish and Arab. It shows how the Eurocentric concept of a single 'Jewish History" cut non-Ashkenazi Jews offfrom their origins, even while the Zionist idea that Arabness and Jewishness are mutually exclusive gradually came to be shared by Arab nationalist discourse. The emergence of a new, hybrid iden- tity of Mizrahim, as a product both of Israel's assimilationist policy and of resistance to it, is discussed. Finally, the author proposes an interdisciplinary framework-Mizrahi studies-as a way of going be- yond hegemonic Zionist discourses while at the same time making a strong link to the Palestinian issue.