Annual Tribute to Nissim Rejwan

[David Shasha]

Friends,

 

            It is my distinct honor and privilege to once again pay tribute to our dear friend Nissim Rejwan on the anniversary of his passing in 2017.

 

            For the Arab Jews there was indeed no greater champion of our heritage and our place in this world.

 

·         Before there was the “Uncle Tom” Biton Committee and Naftali Bennett – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before there were self-hating Mizrahi politicians like Miri Regev and Ayelet Shaked – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before there were Ashkenazi Zionist front-groups like JIMENA, HARIF, and the JJAC – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before there were the shrill Mizrahim chanting “Bibi, Melekh Yisra’el” – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before there was Beitar Jerusalem Mizrahi racist soccer hooliganism – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before there was the Litvak Haredi SHAS Party – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before the vile Menachem Begin was elected with the help of the Mizrahim – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before august Sephardic institutions like Congregation Shearith Israel and the American Sephardi Federation were turned over to reactionary Ashkenazi hands – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

·         Before we turned into Ashkenazi puppets and shamed ourselves and our cultural heritage – there was Nissim Rejwan!

 

            I am proud to say that Nissim Rejwan was a trusted friend of mine – and a very loyal supporter of the Sephardic Heritage Update. 

 

Although we never met in person, we spoke on the telephone and through scores of e-mails where I could see his fierce pride and independence as an Arab Jew – and as a human being.  He was the quintessence of the Jewish Humanist in our time, and a tireless advocate for our rights against the pervasive Ashkenazi racism in Israel and the Diaspora.

 

            Our dear friend Emile Cohen, who was introduced to the SHU by Nissim himself, has given us a loving and very precise tribute to his close personal friend which allows us to see the arc of his brilliant career and the deep wells of his humanity.

 

            I wrote an essay on Nissim’s most famous book The Last Jews in Baghdad back in 2004.  The review provides a wide-ranging perspective on the complex themes of that book and the way it recounts the difficult history of a critical time.  That seminal book paints a vivid picture not only of history, but of a young man’s coming of age and his humanity in the most profound ways.  In the course of the discussion I seek to contextualize the book in philosophical as well as political terms.

 

            David Green’s excellent 2007 Tablet magazine profile is one of the few instances where we have seen our culture and history being given its rightful place in the larger Ashkenazi-dominated Jewish media.  Green remains one of the few Israeli writers who pays close attention to the Sephardic tradition and gives it equal footing with the Ashkenazi.

 

            I then reproduce a number of Nissim’s own writings which will provide to those unfamiliar with his work a basic introduction to the steely complexity of his thought.

 

            In “Growing Up in Old Baghdad” we are ushered into his native community and personal history as a young man growing up in Iraq.  It provides a vibrant yet serious study of a history that has been misunderstood by many.

 

            Perhaps even more important for polemical purposes is his recounting of the awful events of the 1941 pogrom that has become known as the Farhud.  With characteristic objectivity and canny eye for detail, his eyewitness testimony eschews the Zionist prejudices and racism, and actually shows us what happened at that fateful time and what it means to us today.

 

            “Work in Progress” is a brief précis of Nissim’s professional life and the difficulties he faced as a working writer in Israel.  It gives us a bracing view of what it was like being an Arab Jew in a country that stigmatized us so viciously.

 

            “The ‘Arab Jew’ Controversy” shows us how Nissim dealt with the controversial issues facing our people and how generous he was to younger scholars like Ella Shohat and the present writer.  He successfully sought to bring the many activists of our community together, in spite of the many obstacles presented by the Jewish Establishment.

 

            We close the tribute with my Bibliographical Note on his substantial canon.  As a service to those who have not yet read his books, I have chosen what I consider to be the most important works in his vast oeuvre.

 

            For those who have never encountered Nissim Rejwan yet, it is an opportunity to pay homage to that great man and make use of the many resources that he so selflessly provided to the world on behalf of our community.

 

            Nissim Rejwan was a devoted Arab Jew who worked on behalf of all humanity seeking justice and dispensing much-needed wisdom.

 

            He will be sorely missed.

 

David Shasha

 

             

Nissim Rejwan: Journalist, Writer, Historian, and a Great Intellectual

By: Emile Cohen

 

Book Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Arab

By: David Shasha

 

The Outsider

By: David B. Green

 

Growing Up in Old Baghdad

By: Nissim Rejwan

 

Notes on the Farhud

By: Nissim Rejwan

 

Work in Progress

By: Nissim Rejwan

 

The “Arab Jew” Controversy

By: Nissim Rejwan

 

Bibliographical Note

By: David Shasha