This Week in Anti-Sephardi Racism: Sephardim Go Through the “Whitening” Process to Conform to the Ashkenazi Jewish Model

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David Shasha

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Feb 25, 2016, 8:07:29 AM2/25/16

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This Week in Anti-Sephardi Racism: Sephardim Go Through the “Whitening” Process to Conform to the Ashkenazi Jewish Model

I recently discussed the problem of Ashkenazification in the Sephardic community which dealt with Rabbi Marc Angel and Neil Sheff:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/P5qfH9K6410

Rabbi Daniel Bouskila is also a key part of this Ashkenazi Modern Orthodox sector in the Sephardic community which reflects the “Whitening” process:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/bouskila/davidshasha/0zrjpUc9cQM/jni9L0FTXPwJ

In an article in The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, Rabbi Bouskila presents a follow-up to the Sheff article:

http://www.jewishjournal.com/through_sephardic_lenses/item/are_todays_sephardic_synagogues_spiritually_attractive

We will note that the conversation about Sephardim is limited to the views of Ashkenazi rabbis Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Abraham Joshua Heschel; it appears that there were no Sephardic authorities that Rabbi Bouskila could cite in his discussion purportedly promoting Sephardic culture!

More than this, we see the discussion limited to Synagogue life and not at all mentioning the larger Sephardic intellectual tradition which is currently in the process of erasure.

The agenda of figures like Angel, Sheff, and Bouskila is plainly limited to that of Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy in spite of the meaningless blather about Sephardic heritage. Their commitments are not truly to Sephardic continuity, but to a facile “Bourekas and Haminados” superficiality that would allow them to continue their assimilation into the more inviting religious world of the Ashkenazim.

Nothing in the Bouskila article even touches on the problem of Ashkenazi Anti-Sephardi racism, or deals with the actual substance of the intellectual heritage of the Sephardim. It is another example of how our heritage is being lost and how the adoption of Ashkenazi values has undermined our cultural system.

And then there is the following article from eJewish Philanthropy which reminds us of two very important things for the Sephardic community:

http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/created-equal-expanding-current-conceptions-of-leadership-in-the-jewish-community/?utm_source=Wed+Feb+24%2C+2016&utm_campaign=Wed+Feb+24&utm_medium=email

First, there is the idea that “inclusion” and “diversity” has nothing to do with Jewish ethnicity and everything to do with gender and denomination.

The article does not speak about the latter, preferring instead to focus solely on the issue of women and Jewish leadership.

The initiative comes from the union of two Ashkenazi organizations, Hadassah and the Shalom Hartman Institute.

The second point is the participation of an Arab Jew in the Shalom Hartman Institute and the larger Jewish institutional world.

At a time when Sephardim have no authentically Sephardic institutions of their own, it is interesting to see the ways in which the self-haters and fakes find a way to participate in the Ashkenazi institutions and very carefully parrot their talking points.

Ms. Bitton is the daughter of a rabbi in the Brooklyn Sephardic Jewish community and is currently a doctoral student at NYU:

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/humsocsci/jewish/doctoral/students

And, naturally, she has written for The Forward on gender issues:

http://forward.com/author/mijal-bitton/

It should go without saying that Sephardi advocacy is completely alien to her.

Now the Brooklyn Sephardic community is famous for its materialistic values and anti-intellectualism – as well as its disdain for and ignorance of the classical Sephardic tradition.

So it is critical to note that Ms. Bitton has entered into and engaged with the larger Ashkenazi world of Jewish institutions and in the academic study of Judaism; two entities that are deeply antithetical – as we see in the article – to Sephardic interests.

This is a very complicated story that also involves intra-community and family dynamics, but it is basically evidence of the failure of Sephardim – even those from rabbinical families – to assert their own identity and values in the context of the larger Jewish community.

It is not that women should be denied leadership positions in the institutional Jewish world; it is that the Whites-only framework of Jewish institutions must be questioned and criticized.

But such criticism is not forthcoming from the Sephardim themselves, as the article makes clear.

It is always difficult to speak out on the Sephardi Question, just as it is much easier to choose the path of least resistance and adopt the standard Ashkenazi agenda – in this case the gender issue – in order to move ahead expeditiously in what remains a Whites-only Jewish world.

Those Sephardim who do make the transition into the Whites-only Jewish world – a small number to be sure – must go through a “Whitening” process in their outlook, linguistic expression, and conceptual framework.

In the article we see clearly how the Sephardi element has been completely “erased”; leaving us with the usual Ashkenazi blather which insists on excluding discussion of the Sephardi Question from the current Jewish discourse.

David Shasha

Here is a complete listing of previous “This Week in Anti-Sephardi Racism” posts:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/yhPab_nwIe4

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/CW-w-Hee824

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/kWd_tM0cWWY

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/QnOWWxpu4lo

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/oWOplZldU9k

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/bAPFZn_ssAI

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/IDG9TF4q6vo

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/yzjrAULvLEU

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/HIY087Y-JWs

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/davidshasha/7N8r6Eq3HLM