Mizrahi Jews constitute one of the largest Jewish ethnic divisions among Israeli Jews. Mizrahi Jews are descended from Jews who lived in West Asia, Central Asia, North Africa and parts of the North Caucasus, who had lived for many generations under Muslim rule during the Middle Ages. The vast majority of them left the Muslim-majority countries during the Arab–Israeli conflict, in what is known as the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. A 2018 statistic found that 45% of Jewish Israelis identified as either Mizrahi or Sephardic.
History Post-1948 dispersal
After the establishment of the State of Israel and subsequent 1948 Arab–Israeli War, nearly all Mizrahi Jews were either expelled by their Arab rulers or chose to leave and emigrated to Israel. According to the 2009 Statistical Abstract of Israel by Israel Central Bureau of Statistics; 2,043.8 thousand Israeli Jews were Israel-born (father born in Israel), 681.4 thousand were from other Asian countries (including 95.6 thousand from India and Pakistan), 859.1 thousand were from African countries (including 106.9 thousand from Ethiopia), and 1,939.4 thousand were from Europe, America or Oceania.Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2009, CBS. "Table 2.24 – Jews, by country of origin and age" (PDF). Retrieved 22 March 2010. Archived
Anti-Jewish actions by Arab governments in the 1950s and 1960s, in the context of the founding of the State of Israel, led to the departure of large numbers of Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East. 25,000 Mizrahi Jews from Egypt left after the 1956 Suez Crisis. They became refugees and most went to Israel.
Today, as many as 40,000 Mizrahi Jews still remain in communities scattered throughout the non-Arab Muslim world, primarily in Iran, but also Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.The Jewish Population of the World, The Jewish Virtual Library
Population in Israel Some 607,900 Israeli Jews are immigrants and first-generation descendants by paternal lineage of Moroccan, Tunisian, Libyan, Algerian, Yemenite, Iranian, Egyptian, Kurdish, Afghan, Pakistani, Indian and Turkish Jewish communities. Many more Israeli Jews are second and third generation Mizrahi descendants or have a partial Mizrahi origin. The other dominant sub-groups are the Israeli Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews. Often Mizrahi and North African Sephardic Jews in Israel are grouped together due to the similarity of their history under Muslim rule and an overwhelming migration out of their countries of residence during the 20th century.
Absorption into Israeli society Refuge in Israel was not without its tragedies: "in a generation or two, millennia of rooted Oriental civilization, unified even in its diversity," had been wiped out, writes Mizrahi scholar Ella Shohat.Ella Shohat: "Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims,” Social Text, No.19/20 (1988), p. 32 The trauma of rupture from their countries of origin was further complicated by the difficulty of the transition upon arrival in Israel; Mizrahi immigrants and refugees were placed in rudimentary and hastily erected tent cities (Ma'abarot) often in development towns on the peripheries of Israel. Settlement in Moshavim (cooperative farming villages) was only partially successful, because Mizrahim had historically filled a niche as craftsmen and merchants and most did not traditionally engage in farmwork. As the majority left their property behind in their home countries as they journeyed to Israel, many suffered a severe decrease in their socio-economic status aggravated by their cultural and political differences with the dominant Ashkenazi community. Furthermore, a policy of austerity was enforced at that time due to economic hardships.
Mizrahi immigrants arrived with many mother tongues. Many, especially those from North Africa and the fertile crescent, spoke Arabic dialects; those from Iran spoke Persian; Mountain Jews from Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Dagestan arrived with Azerbaijani, Russian and Juhuri; Indian Jews from India arrived with English; Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan arrived with Bukhari; the Bene Israel from Maharashtra, India arrived with Marathi, Georgian Jew and Judaeo-Georgian, Jews from various other places brought various other languages with them. Hebrew had historically been a language only of prayer for most Jews not living in Israel, including the Mizrahim. Thus, with their arrival in Israel, the Mizrahim retained culture, customs and language distinct from their Ashkenazi counterparts.
Disparities and integration
The cultural differences between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews impacted the degree and rate of assimilation into Israeli society, and sometimes the divide between Eastern European and Middle Eastern Jews was quite sharp. Segregation, especially in the area of housing, limited integration possibilities over the years.
From the 1980s onward, Mizrahim began moving out of the socioeconomic periphery and toward the center. By the close of the 20th century, it could be said that the Mizrahim overall had only started to close the gap with Ashkenazim in two social fields: small business ownership, and politics. The petit-bourgeois private enterprise sector was the first site of Mizrahi success, perhaps because it bypassed higher education, while Mizrahi advances in politics came as the political scene in Israel underwent various successive transformations and Mizrahim claimed a critical role in ensuring the success of the right-wing Likud party. Although Mizrahim raised their education level, so did Ashkenazim, and gaps in many trained sectors of the economy, as well as average income, persisted; a third of Mizrahim had joined the so-called "Mizrahi middle class" which had closed ranks with Ashkenazim socioeconomically, and most of these tended to be Mizrahim from earlier emigration waves from Asia. Whereas Mizrahim from Asia came at earlier times and settled in the center of the country, Mizrahim and Sefardim from North Africa came later and settled in the "development towns". By the end of the 20th century, the Mizrahis of Asian origin had integrated much more closely with the Ashkenazim socioeconomically than those of North African origin. The shift of Mizrahim out of the lower percentiles of the economy began in 1979, became palpable in 1989–1999, and accelerated in 1999–2009. By 2015, while native-born Israelis of Ashkenazi origin had incomes 31% above the national average, Mizrahim were lower but above average by 14%, while the more recent Soviet Jewry arrivals had average incomes, while Arabs earned two-thirds the national average and Ethiopian Israelis earned barely half the average income.
Intermarriage between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim is increasingly common in Israel and by the late 1990s 28% of all Israeli children had multi-ethnic parents (up from 14% in the 1950s).Barbara S. Okun, Orna Khait-Marelly. 2006. Socioeconomic Status and Demographic Behavior of Adult Multiethnics: Jews in Israel. It has been claimed that intermarriage does not tend to decrease ethnic differences in socio-economic status, however that does not apply to the children of inter-ethnic marriages.
Although social integration is constantly improving, disparities persist. According to a study conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), Mizrahi Jews are less likely to pursue academic studies than Ashkenazi Jews. Israeli-born Ashkenazim are up to twice more likely to study at a university than Israeli-born Mizrahim. Furthermore, the percentage of Mizrahim who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as the descendants of Soviet Jewish immigrants.Adva Center The average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004.Hebrew PDF
Politics The first identifiable Mizrahi politics was on the left, and arose in response to the marginalization of Mizrahim within Israeli society. It was shaped by the Rainbow Alliance and the Israeli Black Panthers, explicitly inspired by the American Black Panthers. However, beginning in the 1970s, Mizrahi allegiances began to shift rightward. Today, the Ashkenazi vote is associated with left-wing, secular and centrist parties (especially Blue and White, Meretz, Kadima and historically Labour), and the majority of Mizrahim vote for right-wing parties, especially Likud, as well as the Mizrahi-oriented splinter party Shas.
Mizrahim were a crucial pillar of Likud since its founding in the 1970s, even though the party leadership was dominated by Ashkenazim at first. Despite the increasing dominance of Mizrahi political articulation within Likud and its reliance on Mizrahi votes, there has not yet been a Mizrahi prime minister of Israel. The rightward shift of Mizrahi politics started with early Likud leader Menachem Begin enthusiastically making overtures to the community, though not Mizrahi himself. However, the association of Ashkenazim with the left and Mizrahim with the right was not yet fully crystallized at that time; it sharpened considerably beginning in 1980.
Mizrahim have become the core of support for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is known for championing Mizrahi causes. The rise of Likud from 1977 onward is nearly "universally" attributed to shifts among Mizrahi voters.Peled, Yoav. 2019. "Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Arabs: Exclusionist Attitudes in Development Towns". In Yiftachel, Oren, 2019, Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries. Quote: "... that Mizrahim disproportionately support right-wing political parties and "hawkish positions" towareds the Arabs... the rise to power of the Likud in 1977 is universally attributed to its popularity among Mizrahi voters... Labor's victory in 1992 is partially accounted for by its ability to attract about 100,000 formerly Likud voters, 65,000 of whom were Mizrahim" By May 1977, the share of Mizrahim in the party's Central Committee grew from 10% to 50%. Meir Kahane's far-right Kach party as it emerged in the 1980s which called for the transfer of Arabs also won most of its support in economically depressed areas that tended to be Mizrahi, which Peled argues is best explained by labor market rivalries between Mizrahim and Arabs. The robustness of support among Mizrahi Israelis for Netanyahu has been credited for his political survival despite a string of scandals, court investigations, and very close elections. Likud's electoral success in 2020 has hinged on turnout in its strongholds in Beersheba and a string of northern towns inhabited by Mizrahim, while in 2015 likewise Likud was carried to victory by a wave of turnout in working-class, predominantly Mizrahi "development towns", and because this occurred in response to Netanyahu's warning about Arab voters coming out in "droves", it led to a low level wave of ethnic tensions, with mutual accusations of racism between left-wing Ashkenazi figures and their right-wing Mizrahi counterparts. Nevertheless, the Mizrahi vote for Likud has not always been fixed, and in 1992 Labor's victory is attributed in a large part to flipping Mizrahi former Likud voters.