EAJS Conference Grant Program in Jewish Studies
Report
Traditionism and Multifaceted Responses to Secularization amongst Mizrahim in Israel
June 19-21, 2024
Organized by Yemima Hadad (University of Leipzig), Angy Cohen (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) / University of Calgary) and Yael Atia (University of Potsdam / University of Paderborn)
Webpage Rückblick:
On Wednesday June 19, those arriving early in Leipzig had a chance to get together informal at 6pm at café Bigoti in Leipzig. This allowed many of us to get to know each other in person or catch up and reconnect with our colleagues. The organizers believe that some of the most important moments in creating a network happen not only in the formal spaces of the workshop but also in the in-between spaces (breaks, lunches and dinners), especially in the case of an international group that may consolidate into a long-term research network group.
June 20, 2024: 09:00 11:00- Welcome, introductory words and event rationale: Yemima Hadad and Angy Cohen
The Mizrahi encounter with modernity offers a fascinating case study for thinking of secularization in Israel and beyond. The Sephardi encounter with modernity shows a counterexample to the Ashkenazi and European experience of secularization. This workshop explored the religious and secular aspects of what we view as Mizrahi renaissance in the context of intra-Jewish power struggles and political debates in Israel. This workshop on Mizrahi Jewish secularization(s) introduced a polyphony of voices offering different perspectives on the topic. A special focus was given to the term Traditionism (coined by Yaacov Yadgar) as a reaction and alternative to the western religious-secular dichotomy. The Israeli case highlights Mizrahi secularization as a significant study case integral to the questions posed around global secularization beyond the West.
The topic of our conference is very timely. After October 7th’s massacre by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad on the day of Simchat Torah and the terrible war in Gaza that followed, we were struck by the events, asking ourselves critical questions about the future of Mizrahi Studies and the impact of post-colonial and decolonial theories at this moment of crisis. Some of us felt that post-colonial and decolonial theories and their tendency to create a certain dynamic of oppressor and victim did not allow us to articulate what Mizrahi studies meant to us. We felt that there was a need for a more complex, non-dichotomic approach, which could help us re-think questions of justice, inequality, and violence in the context of ethnic and political power struggles. Most of all, we felt that questions of secularization in non-Western contexts required a particular emphasis.
When we think about Jewish secularization, we mostly think of European figures such as Baruch Spinoza or Moses Mendelssohn in the 17th or 18th centuries. The Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, was a pivotal movement that encouraged Jews to engage with European intellectual and cultural life. This period saw the rise of secular Jewish education and the beginning of a shift away from religious observance.
Much has been written on this process of Jewish secularization. To mention just three examples: Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought by David Biale (2011) the Roots of Secularization by Shmuel Feiner, and the Pity of it All by Amos Elon. But their focus is primarily, if not exclusively, on European, or at least on Ashkenazi Jewry. The aim of this workshop was to highlight ongoing research on Sephardi and Mizrahi secularization. It can be argued, that Mizrahi secularization followed a somewhat different path than the one of Haskalah, modernization, and emancipation. Through this workshop, we asked: How does the Sephardi experience in Israel- henceforth: ‘Mizrahi’ – challenge the Western secularization paradigm?
The trajectory of Jewish history focuses on the industrial revolution, emancipation and the secularization of many Jewish communities, and Zionism. With this, and especially in relation to Jewish secularization there is a strong focus on the Ashkenazi history and experience. Thinking with and through Sephardi history and thought opens us to multifaceted responses to secularism, colonialism, and tradition. The term traditionism, invites us to look at Jewish modernity through a positive and dialogical lens, rather than a dichotomic one.
Our workshop gathered 15 scholars from Germany, Israel, Spain, England and the USA who work in the field of history, sociology, cultural studies, religious studies, literature, Jewish Studies, Mizrahi Studies and the study of Sephardi Jews. We had discussions about the stories we choose to tell and those we choose not to tell, and the inevitable tension that results from that equally inevitable choice. We delved into the importance of handling contradictions, the importance of receiving the tensions and conflictual experiences of Sephardi and Mizrahi migrants, intellectuals, and citizens.
This workshop took place at the center for Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities, and it is the outcome of an exciting collaboration with the center and the directors of the center, Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Christoph Kleine.
We are thankful to the institutions that sponsored and supported us: first and foremost the EAJS for the generous funding of this workshop; the Theology department and the Center of Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities at the University of Leipzig; The Belzberg Program in Israel Studies at University of Calgary; and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
09:30-11:00 – Secularism in Sephardi Contemporary History
Speakers: Yaacov Yadgar and Sigal Nagar-Ron. Moderator: Angy Cohen
Yaacov Yadgar (University of Oxford): The Nationalization of Traditionism? Reflections on Secularism in contemporary Israeli Politics
Masortiyut as an alternative to understanding Modern Jewish Identity. Today, we see a concerning development in which Masortiyut or traditionism, as part of the process nationalization, is celebrated as authentic political nationalism, as an authentic Jewish self. How are we to understand this? Yadgar suggests that if we want to understand the role of Masortiyut today, we should consider that the relationship between Zionism and Jewishness is one of supersessionism – Zionism as a revolution against the Jewish past, as a rebellion against Jewish history. To understand Zionism as secularization is not sufficient; we need to think about it as supersessionism. Simply put: replacement theology – return to the true meaning of Israelites. Zionism’s relation to Judaism would be supersessionist in that it is a revolution against the Jewish past. Zionism per se is defined by the aggressive confrontation to the Jewish past. Deserting the past, a past that had to be eliminated. Zionism aimed at resurrecting Judaism but making it in the image of Zionism. How can we become not us? To mark a break from that which it replaces. The story of Zionism and its relation to the Jewish past is complicated: it rebels against its past and at the same time appropriates its past to promote its ideology. This forward looking – messianic impetus of Zionism – remaking of the Jewish people – the Zionist politics – offers a revolutionary reading.
Sigal Nagar-Ron (Sapir Academic College): Is there a future to traditioinist lifestyle? A sociological perspective from the margins.
In the last 20 years we see a structural change in townships like Netivot, due to the “Torah Nuclei”, which forces the Mizrahim to choose between an orthodox way of life or a secular way of life. Nagar-Ron interviewed 64 women, in relation to the differenced in the education and Job market. Torah nuclei are from the stream of religious Zionism, settlers who are following Rabbi Kook. They see themselves as the representative of the true Zionist state. They promote “settling the heart” in different cities and townships. What this does to the townships and Mizrahim is that to receive jobs, Mizrahi families need to choose between the orthodox way, and the secular way of life, being Masortiyut an unviable option.
11:30-13:30: The Sephardi Experience and the problem of European Secularism
Speakers: Yuval Evri, Omri Hannah Ben Yehuda, Matti Shmoelof
Chair: Ottfried Fraisse (Halle-Wittenberg University)
Yuval Evri (Brandeis): Sephardi Intellectuals in the Yishuv and the Question of Secularism Today
Yuval Evri wants to suggest that the year 1917 was an important landmark and moment for Mizrahim, as they respond to logics of partitions and separation. These lead to multiple loyalties and affiliations, in which the categories of Zionist or anti-Zionist, natives or settlers, secular or religious, Mizrahi or Ashkenazi, are not applicable to the protagonists he was working with – such as Harav Yaacov Meir. Therefore, Sephardi liminal positions were transformed into different affiliations. Their in-between positions became suspicious considering Jewish and Arab national projects. Local Sephardim had to choose between competing identities, as cross-border figures.
The case study: Sephardi intellectual from Tiberius, Haim Ben Kiki, who wrote about the partition, and criticizes Christians for creating the Jews as a religious group. This shows a critique of assimilation from a Sephardic point of view and suggests that we all go back to learn what happens in that time and the collapse of the millet system. The problem of Mizrahi identity is that it has no history. Mizrahi pride tries to find itself, it is defined as negativity. What needs to be offered is nuanced Sephardic thought and the attentiveness to otherness and the political project of Mizrahiyut.
Omri Hannah Ben Yehuda (University of Lille): “the domestic pain behind Oct’ 7th”
The domestic struggles in light of Oct’ 7th is reminiscent of Mizrahi in light of the current war. Following the novel of David Grossman “a woman running from the news”, Ben Yehuda is showing how from the one side Israelis are forced to subject themselves to war, and how what is called the Mizrahi renaissance still does not acknowledge the Mizrahim. Through the story of Shaul Mofaz, and Rachel from Ofakim who managed to save herself and her husband from being murdered on Oct’ 7th by the Hamas, as Mizrahi figures who offer a different kind of politics, as they humanize themselves and the Palestinians. However, Israeli domestic pain is still hidden.
Mati Shemoelof (Berlin): “Brit Mila and Bar Mitzwah: Examining Secularization and Traditionism in the Arab-Jews (Mizrahi) context through the short stories of Ayelet Tsabari and Adamit Pereh”
Following the story of “Panther on the Amstel” by Ayelet Tsabari, Shemoelof shows the torn diasporic identity of Mizrahi diaspora, and the split identities between, Jewish, Mizrahi and Israeli – through the explorations of scenes from the story which follows Jewish rituals such as Brit Mila. He demonstrates how unequal distribution of resources has its impact, how Eurocentric assumptions are often projected on Israeli Jews, and therefore, it enables the continuing lack of recognition of Arab-Jewish narratives.
14:30-16:00 | Ethnicity, Diaspora, and Migration. Chair: Yemima Hadad (Leipzig)
Speakers: Eliaou Balouka, Aviad Moreno.
Eliaou Balouka (University of Southampton): “From Coexistence to Disconnection. The Trajectories of Two Religious Minorities Through their European Migrations. A Comparative Study of M’zabi Ibadi and M’zabi Jewish Collective Memories”
The presentation introduced Mzabi Jews and Mzabi Ibadites: two minorities sharing the same space. The questions of the intervention were: what happens between the two communities? What happened to them during the migration to the metropole? Were these communities disconnected through migration? And what are the intergenerational changes and gaps in the communal narratives? Moreover, Balouka reflected the difference between being a Sephardi in France, and a Mizrahi in Israel. Balouka is addressing these questions in his own research through the lens of psychology.
Aviad Moreno (Ben Gurion University): “Between the Migration of Jews and ‘Jewish Migration’: The Creation of Transatlantic Traditions Among Northern Moroccan Jews”
A new Migration of Moroccan Jews, and the new concentration of Jews in Tangier, which changes in the 1930’s. Moreno’s lecture aimed to show how this leads to multiple connections, affinities and “homelands”. In these stories of migration, Masortiyut appears as counter modernity, and plays a significant form of multi layered tradition. Migration, therefore, Moreno suggests, was perceived as a march towards the west, and was framed vis-a- vis modernity. This intervention offers a multi layered idea of a community on the move.
17:00 Jewish Leipzig: City tour with Nimrod Baratz
As part of the conference “’Traditionism’ and Multifaceted Responses to Secularization amongst Mizrahim in Israel” Nimrod Baratz (MA) held a walking tour aimed at surveying the tumultuous Jewish history of the city of Leipzig, beginning at the 13th Century and up until the present day. The group spent two hours retelling the story of Leipzig’s Jews, taking in the sights of the historic city-center and appreciating the few vestiges of the cities Jewish history.
Friday June 21, 8:30-10:30am: Protocol meeting for planning the following conference
The plan is to have a conference Madrid, Spain next year in the end of October. The event would take place at the National Research Council and would include round tables and music performances at Center Sepharad-Israel. The topic of the conference will be “Returns”. This will allow us to speak about the use of the past for the future, about migrations, the return to experiences of exile and diaspora, and the return to religion and tradition, and other key themes in Sephardi and Mizrahi contemporary studies. There will be a round table on Al-Andalus, as a travelling concept. This could contribute to the foundation of a global network of scholars of Sephardic studies.
Return to the homeland is a pivotal religious messianic motif in Jewish history and thought, it is anchored in the ancient sources with the redemptive notion of shivat Zion, but also in the literature and poetry of middle ages of Jewish diaspora, especially Sephardic diaspora, think for example of the most famous example Rabbi Yehuda Halevi’s poem Zion halo tishali. The next conference will explore other returns, including the return to Spain, an attempt embodied in the Sephardi renaissance of Jewish Studies and explore in the depth the contemporary and past revival(s) of Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain (tor hazahav). The format will include cultural events such as music nights, panels, and roundtables. Ideas for funding were shared by participants.