Why is it that in university courses, when students learn about the history of Jews, we rightly assume that we will study the history of Ashkenazi Jews – those who originated from Western Europe? At Indiana University, all courses specifically dedicated to the study of Sephardi Jews are titled as such, indicating many assumptions, one being that Sephardi Jews are in the minority of the Jewish people.
Perhaps Sephardi Jews are holding on tightly to their heritage and traditions because many living in the Middle East continue to live in hostile environments. The 2004 issue of The Sephardic Report, the yearly magazine sent to all members of the American Sephardi Federation features letters, stories and requests of the American Sephardi community to donate money to help the Turkish Jews, many of whom lost an old, sacred synagogue along with their homes in the recent terrorist attacks. After searching throughout this federation’s website, I believe a single theme resonates throughout its texts and links – Sephardi Jews have survived persecution and persecution and continue to prosper in free, democratic nations like the US and Israel because of this need to ban together during difficult times. This narrative is also found throughout the Torah when referencing “benai Yisroel” or the children of Israel. This also happens to be a story that congregational rabbis often weave into weekly sermons. To further this argument, I shall reference the section of this website that discusses the history of the ASF. It specifically describes the period from 1975-82 as a time when the organization worked to “bring the status and persecution of Jews in Arab Lands to the attention of the American public and government.” As the focus of Sephardi Jews’ history clearly centralizes around persecution, this notion follows this demographic into modern times.
I doubt most self-identifying American Jews realize that the first Jews to settle in America, specifically in New Amsterdam were Sephardi Jews in 1654. After the 1492 expulsion from Spain, countless Jews fled to the Western hemisphere. As they initially settled in South America and the Caribbean islands, overtime some immigrated north into the newly discovered America. It seems as though knowing the answer to the question – who were the first Jews to settle in the US – should be obvious, yet this is not true. I commend the ASF’s efforts to incorporate the history and traditions of Sephardi Jewry into curricula and youth movements so that this knowledge will become more widespread. I still wonder, however, how it happened that American Jewry (and I include myself in this group) does not know the story of Sephardi Jews.
1 comment:
That's certainly a good question to address, Becca. Part of it, as I see it, is that the vast Eastern European migration in 1880-1924 sort of bulldozed over the much smaller Sephardic population already living in the US. In places like France, Sephardic Jews represent a much larger portion of the Jewish population.
As to cultural preservation: yes, there is often need for people who identify with one community to help those in similar communities (or those who share an identity). But doesn't the idea of banding together really apply to *any* group? Is there something special about the way Sephardic Jews do it?
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