The majority of Israelis today can trace back part or all of their ancestry to immigrants from the Arab world. Ranging from Iraq to Morocco, and from Egypt to Yemen, the histories and identities of these communities differ enormously. The East European Jews who dominated Israel in its early years often termed every Jew who was not an Ashkenazi a Sephardi, which wrongly implies Spanish or Portuguese heritage. Later, the term Mizrahim (literally “Easterners”) became popular, despite the fact that many of them originated in countries located much to the west of Israel, such as Morocco or Egypt. Some immigrants and their descendants chose the term Arab Jews for themselves in order to underline that before their immigration they were part of the Arab world, just as European Jews had been part of Europe.



This conference will explore the place which this heterogeneous group occupies in Israel’s society, its fights against discrimination and marginalization, its role in politics, and its search for identity.