This is so apt and well-put. I can’t help comparing the increasingly visible strategy of relentlessly using “proximity to Arabs” as some bizarre and nonsensical marker of Jewish authenticity to the Jewish communities in Germany who thought intentional assimilation into European society would save them… only to then be disproportionately persecuted all the same. There’s even a resemblance to the regrettable strategy many antizionist Jews in the west employ by dimming and denying their own identity and peoplehood for acceptance from their peers/fans/academic institutions.
I often point out that Islamists, white supremacists and other antisemites don’t give AF whether our ancestors were exiled into Italy or Iraq OR when they returned to Israel. It’s also worth noting that there is just as much phenotypic overlap btwn Jewish diasporic communities as there is btwn Jewish and Arab communities. Indeed, many Ashkenazim are very brown and Palestinians come in all complexions, just like Mizrahi and Sephardi communities do. Personally, I love Jewish diasporic history and the diverse cultural landscape that makes up the global Jewish community. I think it’s important to celebrate and shine a light on these unique but related experiences, including Jewish displacement from mena countries, the ways the Holocaust spread into “the Arab world” and the long historical presence of Jewish communities there. However, it is no more misguided to use proximity to Arab/Islamic colonial empires as a way to prove belonging than it is to use proximity to European/Christian colonial empires to do so.
Ashkenazi Jews are genetically a mix of Israelite and Roman populations with some Eastern European sprinkled in. But the European versus non-European dichotomy is new. Back in the day there was the Mediterranean and Rome and Greece and so on and then the rest of the world.
I don’t think it’s totally accurate to say Hitler killed Jews because they were Middle Eastern. There are genetic differences between Ashkenazi Jews and ethnic Germans and certainly Hitler made a big deal about the Aryan thing. But really I think his main motivation was that he thought Jews ran the world (I wish), invented communism (a leftist anti-Zionist anti-Semitic Jew did), and stabbed Germany in the back at the end of WWI (leftist anti-Zionist Jews were overrepresented among the commies that wanted Jews to surrender).
This was an excellent article and I learned quite a few things about the Jewish landscape. I'm a secular Iranian and I've also experienced the loony Left's antics when it comes to opposing Islam. It's all too similar to your experiences so I won't labour on it now, but I just wanted to say that I sympathise with your plight and I'm sorry that you didn't find allies where expected. Please know that you have many many Iranian friends. Am Yisrael Chai.❤️🫂
It’s a good article. I would say that there is a “racial” or genetic element to being Jewish, in that you can take a DNA test and it can tell you if you are of Jewish descent. Just like there’s a “racial” element to being Italian or Greek or Egyptian or Chinese or a member of any other people.
But the white/brown dichotomy is stupid. I mean it’s just ahistorical. Look at a Lebanese Christian and look at a Greek. Can you say the Lebanese is a brown middle eastern and the Greek is a white European?
This is so apt and well-put. I can’t help comparing the increasingly visible strategy of relentlessly using “proximity to Arabs” as some bizarre and nonsensical marker of Jewish authenticity to the Jewish communities in Germany who thought intentional assimilation into European society would save them… only to then be disproportionately persecuted all the same. There’s even a resemblance to the regrettable strategy many antizionist Jews in the west employ by dimming and denying their own identity and peoplehood for acceptance from their peers/fans/academic institutions.
I often point out that Islamists, white supremacists and other antisemites don’t give AF whether our ancestors were exiled into Italy or Iraq OR when they returned to Israel. It’s also worth noting that there is just as much phenotypic overlap btwn Jewish diasporic communities as there is btwn Jewish and Arab communities. Indeed, many Ashkenazim are very brown and Palestinians come in all complexions, just like Mizrahi and Sephardi communities do. Personally, I love Jewish diasporic history and the diverse cultural landscape that makes up the global Jewish community. I think it’s important to celebrate and shine a light on these unique but related experiences, including Jewish displacement from mena countries, the ways the Holocaust spread into “the Arab world” and the long historical presence of Jewish communities there. However, it is no more misguided to use proximity to Arab/Islamic colonial empires as a way to prove belonging than it is to use proximity to European/Christian colonial empires to do so.
Great article the irony is Ashkenazi Jews were slaughtered because they weren’t European.
Ashkenazi Jews are genetically a mix of Israelite and Roman populations with some Eastern European sprinkled in. But the European versus non-European dichotomy is new. Back in the day there was the Mediterranean and Rome and Greece and so on and then the rest of the world.
I don’t think it’s totally accurate to say Hitler killed Jews because they were Middle Eastern. There are genetic differences between Ashkenazi Jews and ethnic Germans and certainly Hitler made a big deal about the Aryan thing. But really I think his main motivation was that he thought Jews ran the world (I wish), invented communism (a leftist anti-Zionist anti-Semitic Jew did), and stabbed Germany in the back at the end of WWI (leftist anti-Zionist Jews were overrepresented among the commies that wanted Jews to surrender).
This was an excellent article and I learned quite a few things about the Jewish landscape. I'm a secular Iranian and I've also experienced the loony Left's antics when it comes to opposing Islam. It's all too similar to your experiences so I won't labour on it now, but I just wanted to say that I sympathise with your plight and I'm sorry that you didn't find allies where expected. Please know that you have many many Iranian friends. Am Yisrael Chai.❤️🫂
Strong piece. Thank you for it
That’s funny. You don’t look Seraphic.
It’s a good article. I would say that there is a “racial” or genetic element to being Jewish, in that you can take a DNA test and it can tell you if you are of Jewish descent. Just like there’s a “racial” element to being Italian or Greek or Egyptian or Chinese or a member of any other people.
But the white/brown dichotomy is stupid. I mean it’s just ahistorical. Look at a Lebanese Christian and look at a Greek. Can you say the Lebanese is a brown middle eastern and the Greek is a white European?
A lot of Ashkenazim are also very brown looking too. In fact, I’d wager a larger percentage of us were until the Teutonic scourge