When Israel declared independence in 1948, Jewish communities in the Middle East went through a collective trauma as one after the other Arab and Muslim countries expelled and persecuted the Jews living among them, giving them no choice but to leave.
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Jewish communities immigrated to Israel en masse. Unfortunately, what they encountered in Israel in the decades to follow was the systematic exclusion of their history from the Israeli collective memory.
Only in recent years have cultural influencers started recognizing the uniqueness of this community, of which I am a member. However, they undervalue the culture by arrogantly thinking that it boils down to popular Arab music. They believe that adding Arab folk tunes into their songs somehow makes up for the decades of systematic disregard of my culture.
After many years of efforts to make our history known, in 2014, the government finally decided to acknowledge us by announcing that every year on Nov. 30 it will mark the departure and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and Iran and honor the struggles they went through as hostilities rose after the declaration of independence.
We waited for many years for Israel to acknowledge the injustices that we have been through. The Israeli education system does not speak in detail about the history of Mizrahi Jews. It does not do justice in describing their contribution to preserving the heritage and building the country.
My colleagues and I have been toiling for many years to provide government officials, be it at home or in embassies abroad, with accurate information about the injustices that the Arab world committed against the Jews and the lasting contributions these Jews made to Israeli society when they moved to their homeland.
In 2014 the Israeli delegation to the UN organized an event for Jews expelled from Arab countries. They hosted Israeli band Dudu Tassa and the Kuwaitis, whose lead singer Tassa is of Iraqi descent, and his songs were influenced by the Iraqi culture he grew up with.
"It's been a long time coming, but finally, the culture and the music receives the recognition it is due," said Dudu Tassa then.
The Israeli culture would have been much richer had the current generation of educators, and cultural influencer recognized the many Jewish poets and composers of Arab and Iraqi background.
This year the government marked the departure and expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and Iran by hosting a virtual event that was broadcast on TV and via Zoom and featured songs from the cultural heritage of those communities.
You can only imagine my and my colleague's astonishment when after working for decades to gain recognition of our heritage, we found out that someone arbitrarily decided to include in the event songs that are popular in Arab countries but have no connection to Jewish culture.
Such musical choices rob Sephardic Jews of the cultural uniqueness that they succeeded in preserving over generations in exile. The fact that these decision-makers think that this is the music we grew up on reflects their complete ignorance about the cultural heritage of Jewish communities from Arab countries.
The fact that the history of the Jews from Arab countries and Iran is not an integral part of Israeli culture should bother all those who truly care about preserving the heritage of the Jewish communities in the Diaspora and the multicultural discourse in Israel.
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