From David Shasha today: As part of the acculturation of Arab Jews by the Ashkenazis, they were usurped of their Arab sounding names and replaced with Hebraic or Israeli names. For many of the young ones, there was little choice unless they wanted to be a subject of harassment and abuse at school. A slight change in spelling made sure that the Arabness was removed, like Samira changed to Zmira and with a little sleight of the hand you might say, Nadra became Narda. Some men names were changed totally like Ghali became Zvi, Fuad became Yigal, Sabah became Zvika, Ghanim became Ron and Khadhuri became Uri. Similarly on the woman’s side Habiba became Aviva which is easily pronounceable by the Ashkenazis, Amal became Tikva and Amy became Ahuva. It is interesting that those with French names, common amongst Arab Jews, like Violette, Juliette, Marguerite, Jeanette, Esperance and Serafin, managed to retain their identity because they were not Arabic sounding names. Some were forced to change their names when they were conscripted to the IDF, as you cannot possibly fight the Arabs with an Arabic name; I suppose it gets difficult to differentiate the two sides with similar sounding names. Others were given names shortly after they arrived in their Ma’bara like Nuri became Nimrod in Eli Amir’s novel Scapegoat. If you did not change your name, then your patriotism to the new country was questionable. The second generation gave very Hebraic names to their offspring which serve to confirm their Israeliness and can totally hide their origins and generally the names have a meaning in Hebrew like Erez, Or, Le’or, Ilan and Yam meaning Earth, Light, My light, Tree and Sea. Some people changed their surnames to hide their origins; Yehouda Shenhav told me that their original family name was Shahrabani, a Persian sounding name; Shenhav is more acceptable. Muallem is a well-known Iraqi family and Muallem means teacher and hence was translated to Moreh, as in the poet and academic Shmuel Moreh. Elkvity is an easier sounding name than Alkuwaity, a name which tends to provoke strong feelings of enmity because of kinship to an Arab state. Shabi becomes Shavit in line with the Ashkenazi pronunciation. A friend told me a very interesting story about his family name which was Khalastchi, a very well respected Iraqi family. He had been struggling to find a job but eventually he was invited to an interview attended by many people and the interviewer called him up and spoke to him in Yiddish. Much to his disappointment he found out that even with a name Khalastchi my friend was not Polish but an Arab Jew. Subsequently my friend adopted an Israeli name. Today I rarely find names of Israeli people relating to their Arabic origin which confirms the success of the Ashkenazi acculturation process that removed the identity of Arab Jews. It was important that these names were removed from the dictionary as a first step of erasing the Arab culture of Jews. The Hebrew or Biblical names have been retained but the pronunciation or the music of the name is often changed to sound Ashkenazi; a name like Daoud becomes David but pronounced as Daveed. Not only people names change but also categories which tend to change in terms of meaning with the passage of time. Zionism is a perfect example as it was meant to be establishment of homeland for the Jews but now has a wider concept. A category commonly used is Mizrahim, meaning Orientals or people from the East. I am not sure when and where the term Mizrahi was first used but I do not find it to be a term of endearment, I find the description demeaning and sounds like another Ashkenazi colonial term to make sure that they maintain their dominance. Interestingly the term Orientals, Mizrahim, is exactly the term used by Christians in Western Europe to describe the Jews of Europe, constructed as an inferior category. The category the “Ostjuden”, the East European Jews, has now been transformed to Ashkenazim which takes on a cultural level as well as a rabbinical teaching. Sephardic Jews, as the term implies, are from Spain, but they are denied their European heritage by amalgamating them with the Orientals. African Jews are classified as Mizrahi even Moroccans who come from the Maghreb, the West (Ma’rav). Many of the East Europeans have their origins from Central Asia but they are not Mizrahim anymore. So in essence there is a construction of an ethnic division which defines the Jewish identities; the Ashkenazim who are Western and the Mizrahim who are the Eastern. Iraqi Jews and most of the Middle Eastern Jewry have their origins in Babylonia. They are accredited with the Torah, the Talmud and the schools of religious learnings for many centuries, hardly an inferior society. I cannot help feeling that they are not given due credit by categorising them as Mizrahim. Why could we not have a category or a separate classification of Babylonian Jews, after all they constitute one of the most ancient and respected Jewish civilisations? However the category that causes the greatest provocations is the term Arab Jews. I fail to understand why, because it is crystal clear to me that it means Jews of Arab culture. Meir Basri, a prominent historian, claimed that he was Iraqi in nationality, Jewish in religion and Arab in culture. I am not provoked by the term Jews from Arab Countries as it is just semantics for me, though I realise it has political connotations. I am not aware when the term was invented because it was not in use during the emigration to Israel era, but it obviously came into being when the Mizrahim became a political concern. It seems however to cause a lot of consternation amongst my friends. They say how can you have Arab Jews? We are of a different ethnic origin. But what about Kurdish Jews? The Jews are not of an Aryan race but you find the term acceptable. It means they are Jews of Kurdish culture who do not speak Arabic but Aramaic. Then, the argument changes to geographic. European Jews mean Jews from Europe, even in America, but you cannot have Arab Jews because there is no Arab continent or a country by the name of Arabia; however, they talk of the Arab countries as one. I know that the term Arab Jews is unacceptable in the Zionist narrative and it is actually anything with the word Arab that seems to generate excitement. It appears that Arabised Jews is more acceptable than Arab Jews but Ashkenized Jews from Arab Countries is not. Language is a means of communication, so if one understands that the term refers to Jews with Arab culture and that includes many Sephardis, then the communication is clear and there is no reason for squabble. Actually David Shasha has made a detailed analysis of the nomenclatures and rebutted the arguments so superbly that I do not think I can make any material addition to his arguments. So the name relates to identity. You change the name so that you change the identity. I have no problem with someone wanting to change his name to adopt a different identity or to espouse to a favourable situation but I do resent being coerced or bullied to change a name to embrace a particular criterion or to conform to the establishment. I do not blame the person as he is a victim of systemic persecution but I dislike the attitude of the establishment that bullies its nationals. Unfortunately I believe that this is what actually happened to most of the Arab Jews or, if you like, Jews from Arab countries, in Israel. As for categories, they are terms of class, culture or even environment, and it needs to be realised that a change in any of these terms can change the meaning of that category. Emile Cohen was born in Basra Iraq in 1943. After completing his schooling in Baghdad in 1959, was sent to UK to study Engineering but when a change in regime took place in Iraq, he was denaturalised in 1964 before finalising his degree and stayed in UK, and finally joined by his family in 1970. In the last few years he saw a yearning to his roots and started reading and researching the history of Iraqi Jews, traditions and accomplishments and became a social and political activist. He has been involved in organising Iraqi concerts and appeared on a number of broadcasts on Arab Jews on the BBC and Arabic stations. He can be reached at Emile.Cohen100@gmail
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:43:19 +0000
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