It’s always worthwhile listening to Matti Friedman, one of the foremost proponents of a new paradigm for understanding Israel as a ‘Mizrahi Nation’ – in terms of culture, religion and politics. The categories espoused by American Jews to understand Israel just do not fit, he says. Perhaps the most striking point he makes in this Tikva Fund podcast is that the project to destroy the Jewish state is a long game, taking decades, if not centuries. Long ago, Jews from Muslim lands understood that Muslims will never reconcile to the Jewish state.
Matti Friedman
After the founding of the state, Israel absorbed a massive influx of Jews from Middle Eastern lands—Mizrahim—who came from a society and culture vastly different from that of their East European co-religionists.
These Jews are also part of the story of the Jewish state’s beginnings; today they represent over half of Israel’s Jewish population, profoundly shaping the culture, religion, and politics of 21st-century Israel. In 2014, author and journalist Matti Friedman penned an essay in Mosaic titled, “Mizrahi Nation,” in which he tells the story of these Jews from Arab lands and explains how one simply cannot understand contemporary Israel without understanding that it has been profoundly shaped by the Mizrahim.
Israel, Friedman argues, is a much more Middle Eastern country than many Jews in the West imagine it to be. In this podcast, Friedman joins Jonathan Silver to reflect on his essay. They discuss the long and remarkable history of Mizrahi Jews, how they have shaped the Jewish state, and how understanding their role in Israel’s past and present can give us a clearer picture of the nation’s future.
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