Arabs Jews, a Critical PresentationVisiting Author Rachel Shabi Presents Her Book We Look Like the Enemy: the Hidden Story of Israel's Jews of Arab Lands

Jordan Elgrably introduces the evening with personal stories and a visual presentation.

One of the tasks Levantine Cultural Center has always set for itself is demonstrating to Americans just how diverse and heterogeneous the Middle East and North Africa really are. While Islam predominates in the greater Middle East, the region has always been home to many ethnic and religious minorities, among them Armenians, Assyrians, Berbers, Druze, Gypsies, Kurds and Jews. Visiting author and journalist Rachel Shabi will discuss the status of Arab Jews in Israel while looking back on their histories in neighboring Arab countries including Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

This program is sponsored in part by Rabbi Lisa Edwards of Beth Chayim Chadashim, Rabbi Emeritus Leonard Beerman of Leo Baeck Temple, Anonymous, Juliana Maio, Anonymous, L.A. Jews for Peace, and Michelle Gubbay. 

Rachel ShabiRachel Shabi was born in Israel to Iraqi-Jewish parents and grew up in the UK, where she studied politics and literature at Edinburgh University. A journalist, she has been published in a variety of national and international newspapers including the Guardian, the London Sunday Times, the Independent on Sunday and the Daily Express. She also contributes to English Aljazeera online, Jane's Intelligence Digest, Foreign Policy, the New Statesman, Jewish Quarterly (UK), the National (UAE) and Salon.com. Her first book, We Look Like the Enemy - Israel's Jews from Arab Lands, was published in 2009 and received a National Jewish Book award. She has been reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the past four years.

Jordan Elgrably is a writer of Moroccan heritage who grew up in the U.S. and France. A widely-anthologized essayist, he has been an activist with bridge-building organziations including Ivri-NASAWI, Open Tent Middle East Coalition, and Levantine Cultural Center.

About the Book

Arab Jews in Israel: "We Look Like the Enemy"In this remarkable, page-turning book, Rachel Shabi lays bare the painful division within Israeli society between Ashkenazi Jews, whose families come from Eastern Europe, and Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews, who come from the Arab countries of the Middle East. Herself from an Iraqi Jewish family, Shabi explores the history of this relationship, tracing it back to the first days of the new state of Israel. In a society desperate to identify itself with Europe, immigrants who spoke Arabic and followed Middle Eastern customs were seen as inferior; David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, famously described them as lacking the most elementary knowledge.Sixty years later, Mizrahis are still much less successful than Ashkenazis, condemned, often, to substandard education, low-quality housing and mockery for their accents, tastes and lifestyles. Through a combination of archival research and personal interviews, Shabi brings to light the prejudices that permeate Israeli society and demonstrates how they affect Mizrahi lives and hopes. Even more importantly, she argues that the treatment meted out to Mizrahis reflects a wider Israeli rejection of the Middle East and its culture, a rejection that makes it impossible for Israel ever to become integrated within its own region.