Page 6 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, October 13,1983
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Editorial India's myopia
It is comforting to learn that 22 members of the United States House foreign affairs committee have sent a telegram to Prime Minister Indira Ghandi expressing outrage at her decision to bar Israel from an international energy conference held in New Delhi in September.
It is less comfortable to ponder the rationale behind India's-inexcusable exclusion of Israel from the meetings.
India's current posture towards Israel stems fronii the same myopia which animated Mahatma Ghandi's attitudes towards Zionism.
Indian leaders from Ghandi through Nehni to the current Ghandi [no relation to famed fonnderof the passive resistance movement] have always excluded the Jews firomthefa* liberation politics out of extreme deference towards India's 40 million Muslims.
In 1947 the partition of India into two states (Pakistan and India) resulted in Horrific Muslim-Hindu riots in which millions were killed.
Since then Indian authorities have walked a tightrope in order to preserve intra community harmony. It has not always worked, of course and hundreds of thousands of Indians have died since 1947 as a result of religious clashes.
It is a lamentable fact that Israel has to suffer for the instability of the Indian subcontinent. It is all the more regrettable since India is a parliamentary democracy which shares many of the values which Israel honors.
res
Herschel Bemardi, the gifted stage personality and Henry Kissinger (whose talents have been deployed on another stage) have something in common — a lack of sensitivity towards Jewish sancta.
Bernardi chose recently to appear in Fiddler on the Roof on Yom Kippur. When the projected"conflict" was brought to his attention, Bernardi replied that he was not a religious Jew and did not wish to be thought of as any kind of model for Jews.
Henry Kissinger decided to accept the Hans J. Morgenthau Award of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy on the only day he, Kissinger, said he was available— Simchat Torah.
Elie Wiesel, it appears, resigned as vice-chairman of the event because of the date chosen by Kissinger.
Bemardi and Kissinger bring little credit to their respective images through their disrespect for Jewish religious tradition.
It matters not whether the two gentlemen are religiously observant. No one asked them to participate in any synagogue functions (although that might have been a good idea).
Whatwas merely asked of them is a kind of minimal respect for the tradition that nurtured them.
Readers of the Oct. 4 Toronto Star must have been impressed with a letter to the editor commenting on the complicity of ti^e Jewish people hi massacres at the Sabra and ShatUarefi^ee camps fai September 6f1982.
The letter deplored that Jews "could have been associated with this bloodbath In any manner whatsoever.'V The writer also reflected on his belief that "Judaism Is more than a territorial hnperative."
What is especially significant Is the name ofthe letter writer — Yeshu Hanotzri — that is, Jesus of Nazareth, in its Hebrew form.
The Star certainly attracts a wide spectrum of readers!
Levy 18 ultimate success story
Sephardic Jewsma^te
By
SHELDON KIRSHNER
David Levy has become something of a symbol for Sephardic Jews in contemporary Israel.
To a generation of politically and economically disadvantaged Sephardic Jews, Levy is the ultimate success story.
He was bom in Morocco and spent his formative years in the somnolent Jordan Valley town of Beit Shean. The son of a worker whose meagre salary supported a large family, Levy seemed destined to live out his life far from the limelight.
And, had it not been for his interest in politics, Levy would have followed the path of many of his fellow Moroccan Jews.
Yitzhak Shamir, left, and David Levy at Herut Party meeting. [Uzi Keren photo]
their presence very much felt in the political arena. —
It is doubtful whether Likud would have won the 1977 or 1981 general elections without their votes. In the last election, 57% of Sephardic Israelis voted for Likud, and 18% cast their ballots for other parties in the coalition. By contrast, Likud won the
Joining the local branch of Herut, Levy allegiance of merely 25% of Ashkenazic Jews roseintheranks.Byl981,hewasministerof — whose culture developed m Central construction and housing — as well as deputy Europe
prime minister — in Menachem Begin's Likud coalition government.
After Begin's resignation, Levy challenged Yitzhak Shamir, the foreign minister, for the leadership of the Herut Party. He lost, but several hundred members of the Herut's central committee voted for him. Levy came within 132 ballots of winning proving his popularity.
To observers, Levy's credible showing was not only a function of personal appeal but of the strides Sephardic Jews have made since the establishment of Israel.
Five years ago. Levy's candidacy would not have been taken seriously by party bosses, the majority of whom are Ashkenazic Jews. That Levy gave Shamir —-a Polish Jew — a run for his money is historically significant. Barring uhforseen eventualities, Levy may wellsucceed Shamir when he steps down and go down in history as Israel's first Sephardic leader.
Although Sephardic Jews are still not as well represented in Israeli institutions as their numbers merit, they have come a distance since the 1970s.
• In 1970, Israel Yeshayahu — a Yemenite Jew — became the first Sephardi to be secretary-general of the Labor Party. Two years later, he was appointed Knesset speaker.
• Yitzhak Nayon, a Sabra of Moroccan extraction, was Israel's first Sephardic President. Retiring last year, he, too, has a chance at the prime ministership some day.
• Last March, Moshe Levy succeeded Rafael Eitan as chief of staff of the armed forces. He was born in Tel Aviv, but his parents were Iraqi immigrants.
Sephardic Jews, who now outnumber Ashkenazics, have ho doubt contributed to Israel's elite. In recent years, they have made
Asher Arian, a TelAviv University expert on Israeli politics, believes that Sephardic Jews — whose ancestors hail from Africa and Asia — have begun the historic process of abandoning the Labor Party.
Labor, founded and nurtured by a generation of East European Jews, is perceived by thereby Sephardis as ah elitist, Ashkenazic party.
Likud is also a product of European Jewry, bii't Likud has promoted itself as a party of the underprivileged and has appealed to the Sephardis' generally hawkish views on the Arab-Israeli dispute.
In the same year, the predominantly Ash-kenazi National Religious Party — a Likud constituent—was weakened by the defection of Aharon Abu-Hatzeira. The minister of labor, social welfare and absorption, Abu-Hatzeira bolted the NRP because he was angered that its leader. Interior Minister Yosef Burg, had not blocked his prosecution.
Abu-Hatzeira, who would be sentenced to three months in prison on charges of fraud, theft and breach of public trust, went on to form the Tami Party, a Sephardi organization.
The incident left a bad odor in the Sephardi community, with Sephardi spokesmen charging that, Abu-Hatzeira would have got off scott free had he been a Eiiroiiean Jew. The accusation cannot be supported by any hard evidence, but it is significant that this was the perception among some Sephardic Jews.
This much is true: Sephardic Jews dominate the lower socio-economic levels of Israeli society. The vast majority of poor are Jews from Many Sephardis feel that Likud has given Islamic lands and the slums they live In are them an authentic voice in Israeli affairs, and the most notorious hi the country, this perception will probably be very These slums produce soaring rates of important for party politics in Israel. juvenile delinquency, teen-age prostitution,
According to Arian, the younger genera- drug addiction and alcoholism, and so tion of Israeli-born Sephardic Jews have Sephardic Jews are disproportionately in-become Likud supporters. If this factor is volved in crime.
combined with the fact that Ashkenazi Urban CamJly Income was 20% lower for support for Labor tends to come from older Sephardis than Ashkenazis in 1981, and European-born voters, Likud's present statistics Indicate that Sephardic Jews, In the ascendancy may not be eroded in the years generation alter immlgr^on, have not' kept ahead. pace with the Improvement In income of
■ . y ' - second-generation Ashkenazic Jews.
The jobless among Sephardis is higher, and Ashkenazis are more heavily represented in white collar occupations.
With a few exceptions, Sephardic Jews do not hold key positions in the economy, claims Sammy Smooha in his book, Israel: Pluralism and Conflict. As of 1975, Sephardis received welfare •' ■ ' ' ' • ' ' ■ ' assistance 2.3 times as often as Ashkenazis.
■ "• • . ■ One of the factors accounting for Sephar-
dic - Ashkenazic inequality is education. The Still, it would be erroneous to conclude that illiteracy rate among Sephardis is nine times Sephardic Jews are displachig Ashkenazic as high as that for Ashkenazis, and the Jews in the power elite. In all respects, percentage of Sephardis with higher educa-
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Sephardis lag behind Ashkenazis^ And in political terms, this is apparent In the composition of the cabhiet, the diplomatic corps, the civil service, the Jewish Agency execative and the Histadrnt central committee.
In these sectors, Ashkenazic Jews have more than their share of representatives.
The resultant Sephardi resentment, manifested a decade ago by the emergence of the Black Panthers movement, has spilled over into both Labor and Likud.
Labor, which once received half the Sephardi vote, w£B'rocked in 1981 by a so-called ethnic revolt. This occurred when Labor members of parliament of North
tion is only one-quarter of that of the Ashkenazis, Smooha writes.
In 1978, only 17% of all university students were Sephardis. Ashkenazis accounted for 71 % ofthe student body. According to official figures, Sephardis are under-represented in academic high schools and over-represented in vocational schools.
By several indexes, Sephardic Jews have assimilated rapidly into Israel's Western culture, but the social gap separating the groups remains in place.
Nationwide attempts to integrate schools by transporting Sephardic and Ashkenazic children to each other's neighborhoods have met resistance, and the intermarriage rate is
African origin complained loudly and bitterly only 20%.
that they were being bypassed for seats in There Is no doubt that social tension influential committees. between the groups has eased in recent One MK, Ra'anan Nairn, said: ^^IwonHeat years, but there is also proof that the old yonr gefiltefish. It makes me poke.. .To get suspicions havenH faded. Last December, on in Labor, you have to know to choose your after the fatal shooting by police of a place of birth.'' Rafi Edri said:/^Some Sephardic Jew in a Tel Aviv slum, neighbor-people ... are beyond the pale. You won't hood residents went on a rampage, daubing find a North African representing iis in the swastikas in wealthy Ashkenazic areas and foreign afblrs and defence committee, the chanting, ^'Ashkenazhn to Auschwitz, Treb-finance committee . . Unka and Dachaa."