Racism in Israel

[TamarSloustcher]

Ufortunately racism exists everywhere in the world and that includes in Israel.

As a young college student, I yearned to be in the land of Israel. Between high school and college, I spent a year volunteering in Israel and was willing to do almost anything to go back. I felt such a strong connection to the country and I knew one day I would live there. In my mind, Israel was a magical place where I felt at home with numerous other Jews from different backgrounds and cultures. To me, Israel represented freedom. A place where I could be myself, practice my religion and participate in a culture that belonged to myself and to the Jewish people.

I was lucky enough to do a six month field study in Israel during my third year of college. My project was to assess the Israeli government and its attempt at integrating the most recent influx of immigrants into Israel, the Ethiopian Jews. I was ecstatic at the opportunity to take part in this new culture and learn about all that was being done to help this unique group of people adjust to their new environment.

My time working with the Ethiopian community was not what I expected, nor was I emotionally prepared for it. I remember sitting at dinner with my Israeli family the first night I arrived. They asked me what I was doing in Israel and when I explained that I would be working with Ethiopian immigrants, I was shocked by their reaction. They told me that Ethiopians were not really Jewish, that they were the garbage of Israel. They wanted me to be careful because Ethiopian people have AIDS and I shouldn’t get too close to them. The disgust they showed towards the Ethiopian community was shocking to me. I couldn’t believe my family was so ignorant.

Unfortunately, I learned that it wasn’t only my family that felt this way. When I met other Israelis and told them what I was doing in Israel they would laugh. They told me the Ethiopian Jews were a waste of time because they were lazy. They would call them “kushim”, a derogatory Hebrew word for black people. When I brought up these incidents to the Ethiopians I worked with, they weren’t surprised. One of the girls I worked with told me that she volunteered in a school where there were separate entrances for the Israeli students and the Ethiopian children. She then told me about a time when she had been turned away from a dance bar in Tel Aviv because the color of her skin. I also befriended an Ethiopian man whose father was one of the pioneers bringing the Ethiopians to Israel in the 1980’s. He told me on several occasions his father contemplated if bringing Ethiopians to Israel was the right thing to do. He said that life in Israel was too different to what the Ethiopian immigrants were used to and that the discrimination they faced broke their spirit.

Many times during my field study I would cry myself to sleep. I had become such a part of the community, it was as though these mean comments and harsh interactions happened to me. For the first time in my life I felt the real pain of discrimination. Ironically enough, it was in the one place that I felt so free.

I was naive to think that Israel was a country without racism and that it would open its arms to any displaced Jew. The six months I spent living, learning and working with the Ethiopian community were the best six months of my life. I was exposed to both the positive and negative aspects of life for the Ethiopian immigrants. I felt the joy of a child’s first birthday in Israel and the pain of an Israeli soldier who was an outcast among is brigade because the color of his skim and the country of his birth.

It was hard for me to accept that this is Israel, the real Israel. But I still love this country and I am still a Zionist. Israel should not just be a home to all Jews, regardless of their skin color; it should be a welcoming home.

We certainly have our work cut out for us…

[zoe]

Hi Tamar!

Wow, thank you so much for sharing that experience. I think that as we continue this dialogue on the blog, we are talking about so many different experiences that are huge and hard to comprehend.

Hearing your personal experiences reminds me of some of my own.

I remember when I was quite young and I was with a family member who was a Holocaust survivor. I began a conversation with someone and I didn't think twice of it. After I finished the conversation, this family member told me that I shouldn't talk to people who aren't Jewish.

I don't know how I knew, but I just knew. I knew it was wrong. I felt really uncomfortable being told who I could or could not speak to. I don't know if it would have been any different for me if it was explained to me and I could argue what she said. I just knew, deep in my heart, even as a little kid - that there wasn't a problem talking to someone who wasn't Jewish.

As I grew up, I began to see more and more signs of this intolerance in my own home. I remember members of my family took issue with another family member's purchase of a Mercedes-Benz, a German car.

I know I wasn't there. I know I didn't experience the things that they did. And I know that this blog is a safe place to talk about this and how it affected me. I think these things should be talked about and expressed in a healthy way. For some reason, some of us as human beings just can't accept some facts about other human beings.

I obviously have a lot more to share on this topic but I think I will leave here because I want to see if anyone else has any experiences that they would share on this topic. I would really like to hear any personal experiences and how they dealt with them. Has anything changed over the years? Is it you that has changed or is it the people around you who have changed?

Have a great day!
Zoe