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The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto
Part memoir, part manifesto, The Wrong Kind of Jew catalogues the Jewish population of the Middle East and North Africa, their history, and the voices who fail to meet the expectations of both the Jewish and non-Jewish world—yet are better for it.
When people ask what I’m passionate about, Judaism, likely, comes first. If you ask where I’m from, the answer is Israel, so usually a dead giveaway. But if you dive into my ethnicity or race, I will tell you that my family comes from North Africa and the Middle East—Tunisia, and Iraq, to be more specific.
So you’re Arab? people often ask. And I respond, no, I’m a Jew.
I’m Mizrahi. The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa are known as Mizrahim. But few people—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—know of us. There are many reasons for that, one of which is that for too many, Mizrahim are “the wrong kind of Jew.” We’re not only unfamiliar, but our culture shatters stereotypes and unspoken rules. We break the expectations many hold about Jews and race, the Middle East and religion, and even politics and oppression.
Because of my Mizrahi heritage, I don’t fit into what many people see as the secular, cultural tenets of Judaism.
I like bagels, but I don’t consider them my cuisine. I don’t have opinions on Katz Deli or whether or not they are better than Langers. What kind of meat is Pastrami? I’m still not sure. My grandma doesn’t make matzo-ball soup when I’m sick or even on the holidays. Instead, she’s making a stew that most of my Jewish friends can’t pronounce.
Yes, my grandparents were in the Holocaust. Can’t get more Jewish than that, right? But their streets were never lined with swastikas or German soldiers. No one scrawled “Jude” on their homes or businesses. They didn’t survive Auschwitz or Dachau or Buchenwald. They were due to be sent to Nazi camps with unknown names. Their neighbors were shot and raped in antisemitic riots, which most people, even most synagogues, don’t commemorate.
For some, I’m not just the wrong kind of Jew; I’m a bad Jew. I’m bad at meeting expectations of what Jewish looks like, sounds like, thinks like, and means.
But I have the audacity to know that I am a bad Jew and feel good about it.
When people ask what I’m passionate about, Judaism, likely, comes first. If you ask where I’m from, the answer is Israel, so usually a dead giveaway. But if you dive into my ethnicity or race, I will tell you that my family comes from North Africa and the Middle East—Tunisia, and Iraq, to be more specific.
So you’re Arab? people often ask. And I respond, no, I’m a Jew.
I’m Mizrahi. The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa are known as Mizrahim. But few people—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—know of us. There are many reasons for that, one of which is that for too many, Mizrahim are “the wrong kind of Jew.” We’re not only unfamiliar, but our culture shatters stereotypes and unspoken rules. We break the expectations many hold about Jews and race, the Middle East and religion, and even politics and oppression.
Because of my Mizrahi heritage, I don’t fit into what many people see as the secular, cultural tenets of Judaism.
I like bagels, but I don’t consider them my cuisine. I don’t have opinions on Katz Deli or whether or not they are better than Langers. What kind of meat is Pastrami? I’m still not sure. My grandma doesn’t make matzo-ball soup when I’m sick or even on the holidays. Instead, she’s making a stew that most of my Jewish friends can’t pronounce.
Yes, my grandparents were in the Holocaust. Can’t get more Jewish than that, right? But their streets were never lined with swastikas or German soldiers. No one scrawled “Jude” on their homes or businesses. They didn’t survive Auschwitz or Dachau or Buchenwald. They were due to be sent to Nazi camps with unknown names. Their neighbors were shot and raped in antisemitic riots, which most people, even most synagogues, don’t commemorate.
For some, I’m not just the wrong kind of Jew; I’m a bad Jew. I’m bad at meeting expectations of what Jewish looks like, sounds like, thinks like, and means.
But I have the audacity to know that I am a bad Jew and feel good about it.
240 pages, Paperback
Published October 21, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 5, 2022
This is a fabulous book and one that is so needed. I have never been to Israel and hope to go one day. Now I will be much more educated on everything there. Hen Mazzig’s writing is beautiful and accessible to anyone, no matter their knowledge of Jews or Israel. In fact, it’s a book that everyone should read since there is so much interest and/or attention paid to Israel just about everywhere in the US, whether or not someone is Jewish. They would all benefit knowing more about Mizrahi Jews, the demographic that is most prominent in Israel.
March 24, 2023
Talk about primal world views, my view is American, Jewish, Female – Optimist, Boomer, born in ’49, I am as old as Israel (that is to say, Israel the modern state, not the current state) . . .
Given the current state of general anxiety about political developments at home, in Israel (and the world-over, for that matter) I checked out a Kindle edition of The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto, by Hen Mazzig. The book popped up somewhere on my media feed with Mazzig’s handsome young gaze on its cover - “in your face” from the start.
“One of the first things people learn about me is that I’m Jewish,” Mazzig begins. “When people ask me what I do for a living, “I’m Jewish” is usually the shorthand answer. For the past 10 years, I have works as a “professional Jew” touring the world to educate audiences about the Jewish story – our past, our present and our hopeful future.”
Ready to read on?
Go ahead, ask your local Barnes & Noble if the book is in stock, and watch the sales clerk’s expression change from may I help you to mild panic.
Sure, the very notion of “The Wrong Kind of Jew” - in Israel, of all places - is enough to make the head spin.
What is Mizrahi? Who is Mizrahi?
And where exactly – historically, geographically, culturally, politically, practically speaking – is Mizrahi?
In great detail, Mazzig explains:
“The majority of Jews in France are Mizrahim. So are many Jews in Canada and South America, as well as scattered populations across the Middle East and Central Asia, from Morocco to Azerbaijan. But the biggest community of Mizrahim is in Israel. We are, in fact, a majority of the country’s Jews – between three and four million of us – and our unique culture and history have a significant impact on what it means to be Israeli, who our leaders are, and how the country’s culture looks.”
“You cannot understand Israel at all, or what being Jewish means in the twenty-first century, if you don’t understand Mizrahim.”
As Mazzig further expounds:
“Today, Mizrahim are the dominant cultural force in Israel. This is a giant leap forward from the middle of the last century when were expelled from countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and others – places where we’d lived for centuries. We didn’t speak Yiddish languages (a mix of Hebrew and German) or any of the other local languages Jews spoke in Eastern Europe. Instead, we had our own Jewish languages that blended Hebrew with elements of Arabic, Persian and Spanish. And just like the Jews of Europe, we too developed our own Jewish food and music. ”
And contrary to common belief, many of us experienced the Holocaust. During World War II, Morocco and Tunisia were ruled by the Nazis, either directly or through the Vichy government, and many of us were sent to death camps. My Tunisian grandparents worked at labor camp and would have been sent off for extermination if the war hadn’t ended just days before the transport was supposed to leave."
Part memoir, part manifesto, Mazzig’s Mizrahi Manifesto is intended to open difficult conversations -- one more voice to challenge his readers – a writer and activist, speaker and educators coming of age, openly gay, a Jew of color, passionately pro-Israel – deeply engaged in the multilayered battle against antisemitism, colorism and racism – even in his own country.
“We Israeli Mizrahim are the largest demographic of Jews of color in the world. We didn’t grow up with privilege, White or otherwise. We suffered intense discrimination in our countries of origin – and still do in many ways today in Israel. We have darker skin and hair that most Ashkenazim. We are not “White” by any definition. But that’s not the primary concern. In Israel, the real issue is that our unique customs, experience, and worldview are the very qualities that have caused so much hardship. . . "
"Outside of Israel, however what we endure is far worse than the discrimination and microaggressions we suffer at home. Instead, it’s a complete denial. Jews deny us; non-Jews deny us. The prevailing felling outside of Israel is that we are invisible."
“We cannot have the “but we’re all Jews” discussion while Jewish scholars claim that our identity is Israeli government propaganda when non-Jewish commentators say we’re just Arabs. We can’t be “all Jews” until all of us feel that we’re all Jews, that we are recognized and accepted in every Jewish space, and that Ashkenazi Jews go out of their way to defend Mizrahi identity against its erasure, instead of facilitating it. I would never ask anyone to abandon their culture or identity in order to feel more equal, and the same thing should never be asked of me or any other Mizrahi. Not all Jews are White. Even if you accept that a great many Jews in the Diaspora have benefited from White privilege, this is not the case for Jews of color—including and especially Mizrahim. If anything, we are targeted from more directions. We face antisemitism, we face claims of privilege when we have none, we face rejection and erasure from within our own community merely because of our skin color, heritage, and culture.”
Given the current state of general anxiety about political developments at home, in Israel (and the world-over, for that matter) I checked out a Kindle edition of The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto, by Hen Mazzig. The book popped up somewhere on my media feed with Mazzig’s handsome young gaze on its cover - “in your face” from the start.
“One of the first things people learn about me is that I’m Jewish,” Mazzig begins. “When people ask me what I do for a living, “I’m Jewish” is usually the shorthand answer. For the past 10 years, I have works as a “professional Jew” touring the world to educate audiences about the Jewish story – our past, our present and our hopeful future.”
Ready to read on?
Go ahead, ask your local Barnes & Noble if the book is in stock, and watch the sales clerk’s expression change from may I help you to mild panic.
Sure, the very notion of “The Wrong Kind of Jew” - in Israel, of all places - is enough to make the head spin.
What is Mizrahi? Who is Mizrahi?
And where exactly – historically, geographically, culturally, politically, practically speaking – is Mizrahi?
In great detail, Mazzig explains:
“The majority of Jews in France are Mizrahim. So are many Jews in Canada and South America, as well as scattered populations across the Middle East and Central Asia, from Morocco to Azerbaijan. But the biggest community of Mizrahim is in Israel. We are, in fact, a majority of the country’s Jews – between three and four million of us – and our unique culture and history have a significant impact on what it means to be Israeli, who our leaders are, and how the country’s culture looks.”
“You cannot understand Israel at all, or what being Jewish means in the twenty-first century, if you don’t understand Mizrahim.”
As Mazzig further expounds:
“Today, Mizrahim are the dominant cultural force in Israel. This is a giant leap forward from the middle of the last century when were expelled from countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and others – places where we’d lived for centuries. We didn’t speak Yiddish languages (a mix of Hebrew and German) or any of the other local languages Jews spoke in Eastern Europe. Instead, we had our own Jewish languages that blended Hebrew with elements of Arabic, Persian and Spanish. And just like the Jews of Europe, we too developed our own Jewish food and music. ”
And contrary to common belief, many of us experienced the Holocaust. During World War II, Morocco and Tunisia were ruled by the Nazis, either directly or through the Vichy government, and many of us were sent to death camps. My Tunisian grandparents worked at labor camp and would have been sent off for extermination if the war hadn’t ended just days before the transport was supposed to leave."
Part memoir, part manifesto, Mazzig’s Mizrahi Manifesto is intended to open difficult conversations -- one more voice to challenge his readers – a writer and activist, speaker and educators coming of age, openly gay, a Jew of color, passionately pro-Israel – deeply engaged in the multilayered battle against antisemitism, colorism and racism – even in his own country.
“We Israeli Mizrahim are the largest demographic of Jews of color in the world. We didn’t grow up with privilege, White or otherwise. We suffered intense discrimination in our countries of origin – and still do in many ways today in Israel. We have darker skin and hair that most Ashkenazim. We are not “White” by any definition. But that’s not the primary concern. In Israel, the real issue is that our unique customs, experience, and worldview are the very qualities that have caused so much hardship. . . "
"Outside of Israel, however what we endure is far worse than the discrimination and microaggressions we suffer at home. Instead, it’s a complete denial. Jews deny us; non-Jews deny us. The prevailing felling outside of Israel is that we are invisible."
“We cannot have the “but we’re all Jews” discussion while Jewish scholars claim that our identity is Israeli government propaganda when non-Jewish commentators say we’re just Arabs. We can’t be “all Jews” until all of us feel that we’re all Jews, that we are recognized and accepted in every Jewish space, and that Ashkenazi Jews go out of their way to defend Mizrahi identity against its erasure, instead of facilitating it. I would never ask anyone to abandon their culture or identity in order to feel more equal, and the same thing should never be asked of me or any other Mizrahi. Not all Jews are White. Even if you accept that a great many Jews in the Diaspora have benefited from White privilege, this is not the case for Jews of color—including and especially Mizrahim. If anything, we are targeted from more directions. We face antisemitism, we face claims of privilege when we have none, we face rejection and erasure from within our own community merely because of our skin color, heritage, and culture.”
January 5, 2023
If you only read one book this whole year, make sure it's this one. Hen Mazzig brilliantly broaches notoriously complex and difficult topics with succinct clarity. He fiercely calls out injustices unknown to many, and overlooked by others, such as the I/P conflict and the erasure of Mizrahi culture and history in favor of an Ashkenormative narrative of Jews as a whole. Best of all, he does this in a way that invites dialogue and the building of solid bridges moving forward. This immediately gripping page-turner has opened my mind and my heart, and I passionately recommend it to Jews and non-Jews alike. At its core, The Wrong Kind of Jew is a call to action on behalf of all Mizrahi Jews (and anyone with a heart, really), and one that couldn’t be more powerful. This book is a must-read, period.
November 25, 2022
Hen's instagram has kept me informed and inspired me. His book even more so. A timely book that addresses Zionism, race, Israeli politics and antisemitism, all through a Mizrahi lense. This is a must read book
November 25, 2022
So interesting and thought provoking. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in Israeli and Middle Eastern issues.
December 23, 2022
Factual yet human in his approach which makes this an accessible book that will help explain the complex issues facing Israel.
March 21, 2023
After reading David Baddiel’s book and seeing Mazzig’s article in the Jewish News calling Baddiel out for NOT counting all Jews, I had to read this book. I’m so happy I did!
Mazzig’s writing is superior to any other modern Jewish authors, far better than Baddiel’s, Freeman’s and Tishby’s, to name a few. Mazzig is in a league of his own.
His ability to draw the reader in is unmatchable. Coupled with well crafted arguments on complicated issues, yet mastering the ability to make it all easy to digest for any reader, is top in this field.
In the world Mazzig aspires for us all, where all Jews are equal, this book would’ve won the Jewish Book of the year award.. makes me think why it didn’t…
Mazzig’s writing is superior to any other modern Jewish authors, far better than Baddiel’s, Freeman’s and Tishby’s, to name a few. Mazzig is in a league of his own.
His ability to draw the reader in is unmatchable. Coupled with well crafted arguments on complicated issues, yet mastering the ability to make it all easy to digest for any reader, is top in this field.
In the world Mazzig aspires for us all, where all Jews are equal, this book would’ve won the Jewish Book of the year award.. makes me think why it didn’t…
January 13, 2024
Fantastic book, necessary perspective for so many to read and acknowledge. Knowing as much as I do, I was still not aware of the extent to which the blind spot for the Mizrahi community exists. It was an excellent learning tool and I look forward to engaging with the resources and people Hen talks about. I do wish he had written more on progressive antisemitism, hopefully a second book is forthcoming. The editing could have been tighter, but that’s really the only critique.
March 20, 2024
cool because it explored topics i knew nothing about, but id probably give lower if i was already somewhat knowledgeable. also i hate how jewish people willfully ignore our collective religion! the best part was the detail he went into when describing the tumultuous atmosphere present in israel between ashkenazi and mizrahi people and how americans have no idea.
easy read and satisfactory if you’re interested in israel
easy read and satisfactory if you’re interested in israel
Want to read
April 28, 2023Unorthodox
May 23, 2023
(3 to 3.5 stars)
November 22, 2023
Fantastic amd important book.
December 13, 2023
rubbish
December 18, 2023
Fabulous! Well written and absorbing. Hen takes you on a journey to explore the experience of life as a mizrahi Jew.
March 3, 2024
I didn’t know anything much about Mizrahim. Well written and heartfelt. Definitely a voice to follow on social media these days.
November 12, 2023
As a Mizrahi Jew myself I found this book interesting to read, although as a person with middle-eastern looks I don't think that the racism mentioned is unique to this race or religion. It's everywhere.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews