This band makes awesome music using the poems of Sami Shalom Chetrit for lyrics. You can listen to their music and support them on this website!
Please support this amazing work, and contribute something if you identify with it!!
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Hey, mixed-race folks, how do you respond when you get asked what you are? Do you feel at a loss for words when trying to describe your racial, ethnic, or cultural background? Do you find yourself struggling to understand where you belong in the context of prominent racial paradigms? Do you run into a POC-white binary that is reductive, incomplete, or simply not enough? What does it mean that there often isn’t an easy answer? And what happens when you add gender, feminism, and queerness into the mix?
Hey, queers and feminists, let’s respond to the lack of representation of mixed-race folks like us. Yes, we are deeply indebted to the countless beautiful queers and feminists of color who have demanded to be heard; who fight, survive, and die on a daily basis. We are indebted to colonized people and feminists of color around the world and in the states who have taught us that black and brown are beautiful; who have shown us how to act with compassion and love and thoughtful rage in the face of white supremacist violence. This zine is a call to continue this work; to build upon the work of anti-racist and decolonial literature, given the nuances of our lives as mixed-race queers and feminists, so often living on stolen land while refusing to forget the land stolen from our ancestors.
No doubt, racism against folks of color is fucking real, and those of us who are mixed race and sometimes or always pass as white are much less prone to the multiple forms of violence faced by black and brown folks. However, too often, that’s the end of the conversation. This zine strives to challenge the narrow conception of POC vs white, a binary which doesn’t allow space for many folks’ experiences or for more complex identities (even among POCs and white folks).
As mixed-raced queers and feminists, we refuse to whitewash our histories. We refuse to label individuals based solely upon our perceptions of their skin color or features. Colonialism attempts to whitewash, erase, assimilate and subjugate through violence and oppression. We refuse to finish this work. We invite you to collectively participate in this refusal.
A Working Definition of Mixed-race: While this may not be the perfect term, we are using it to frame a very broad set of experiences and identities, which may include tracing all or part of one’s culture or heritage to brown people and colonized people, inclusive of all skin tones. This may also include being raised with multiple cultures or with immigrant experience.
Why Queers & Feminists? Not only are we interested in the ways that mixed-race folks’ identities interact with queerness and feminism, but we also believe that it is important to prioritize stories from queers and feminists, whose voices are often marginalized. Moreover, with a topic as broad as race, we want to anchor our discussions in some common politics. This anchor is important because it is a big part of how we (the editors) choose who to organize with, live with, form community with, fuck, and, in this case, write zines with.
Possible Topics: Privilege. [Not] Passing. Sex, relationships & dating. Conflicting and conflated identities (especially related to race and queerness, transness, feminism, class, dis/ability). The POC/white binary. Cultural appropriation. Structural and institutional oppression. Art, music & creativity. [Not] Belonging. Cultural estrangement. Immigrant experiences. Families & histories. Colonizing processes in family, work, activisms & relationships. Being too brown/not brown enough. Home. Diaspora. Performing identities. Physical manifestations of race, and intersection with other forms of identity and presentation. Preserving and paying respect to heritage & history (eg: interviews, oral histories, folklore). Remembering. Tracing origins and roots. The importance of race/ethnicity/culture to political formation. Mixed-race community. Food & recipes. Remedies. Developing new language(s). Race/religion overlap (and exclusion). And much, much more.
Media and formats: Poetry, prose, essay, visuals (B&W for zine, possibly color online), audio (for online), interviews, and other formats (pitch them to us!— we’re good catchers).
Deadline for submissions: December 15th, 2012. Submit to mrqfzine [at] gmail [dot] com.
Contact:
mrqfzine [at] gmail [dot] com
www.mrqfzine.tumblr.com
At our next meeting, we will watch the film The House on Chelouche Street, which is a 1973 Israeli film which tells the story of an Egyptian Jewish family living in Tel Aviv in the year leading up to the Nakba.
Directed by: Moshe Mizrahi
Languages: Hebrew, Arabic, Ladino
If you have Netflix, it’s available to watch (with English subtitles) here: http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/60011190?strkid=314892105_0_0&trkid=222336&movieid=60011190
Anonymous asked: It's known that many of Israel's most famous entertainers are/were Mizrahi, yet Mizrahis continue to have a lower status in Israeli society than European/Ashkenazi Jews. Likewise, many of the most famous entertainers from the US are/were racial minorities (in particular, African-American). Do you think there's any connection here?
Yes, I (Amirah, one member of the group) think there is a connection, in the sense that structures and cultures of racism operate very similarly in Israel and the US.
In the excellent book Not the Enemy: Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands by Rachel Shabi, there is a whole chapter about Mizrahim in media and popular culture, which touches on that.
Anonymous asked: Hello! This group sounds amazing! My grandfather was from Lebanon, but I grew up knowing nothing about the Arab Jews from that region. How can I learn more? I am not on Tumblr. Is there another way to get on a mailing list? Thank you.
Hi, thanks so much for your interest and support!
We don’t have a mailing list except to inform local people about where and when the meetings are. However, the readings (or film, etc.), are always posted to this blog as we have meetings.
The best thing for you to do to stay on top of it is probably to bookmark the page and check it every once in a while.
“In 1492 the defeat of the Muslims and the expulsion of Sephardi Jews from Spain converged with the conquest of what came to be called the New World. But while the celebrations of Columbus’s voyages have provoked lively opposition, the Eurocentric framing of the ‘other 1492’ has not been questioned … To examine the relationship between contemporary discourses about the two ‘1492’s might therefore illuminate the role scholarly and popular narratives of history play in nation-building myths and geopolitical alliances.”
http://global.wisc.edu/worldlit/readings/shohat-columbus.pdf
This article was published in a more recent form in the book Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices, by Professor Shohat, which you should buy if you can to support her work.
Anonymous asked: who gave you the right to represent bagdadi jews from ramat-gan? who gave you the right to represent those who suffered? those who actually lived in bagdad (between the 1940]s and 1070's) and had to escape because their lives were threatened?you can speak for yourselves, in your names, but how dare you speak in the name of ramat-gan bagdadi jews? we ramat-ganis are furious, and we are thinking of filing a lawsuit against you for impersonating us and for ruining our chances for compensation.
hi,
we are not in any claiming to represent the baghdadi community of ramat-gan, though some members of our group are also baghdadi jews.
our intention in making this post was to pass on the message of a specific organization, the committee of baghdadi jews in ramat-gan, in order to make it more accessible to the public.
they now have a facebook page where they are posting their statements in english, arabic, and hebrew, and where you are welcome to engage with them: http://www.facebook.com/BaghdadiJews
i apologize if that post was unclear in any way and hopefully now any viewers of the blog will understand that the bay area mizrahi study group and the committee of baghdadi jews in ramat-gan are two separate organizations.
English follows Hebrew and Arabic
הודעת ועד יהודי בגדאד ברמת-גן, אור ליום ה-14 לספטמבר 2012, כ”ז באלול ה’תשע”ב:
א. אנו מודים מקרב לב לממשלת ישראל על התהליך המהיר, בן שישים ושתיים שנה, בו אושר מעמדנו כפליטים אחרי בדיקת כל מסמכינו.
ב. אנו מבקשים כי גם האשכנזים יוכרו כפליטים, כדי שלא יבוא ללבם ההרהור לשלוח אלינו את שוטרי יחידת עוז האדיבים.
ג. אנו מבקשים לתבוע את רכושנו מממשלת עיראק, ולא מן הרשות הפלסטינית, ואיננו מוכנים כי הפיצויים בגין רכושינו יקוזזו עם רכושם של אחרים (להלן, הפליטים הפלסטינים) או יועברו לא אלינו אלא לגופים שאינם מייצגים אותנו (להלן, ממשלת ישראל).
ד. אנו תובעים להקים וועדת חקירה ממלכתית שתבדוק: ראשית, האם ובאילו דרכים התנהל משא ומתן בין ראש ממשלת ישראל דוד בן-גוריון לבין ראש ממשלת עיראק נורי סעיד בשנת 1950, והאם הודיע בן-גוריון לסעיד כי יוכל להחזיק בידיו את רכוש יהודי עיראק במידה וישלח אותם לישראל; שנית, מי הורה להשליך את הפצצות לבית-הכנסת מסעודה שם-טוב שנת 1950, והאם היו אלו המוסד הישראלי ושליחיו. באם ימצא כי אכן ניהל בן-גוריון משא-ומתן על רכוש יהודי עיראק ב-1950, והורה למוסד להשליך פצצות לבית-הכנסת של הקהילה כדי לזרז את עזיבתנו, נתבע בבית-הדין הבינלאומי מחצית מסכום הפיצויים בגין פליטותנו מממשלת עיראק, ומחצית מממשלת ישראל.
ה. בברכת שנה טובה ומבורכת, שנת שלום ושגשוג, שנת שלווה ופרייה ורבייה,
ועד יהודי בגדאד ברמת-גן
بيان لجنة يهود بغداد بمدينة “رامات جان”، الصادر في الرابع عشر من سبتمبر 2012 ميلادية الموافق السابع والعشرون من أيلول 5772 عبرية.
أ: نتوجه بالشكر للحكومة الإسرائيلية من صميم قلوبنا على الخطوة السريعة- التي استغرقت 62 عاما- لكي تعترف بنا كلاجئين بعد فحص جميع وثائقنا.
ب: نطالب أن يُعترف بالأشكناز أيضا كلاجئين لكي لا يخطر ببالهم أن يرسلوا إلينا ضباط وحدة “عوز” الأفاضل.
جـ: نطالب باستعادة أملاكنا من الحكومة العراقية، لا من السلطة الفلسطينية، ونحن غير مستعدون أن يتم تحصيل التعويضات عن أملاكنا عبر مقاصة مقابل أملاك الآخرين (مثل اللاجئين الفلسطينيين) أو تُضخ هذه التعويضات في حساب جهات لا تمثلنا (مثل الحكومة الإسرائيلية).
د: نطالب بتشكيل لجنة تحقيق رسمية تفحص: أولا، هل دارت، وكيف دارت، مفاوضات بين رئيس وزراء إسرائيل دافيد بن جوريون، ورئيس وزراء العراق نوري السعيد عام 1950؟ وهل أبلغ بن جوريون نوري السعيد أنه يمكنه الاحتفاظ بأملاك يهود العراق إذا أرسلهم إلى إسرائيل؟
ثانيا، من الذي أصدر الأوامر بإلقاء القنابل على كنيس “مسعودة شيمطوب” عام 1950؟ وهل الموساد ورجاله هم من فعلوا ذلك. وإذا تبين أن بن جوريون تفاوض فعلا على أملاك يهود العراق في العام 1950، وأصدر أوامره للموساد بإلقاء القنابل على معبد الطائفة ليحفز هجرتنا، سنرفع دعوى أمام محكمة العدل الدولية نطالب بنصف مبلغ التعويضات عن فترة لجوئنا من الحكومة العراقية، والنصف الآخر من الحكومة الإسرائيلية.
هـ: نتمنى لكم عاما سعيدا ومباركا، عام يعم فيه السلام والرخاء، عام تسوده السكينة والنمو والازدهار.
لجنة يهود بغداد في رمات جان
Statement from the Ramat Gan Committee of Baghdadi Jews, 14 September, 2012 / 27 Elul, 5772
A) We most sincerely thank the Israeli government for confirming our status as refugees following a rapid, 62-year-long evaluation of our documents.
B) We request that Ashkenazi Jews are also recognized as refugees so that they won’t consider sending to our homes the courteous officers of the Oz immigration enforcement unit.
C) We are seeking to demand compensation for our lost property and assets from the Iraqi government - NOT from the Palestinian Authority - and we will not agree with the option that compensation for our property be offset by compensation for the lost property of others (meaning, Palestinian refugees) or that said compensation be transferred to bodies that do not represent us (meaning, the Israeli government).
D) We demand the establishment of an investigative committee to examine: 1) if and by what means negotiations were carried out in 1950 between Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri as-Said, and if Ben-Gurion informed as-Said that he is authorized to take possession of the property and assets of Iraqi Jewry if he agreed to send them to Israel; 2) who ordered the bombing of the Masouda Shem-Tov synagogue in Baghdad, and if the Israeli Mossad and/or its operatives were involved. If it is determined that Ben-Gurion did, in fact, carry out negotiations over the fate of Iraqi Jewish property and assets in 1950, and directed the Mossad to bomb the community’s synagogue in order to hasten our flight from Iraq, we will file a suit in an international court demanding half of the sum total of compensation for our refugee status from the Iraqi government and half from the Israeli government.
E) Blessings for a happy new year, a year of peace and prosperity, a year of tranquility and fertility.
~ The Ramat Gan Committee of Baghdadi Jews
A film created by al-Jazeera about the culture of Mizrahi music, centered around Cafe Noah in south Tel Aviv:
“In 1948, a group of Jewish Arab musicians from Baghdad and Cairo were amongst the streams of Jewish immigrants coming to the new state of Israel from all over the world. Cafe Noah in Tel Aviv became the one place where their music and culture could survive. A look into live in cultural exile in Israel.”
You can watch the film here: Witness: Cafe Noah
Also, watch this space over the next couple days, for updates, reflections, and music clips from this week’s discussion.
For next week’s group, we will be sharing music that we feel has impacted our identity and experience as Mizrahim/Arab Jews. Music can be many things — a site of cultural production, resistance, assimilation, etc.
The music we’ll share includes, but doesn’t necessarily end with, the Israeli genre of “muzika mizrahit,” and also includes songs in many languages.
As next meeting draws closer (or possibly after the conclusion of next meeting), we will post the songs (with video if possible), lyrics, and translations.
