Misunderstanding the Sephardim
Recently, both the Reform and Conservative movement held symposia in Israel to discuss why they have made little inroads into the Israeli mainstream. While their leadership and its champions in political parties like Meretz rally the government to receive official status, the laity does not number more than a few thousand people. Both of these movements find the situation perplexing as they assume that because the 'average' Israeli is not religious, they would have a kindred spirit with the non-Orthodox. To their credit, these movements are seeking to understand the reasons behind the Israeli abhorrence or neglect of non-Orthodoxy. Interestingly, both symposia placed the problems with attracting Sephardim high on their respective agendas. The Conservative movement included a panel on the patronizingly titled "Egalitarian Sephardi Communities: Is the revolution upon us?" The Reform movement held a two day conference at the Van Leer Institute titled "Contemporary Reform Judaism - Sociology, Education and Theology." A Sephardi hero dies
Last week, Saadia Marciano, 58, a former member of the Israeli Knesset who got his start in public life as a leader of the "Israeli Black Panthers" movement of poor Sephardi Jews, died in a Jerusalem hospital. Marciano died in the type of poverty that he fought against on behalf of all Sephardi Jews throughout his life. Marciano, who left his native Oujda, Morocco, after anti-Semitic pogroms and riots there in the wake of Israel's establishment in 1948, helped start the Israeli Black Panthers in his early 20s, along with other Sephardi Jews living in Jerusalem's Musrara neighborhood. Although largely forgotten today, the Israeli Black Panthers protested "ignorance from the establishment for the hard social problems", and wanted to fight for a different future. Other founders of the movement included Charlie Bitton, Reuven Abergil and Eli Avichzer. However, it was the face of Marciano that became recognizable after being brutally beaten by the police during a demonstration that was organized without a permit. |
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