What is the difference between Mizrahi Jews and Sephardic Jews?
MS: Sephardic Jews originated in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. They are mainly the descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. Sephardic Jews are Mizrahi Jews. The term Mizrahi means East in Hebrew and is part of a powerful mechanism of classification. Mizrahi Jews are historically Jews of Middle-Eastern descent whose families, in most cases, immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. They form about half of the Israeli Jewish population. The painful reality in Israel is the division within society between Ashkenazi Jews (of European descent) and Mizrahis. This often goes unnoticed by outside observers, who naturally focus on the more violent aspects of Israeli politics and the sharp division between Jew and non-Jew made by the Israeli state. In fact, in mainstream Israeli discourse, there has long been a systematic avoidance/denial of this, maintaining as is perhaps demanded by Zionist ideology and its ongoing nation-building that Jews are a distinct people and that Isra
