The Ashkenazi Revolution

192brought to Rehovoth, 52 years ago, all areas of Rehovoth expressedmisgivings at their arrival, and only one came to their aid and allocatedland for their housing. Over the course of time, the large neighborhood ofSha’arayim sprouted among the Yemenite immigrants, whose sons foughtalong side the sons of Rehovoth in all the wars against outside enemies,from then until today. However, this wider cooperation in war, and amongits sons, did little to dull the sharpness of the two strong emotions that werearoused with the arrival of the Yemenitetes 52 years earlier: The feeling ofopposition, among the farmers of Rehovoth, to the introduction of theYemenites, and their bitterness that this partnership, with the Yemenites,was forced upon them; and the Yemenite anger at the terrible, and shocked,reception that they, as returning exiles, had received. When we examinethese things from an ethical perspective, there is likely to be a flood ofparables that do not help much to clarify the matter that this book dealswith. We should view these matters from the perspective of history, whichproves that these are natural developments of the bitter war and fiercecompetition, between Jewish peoples, that has been going on since the daysof the Patriarchs. The words of Professor Chouraqui, that the Jews ofEurope had not produced, until the 17 th century, first-class historicalpersonalities, were described in most Ashkenazi publications as “racism”.This is a great, and most dangerous error. Professor Chouraqui is not aracist. God forbid. He is a zealous Sephardic nationalist, who is infusedwith feelings of superiority that were common among the Jewish tribes inthe days of our father Abraham. The opposition of the farmers ofRehovoth, to the settlement of Yemenites in their midst, 52 years ago, wasan expression of Ashkenazi nationalism. The riots and turmoil, that theYemenite Jews orchestrated on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary oftheir arrival, two years ago, were expressions of Yemenite nationalism, etc.What I mean to say is that this Ashkenazi nationalism did not accept theparticipation of Sephardo-Mizrahi Jews out of free will, but it viewed it ashaving been forced upon it, and all the acts of cooperation have still notremoved this feeling of being victims of force. In connection with thismatter, it is worth dedicating some time to the words of the Yemeniteauthor Mordechai Tabib, in his article that appeared in the bi-weekly “From