An Intersectional Failure: How Both Israel's Backers and Critics Write Mizrahi Jews Out of the Story
The watchword of the day in activist circles is “intersectionality.” The term was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to recognize the role that multiple identities (i.e., the intersection of race and sex) have in creating unique lived experiences for individuals. Prior to this theory, our society’s understanding of a given group’s experience of oppression was dominated by the voices of those holding power within that social group. For example, the experience of “Black women” was mistakenly conceived in terms defined by the experiences of more prominent Black men and White women. This elided the distinct oppression Black women faced within the women’s rights and civil rights movements. Intersectionality theory recognizes this phenomenon and aims to fill in these gaps, strengthening our understanding of power and privilege by giving voice to the previously voiceless.
Interrogating how intersectionality applies to the Jewish community has evoked a flurry of commentary over the past several weeks—David Bernstein and James Kirchick leveling sharp critiques, Amna Farooqi and Henry Rosen and Max Fineman rallying in passionate defense. Yet revealingly, none of these columns mention those Jews who perhaps most obviously embody the situation intersectionality was designed to tackle. As we explore what intersectionality means in the Jewish context, it is worth asking—yet again—why so many of our conversations ignore Mizrahi, Sephardic, and other non-Ashkenazi Jews.