Israeli society is a highly diverse one, comprising immigrants from different regions in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Still, one of the central rifts around which Israeli society is organized is that between "Ashkenazi" and "Mizrahi" Jews. This course draws on an array of Hebrew-language materials — poems, short stories, films, photography, television productions, newspaper articles, digital media, scholarly essays — to explore the construction of ethnic identities throughout Israeli history. Among the topics covered are the immigration to Israel, the process of integration (or lack thereof), the history of ethnic politics, the arts and cultures of Mizrahi immigrants, and the multilingual dynamics of Israeli society. The nexus of gender, class, and ethnicity is also central to this course, as we discuss works depicting Mizrahi women and their experiences.
The time slot for this seminar will be determined in consultation with the participants and according to their schedules