Life in the Ma‘abarot: Mizrahi Jewish Immigrants in Early Israel

1949

From the founding of the state of Israel to the early 1960s, Israeli officials guided hundreds of thousands of new Jewish immigrants to the state into temporary refugee absorption camps, known as ma‘abarot (singular ma‘abara), or transit camps. While ma‘abara residents were not exclusively Middle Eastern and north African Jews, an estimated 75 percent were in 1951. Often, these immigrants lived in tents or aluminum huts that did little to protect from the elements, for months or years. Once there, residents often had little meaningful work or activities to do and faced a patronizing attitude from Ashkenazic officials. Despite the diverse backgrounds of Middle Eastern and north African Jews, the shared challenges of the ma‘abarot came to symbolize their early experience in Israel, where they became known as Mizrahi (“Eastern” or “Oriental”) Jews, regardless of their country of origin.

Credits

Government Press Office (Israel) via WikiMedia, “Moving Into a New Home in the Ma'abara,” September 1 1949. Licensed under (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Discussion Questions

  1. What stands out to you most about this image?

  2. What impact, if any, do you think the poverty of the ma‘abarot (in part a result of state policy) had on the ways Ashkenazic Israelis and Mizrahi Israelis viewed each other?

  3. What impact, if any, do you think the poverty of the ma‘abarot (in part a result of state policy) had on the ways Mizrahim viewed themselves, their past, and their future in the state of Israel?

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