Broadening Perspectives on Immigrant Experiences: Secondary Students Study the Absorption Difficulties Faced by Mizrachi Immigrants in Israel

ABSTRACT

Over the course of the 2015–2016 academic year, 12th-grade students at a Jewish high school in Canada participated in a research study that assessed how they integrated morally complex narratives in Israel’s past into their own relationship with the country. This article presents material based on how students reacted to learning that some Jewish immigrants were mistreated by the government by way of intentional economic disparity, depiction as grotesque caricatures in standard curricula, and denial of access to funds for cultural expression. The majority of students expressed shock and outrage as this narrative contrasted with the Zionist narrative that they had previously learned.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum development
• Israel education
• Jewish education Mizrachim

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the help of his research assistant Jenna Pasternak and his colleague Lyla Abells for opening her classroom and allowing the study to take place.

Notes

¹ These Jews are known ethnically as Ashkenazim and they trace their ancestry to Central and Eastern Europe. The singular form of the word is Ashkenazi and the word can be used as both a noun and an adjective.

² The term Mizrachim is used to denote Jews from Middle Eastern or Arab lands. The singular form of the word is Mizrachi and the word can be used as both a noun or an adjective.

³ Course enrollment was approximately 40 students but regular course attendance was higher at the start of the year in the fall and lower by the end of the year in the spring.

⁴ All of the names of students are pseudonyms in order to protect the identity of the speakers.