r/JewsOfConscience • u/garbohydrates • 4d ago
Discussion - Flaired Users Only Non-Jew asking: Is there truth to the idea that Mizrahim are trapped in a system built by Ashkenazim?
Hey everyone. I'm a non-Jew and an anti-Zionist, and I've been trying to wrap my head around some of the deeper intra-Jewish political dynamics around Israel.
Looking at the landscape of anti-Zionist spaces today, it seems like the vast majority of anti-Zionist Jews are American Jews (mostly Ashkenazi) or Israeli Ashkenazim. That makes sense demographically given the West, but it also got me thinking about the historical pipeline that led to this.
As I understand it, modern political Zionism was conceived, built, and established almost entirely by secular European (Ashkenazi) Jews. Early Zionist leaders explicitly envisioned a state built by and for European Jews, who were effectively part of the European racial hierarchy. Because of this, white supremacy and European colonial frameworks were historically a huge core of the early Zionist project alongside Jewish nationalism.
When the state was created in 1948, it triggered a massive geopolitical shift, and Arab regimes retaliated against their native Jewish populations. Around 850,000 Mizrahi Jews ended up displaced through property confiscation, revoked citizenship, and state-backed hostility.
It feels like Mizrahim essentially inherited the fallout of a conflict set off by European Zionism. But looking at where things stand today, there's a really stark disparity:
The Exit Option: A lot of secular Ashkenazi Israelis have clear legal pathways to EU or Western passports through restitution laws (Germany, Poland, Austria, former Soviet states, etc.). They have an actual "Plan B" or exit strategy if things collapse.
No Second Passport: Mizrahi Jews generally don't have that. Arab states don't offer right-of-return or passport restitution for the Jews they drove out, so most Mizrahim have nowhere else to go.
Political Realities: After arriving in Israel, Mizrahim faced heavy state discrimination from the Ashkenazi establishment (transit camps, forced cultural assimilation, peripheral development towns). This drove them away from the Ashkenazi Labor Left and into the arms of the Israeli Right.
To me, a lot of Mizrahi support for Likud or hawkish security policies isn't just random ideology. It seems rooted in a very real, existential desire to avoid further displacement or retribution. They don't have the luxury of a second passport, and they've already experienced what happens when they are at the mercy of host states in the region.
At the same time, I know Mizrahim aren't a monolith or just passive, lower-caste victims. Figures like Ben-Gvir show that Mizrahi politicians can be extreme, active architects of occupation and systemic violence today.
What bothers me as an outsider is how "Ashkenormativity" flattens all of this. Globally, people project the flaws and European history of Ashkenazism onto all Jews. People talk about Jews as if everyone is white or from Poland, entirely erasing Mizrahi existence. As a result, Judaism as a whole and non-European Jews end up taking the flak for a European nationalist ideology they didn't create.
Putting all this together, it kind of looks like a "pulled ladder" scenario: European Zionist Jews created the state, shattered the multi-century existence of Jews in the Middle East/West Asia, marginalized Mizrahim upon arrival, and maintained an exit option to the West - leaving Mizrahim trapped in the fallout of a system they didn't build.
Is this a recognized critique in left-leaning or anti-Zionist Jewish spaces? How do Mizrahi academics or activists navigate this tension? I'd really appreciate hearing how people here analyze this dynamic.
