The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage

by Loolwa Khazzoom (Editor)

Many of us have stereotypes of what “Jewish” looks like—and for many of us that image is white and European. Yet, with the blossoming Jewish multiculturalism movement, led by the dynamic Loolwa Khazzoom, the myth of a “monolithic Jewish community” is about to be debunked.

Focusing on the experiences of Jewish women of two rich and varied regions, The Flying Camel reveals the hidden worlds of Jewish women often misunderstood or maligned by both the cultures in which they live and the European-Jewish community. Stories include one woman and her family’s flight from persecution in Libya, a writer’s exploration of the category “Arab Jew,” and a lightskinned, Moroccan-born woman trying to “pass” in order to gain acceptance among European Jews in Tehran.

The life and times of Ruth of the Jungle / Ruth Knafo Setton --
Feathers and hair / Farideh Dayanim Goldin --
Souvenir from Libya / Gina Bublil Waldman --
Vashti / Bahareh Mobasseri Rinsler --
Benign ignorance or persistent resistance? / Rachel Wahba --
Breaking the silence / Ella Shohat, Mira Eliezer, and Tikva Levy --
Ashkenazi eyes / Julie Iny --
A synagogue of one's own / Yael Arami --
Reflections of an Arab Jew / Ella Shohat --
In exile at home / Homa Sarshar --
Home is where you make it / Kyla Wazana Tompkins --
The search to belong / Caroline Smadja --
Illusion in assimilation / Henriette Dahan Kalev --
How the camel found its wings / Lital Levy --
Secrets / Mojgan Moghadam-Rahbar --
We are here and this is ours / Loolwa Khazzoom

Genres: Judaism, Jewish, Nonfiction, Religion, Feminism, Gender, Middle East

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2003

Reviews

[Bogi Takács]

I thought this essay collection was awesome. Both very personal and tackling many complex issues without oversimplifying any of them. I'd recommend this book both to Jewish and non-Jewish readers; just about anyone really.

Also a lot of essays are from current-gen migrant writers, which I always find it hard to find, so now I'm telling you :)
_____
Source of the book: Spouseperson's office book purchases

[lj · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a pertinent and important read. shows jewish experience and opinion that is not monolithic and i loved being able to read stories (even if many were depressing) written by mizrahi/sephardi women in their own words. i feel like i saw my mom and a lot of my relatives in many of the stories and i am so grateful for that.

[Erez Zobary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. Reading through all of the stories allowed me to better understand complex Jewish identities and help me better understand my own yemenite Jewish identity as a Canadian woman. So glad this exists :)

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of Jews living in the State of Israel , until recently, had come from Muslim-majority areas: Iran, Iraq, North Africa, Yemen, India, etc. Their invisibility to both Ashkenazi Jewish culture in particular and multicultural studies in general ends with this excellent collection of essays on identity by Mizrachi women. We read of the oppression of women—especially around marriage and family—in cultures that favor male children; we take a peek at the vibrant—often suppressed or degraded in Israel—cultures of Arab Jews from Iraq, Yemen and Egypt; we experience the tensions between groups—some are politically left, other resentful of Arab anti-Semitism—and the tears and woes of Feminist conventions that wrangle with these difficult identities and strong personalities. My favorite pieces: Lital Levy’s lonely struggles with studying Arabic and Palestinian poetry in grad school; Moroccan-born Dahan-Kalev “passing” for Ashkenazi; Waldman’s escape from anti-Semitic Libya in the ‘60s.

[Nate Merrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second half is just as good as the first half, which I already reviewed. Regarding the zionism that many of the authors endorse, it seems callous to read someone's experience of oppression and dismiss it as 'too zionist' because you fear that it will weaken to case for palestinian rights. We could take a hand wavey 'it's a very complex situation!' approach to Israel/Palestine, but that doesn't get anything done. Arab jews are a case of actual intersectionality, where their oppression isnt just 'arab' + 'jew', and ending it requires healing and reaching out from both the Arab and the jew. But was there ever/can there ever be a united 'Jewish' or 'arab' group? Probably not, at least not when we're talking about nation states!

[Jessica Robins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provided me with a very unique opportunity to hear about the lives of Jewish women who had a completely different cultural upbringing from my own. Just recently did I learn and hear about how difficult it is to be a Jewish person from a Middle Eastern country, or a country outside of Eastern Europe. I never realized before living in Israel and reading this book how European centered my Jewish upbringing is and how strongly it has been represented in American culture and pop culture. This book was eye opening for me and I would definitely recommend it to people interested in learning about different Jewish cultures around the world.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Mizrahi and Sephardic Jew this is a piece of art that puts words to the shared trauma and memory of the cleansing of Jews from Arab lands . I felt like I got such an amazing well rounded story hearing from different strong female perspectives from a variety of middle eastern and North African countries and I feel that this is a necessary read for Jews especially .

[Gal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book extremely validating and thought provoking. I am half Mizrahi Jew- my mom’s family was expelled from Egypt in the 1950s along with the majority of its Jews and also has Iraqi Jewish ancestry. I wish their culture and history were more widely discussed.

[Rachel Ruston · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only wish is that I had read this sooner.

[Chris Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read!

[isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barnard alumni killing it 💪🏻

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read. Different perspectives. I learned a lot and many stories really resonated with me.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book and learned so much! It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the Middle East and Judaism as a whole.

[Wendy Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

An uneven collection, some all "I I I," some well-grounding the personal in larger historic contexts. A couple were brilliant, several were average, at least two were self-indulgent (IMHO). But in any unfolding dialogue, the first voices to come out are not always the strongest, and that's probably the case here. Ashkenazim and Mizrahim (and Sephardim)have a long way to go, and the opening sally of voices is a thing to be celebrated.

Some of the essayists appeared not to have read each others' works, as some took for granted what others explored. Overall they built a strong picture of what it's like to be female, Middle Eastern/North African, and Jewish in contexts that can safely handle just one of those concepts. Add in Lesbian for a couple of essayists, and you begin to understand how convoluted identity politics can be.

Still, facing such a dilemma, painful as it may be for one personally, does not necessarily mean one has something to say to the world. Perhaps people who can step out of their skins, stand outside their own shoes and eyes and look around, not just in, are the best essayists in these cases. Some of these writers were very good at that.

It's a book I'd recommend to an undergraduate class with some background, but caught as it is between needing some understanding of who's who (for all it explores, this book explains much less) and bordering on too personal to encompass a larger picture in some cases, I'm ambivalent. Glad I read it, not going to read it again. There was a lovely essay covering something similar by a woman named Pnini something, which I read in an anthology some years ago. Can't remember the anthology or her full name, but I was very taken with the essay; she compared her Mizrahim difficulties in an Azkenazim (sp?) world with African apartheid and tribal conflicts over economics. That made sense for someone coming clean to the reading; it grounded her experience in a context non-Jewish people could get. I'm not sure this book wanted to do that, and maybe that's why it didn't explain so much.

[cubbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

you know, i liked it, i really did. i thought it was informative and interesting and true. but one of the essays has an explanation for my generally lukewarm response:

"I can honestly say that I never have procrastinated over a piece of writing as much as I have over this one. What is there to put off? Yet another opportunity to talk about identity, experience, history? I find that I am tired, not only of writing in the first person, but of reading experiences written in the first person. This is perhaps a particularly feminist state of literary exhaustion-- so much feminist writing, particularly in anthologies, is about people exploring their identities on paper, sharing their struggles, heartaches, isolation, and journeys." ("Home Is Where You Make It," Kyla Wazana Tompkins)

after years of personal zines and anthologies such as this one, maybe i'm just burnt out. i just want something a little bit more. but i don't exactly know what that means.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those interested in how other folks from cultures obscure to your own, this is a great collection of essays-- all from Jewish women from very different backgrounds (Palestinian, hispanic...)

[J. Rogue]

I've owned this book for a while, and it has been at the top of my to-read pile, but I haven't cracked it yet. Thanks to billie for reminding me about it, I'll put it on my to-read-soon shelf.

[Rhiannon Grant]

Some excellent essays in here.

[Billie Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

we exist!