I am no longer the stateless 20-year-old Egyptian-Iraqi Mizrahi Jewish immigrant who arrived in America confused at being unseen, expected to assimilate into the exclusively mainstream Ashkenazi Jewish story.
It is different today. Much has changed in America regarding awareness of the Middle East. American Jews, predominantly Ashkenazi, are far more aware now than in previous decades that half the Jewish population of Israel is Mizrahi, Jews from Arab lands, and that we exist. It’s been a while since I’ve been asked if I “missed my grandparents’ Yiddish,” although I miss my family’s Judeo-Arabic every day.
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