Erez Tzfadia, "Mizrahim and the Local Politics of Ethnicity in Development Towns"

Frankely Judaic: Explorations in Jewish Studies

2022-23 Frankel Institute: Mizrahim and the Politics of Ethnicity Project Title: Mizrahim and the Local Politics of Ethnicity in Development Towns If you’ve ever visited Israel, you most likely spent some time in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, maybe also Haifa and Eilat. But chances are you didn’t go to places like Sderot, Ofakim, and Kiryat Shmona–development towns that are typically poorer and less glamorous than Israel’s larger and more famous cities. But while development towns may not attract many tourists, they are fascinating places for scholars such as Erez Tzfadia, an associate professor of public policy and administration at Sapir Academic College, in Israel, and a fellow at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, whose current research project explores how the demographics of development towns have changed over time, and what the changes mean for Israeli society. In this episode, we explore how development towns gave rise to a distinctly Mizrahi Jewish culture and ethnicity, and how waves of new immigrants, starting in the early 1990s, have shaped Mizrahi identity. The 2022-2023 fellowship year at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, "Mizrahim and the Politics of Ethnicity," includes scholars from the United States and Israel who explore Mizrahi (Arab-Jewish) society and cultural as an interdisciplinary and intersectional field of study.