Neither the New Jew nor the Old Jew: ‘Oriental’ Jewish Masculinity in Zionist Texts
Abstract
In the Yishuv, the Zionist image of the ‘New Jew’ was decidedly Ashkenazi, and many Ashkenazi writers assumed that Jewish men from the Middle East or North Africa were marginal to Zionist ideals. This paper discusses how Zionist and British Mandatory texts constructed the masculinity of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa. Using a lens of disability studies, this chapter analyses their portrayal as central to the Zionist project because of their able bodies and minds while also socially and culturally marginal to it.
Presentato: 01 Aprile 2025 | Accettato: 02 Settembre 2025 | Pubblicato 15 Dicembre 2025 | Lingua: en
Keywords Masculinity • Zionism • Oriental • Mandate Palestine • Mizrahi
Copyright © 2025 Sarah Imhoff. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/979-12-5742-004-8/002