Shifting Ethnic Boundaries and Inequality in Israel: Or, How the Polish Peddler Became a German Intellectual (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Shifting Ethnic Boundaries and Inequality in Israel: Or, How the Polish Peddler Became a German Intellectual Ben Herzog Aziza Khazzoom . Shifting Ethnic Boundaries and Inequality in Israel: Or, How the Polish Peddler Became a German Intellectual. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. Pp. x, 344. Cloth $65. ISBN 0804756976. According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination should be located in the intersection of biography and history, between the personal and the social structure. Aziza Khazzoom's book fulfills this task flawlessly. Based on quantitative data from the 1961 Israeli census, she shows that in addition to material interest, identity and ideology can also drive social closure and ethnic inequality. In other words, the Westernization ideology affected both internal and external boundaries of the new Israeli state. After presenting the historical background (chap. 2) and reviewing the possible theoretical approaches to ethnic formation (chap. 3,4), Khazzoom posits the "Iraqi Paradox" empirically (chap. 5) and analyzes ethnic inequality in Israel with respect to the Zionist Westernization project (chap. 6,7). Her thesis is an admirable academic endeavor. She produces a fresh and original empirical and theoretical analysis on a topic that has been excessively (and some would say exhaustingly) studied in Israel. The story of her uncle Na'im provided the personal connection to the large-scale empirical puzzle that drives the book's main thesis. Na'im, a book-keeper from Baghdad, immigrated to Israel in 1950. Although he experienced much discrimination, he was finally secured a job in his chosen profession. However, the book's empirical evidence goes well beyond the anecdotal. The personal story only illustrates the general Iraqi paradox described statistically by Khazzoom. In the labor market, Iraqi immigrants (who are socially defined as Mizrahi) received Ashkenazi-level returns on their education. Khazzoom does not reject that dichotomization, the binary distillation of the two ethnic groups, occurred. However, by looking at the exceptions to this process, she suggests that racial and ethnic boundaries are mutable and are not constructed only in respect to the monopolization of resources. In Israel, gatekeepers were primarily interested in developing a modern, Western society. Iraqis, in contrast to other Mizrahi immigrants, could perform and prove Westernness (especially through knowledge of European languages, proof of secular education, and knowledge of European fashions and basic manners) and thus secure a different absorption path. Thus, the book's subtitle, "How the Polish Peddler Became a German Intellectual", is a bit misleading. It does not reflect the originality of the book's main argument and empirical puzzle. The book's important contribution is not in presenting again the unquestionable discrimination against Iraqis and other Mizrahi Jews, but in locating the complex mechanisms of its establishment according to an East/West classification. Zionism is a project of Westernization, and the social construction of a group that could be perceived as "the other" shaped this identity. Zionist veterans (Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel mainly from Europe before the establishment of the State) desired the absorption of all Jewish immigrants. However, they were almost obsessed with preventing the emerging society from being (or being seen as) Levantine. The Zionist veterans resolved the dilemma [End Page 96] by relegating most Middle Easterners to the margins of Israeli society – both physically and symbolically. At the same time, treating Iraqis who did not threaten the Westernization project in a preferential manner provided a chance to practice egalitarianism. However, giving an interpretation to the Iraqi (and to lesser extent, the Egyptian) paradox is not sufficient for Khazzoom to establish her argument. She also disqualifies alternative explanations. For example, she shows that one cannot attribute Iraqis' relative success to the communal strength of Iraqi communities in Tel Aviv/Ramat Gan. The Iraqi paradox remains strong among the salaried, meaning that it is likely it resulted from the gatekeepers' choice rather than ability to resist discrimination. Moreover, Eastern characteristics that were clearly distributed by binary ethnic categories but that were invisible in the job market did not affect Iraqis returns on education. Thus, only by performing Westernness did Iraqis obtain returns on education similar to Ashkenazim. Although the author shows that only visible characteristics alter the ethnic and binary classification system, the...