Bryan K Roby | University of Michigan (original) (raw)
Books by Bryan K Roby
Articles by Bryan K Roby
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2022
In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism, the Arab League invited Afro-Asian (Mizrahi) Jews ... more In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism, the Arab League invited Afro-Asian (Mizrahi) Jews to return to their homeland. Some Israelis used the invitation as an opportunity to highlight the extent of anti-Mizrahi discrimination by departing for the Arab World. Albeit small in comparison to those who left for other destinations, those who repatriated made a huge impact on perceptions of Israeli emigres. Their importance rested not in their numbers but in the significant threat posed to the Israeli establishment. Afro-Asian Jewish repatriation sent a message that the Zionist project, particularly as the opposing nationalist movement to Pan-Arabism, was a failure.
This article examines Afro-Asian Jewish repatriation to Morocco and Iraq from Israel in the mid-1970s. For historical context, I begin with a general overview of state-based responses to Jewish out-migrants to illustrate the difficulties faced by potential emigres. Then, I move on to several high-profile cases of Moroccan and Iraqi Jewish repatriates from Israel and the discourses surrounding their migration. I make use of government transcripts and reports; annual statistical reports; as well as the three most popular Israeli newspaper sources – Ma’ariv (Evening), Ha’aretz (The Land), and Davar (Word) – to understand the position of the Israeli state elite. To demonstrate the thinking, motivation, and concerns of out-migrants, I make use of interview transcripts from the Iraqi Jewish Archives. Examining Jewish repatriation to the Arab World as an act of transgressive migration, I argue for further complication and carefulness in the study of migration to and from Israel by focusing specifically on out-migration and what it tells us about the notion of Jewish homeland.
Jewish Social Studies 27:1, 2022
This article explores the intellectual history of Black scholar (John) Ida Jiggetts in her study ... more This article explores the intellectual history of Black scholar (John) Ida Jiggetts in her study of Yemenite Jewish integration efforts in Israel in the 1950s. I begin with a critical look into the scholarship that heavily influenced her: Zionist ethnography and anthropology. Jewish engagement in these fields, then dominated by race scientists, constructed Afro-Asian Jewry as a Black foil meant to highlight the normative whiteness of European Jews. The article then moves on to Jiggetts’s travel memoir, Israel to Me, in which she details her observations on intra-Jewish race relations, how she struggled to navigate race in Hebrew, and how her experiences in Israel pushed her to reflect on her own perceptions of race. Enacting a form of racial diplomacy, Jiggetts shaped Black American perspectives on Israel in the twentieth century as one Black community looked to another as a means of understanding the global color line. Navigating shifting interpellations of her own Blackness while observing the racialization of Mizrahi Israelis, her reflections on race in Israel sheds light on the transnational process of racecraft for those who share the experience of the color line.
This article explores why some leaders of the African-American Civil Rights Movement viewed Israe... more This article explores why some leaders of the African-American Civil Rights Movement viewed Israeli society favorably in comparison to the U.S. during the 1960s. I argue that African-American support for Israel was based on the impression that Jews from Africa and Asia (or Mizrahim) were integrated into Israeli society. Because of this, African-American leaders saw Israel as a society that could provide insights into how America could integrate the Black masses, particularly those migrating from the South to Northern States. Through ‘Holy Land Pilgrimage Tours’ civil rights leaders like Whitney Young Jr., James Farmer, and Martin Luther King Jr., Israeli and American Jewish institutions helped to forge the idea that the Mizrahim in Israel were parallel to the Black community in America. The supposed successful integration of Mizrahim in Israel were used to show that, despite all odds, Blacks could lift themselves up as a race from backwardness.
Talks by Bryan K Roby
Papers by Bryan K Roby
International Journal of Middle East Studies
In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism in the mid-1970s, the Arab League invited Mizrahi (... more In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism in the mid-1970s, the Arab League invited Mizrahi (Afro-Asian) Jews, especially those in Israel, to return to their homeland. Some Israelis used the invitation as an opportunity to highlight the extent of anti-Mizrahi discrimination by departing for the Arab world. Albeit small in number in comparison to those who left Israel for other destinations, those who repatriated made a huge impact on perceptions of Israeli emigres. Their importance rested not in their numbers but in the significant threat posed to the Israeli establishment. Afro-Asian Jewish repatriation sent a message that the Zionist project, particularly as the opposing nationalist movement to Pan-Arabism, was a failure.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2022
In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism, the Arab League invited Afro-Asian (Mizrahi) Jews ... more In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism, the Arab League invited Afro-Asian (Mizrahi) Jews to return to their homeland. Some Israelis used the invitation as an opportunity to highlight the extent of anti-Mizrahi discrimination by departing for the Arab World. Albeit small in comparison to those who left for other destinations, those who repatriated made a huge impact on perceptions of Israeli emigres. Their importance rested not in their numbers but in the significant threat posed to the Israeli establishment. Afro-Asian Jewish repatriation sent a message that the Zionist project, particularly as the opposing nationalist movement to Pan-Arabism, was a failure.
This article examines Afro-Asian Jewish repatriation to Morocco and Iraq from Israel in the mid-1970s. For historical context, I begin with a general overview of state-based responses to Jewish out-migrants to illustrate the difficulties faced by potential emigres. Then, I move on to several high-profile cases of Moroccan and Iraqi Jewish repatriates from Israel and the discourses surrounding their migration. I make use of government transcripts and reports; annual statistical reports; as well as the three most popular Israeli newspaper sources – Ma’ariv (Evening), Ha’aretz (The Land), and Davar (Word) – to understand the position of the Israeli state elite. To demonstrate the thinking, motivation, and concerns of out-migrants, I make use of interview transcripts from the Iraqi Jewish Archives. Examining Jewish repatriation to the Arab World as an act of transgressive migration, I argue for further complication and carefulness in the study of migration to and from Israel by focusing specifically on out-migration and what it tells us about the notion of Jewish homeland.
Jewish Social Studies 27:1, 2022
This article explores the intellectual history of Black scholar (John) Ida Jiggetts in her study ... more This article explores the intellectual history of Black scholar (John) Ida Jiggetts in her study of Yemenite Jewish integration efforts in Israel in the 1950s. I begin with a critical look into the scholarship that heavily influenced her: Zionist ethnography and anthropology. Jewish engagement in these fields, then dominated by race scientists, constructed Afro-Asian Jewry as a Black foil meant to highlight the normative whiteness of European Jews. The article then moves on to Jiggetts’s travel memoir, Israel to Me, in which she details her observations on intra-Jewish race relations, how she struggled to navigate race in Hebrew, and how her experiences in Israel pushed her to reflect on her own perceptions of race. Enacting a form of racial diplomacy, Jiggetts shaped Black American perspectives on Israel in the twentieth century as one Black community looked to another as a means of understanding the global color line. Navigating shifting interpellations of her own Blackness while observing the racialization of Mizrahi Israelis, her reflections on race in Israel sheds light on the transnational process of racecraft for those who share the experience of the color line.
This article explores why some leaders of the African-American Civil Rights Movement viewed Israe... more This article explores why some leaders of the African-American Civil Rights Movement viewed Israeli society favorably in comparison to the U.S. during the 1960s. I argue that African-American support for Israel was based on the impression that Jews from Africa and Asia (or Mizrahim) were integrated into Israeli society. Because of this, African-American leaders saw Israel as a society that could provide insights into how America could integrate the Black masses, particularly those migrating from the South to Northern States. Through ‘Holy Land Pilgrimage Tours’ civil rights leaders like Whitney Young Jr., James Farmer, and Martin Luther King Jr., Israeli and American Jewish institutions helped to forge the idea that the Mizrahim in Israel were parallel to the Black community in America. The supposed successful integration of Mizrahim in Israel were used to show that, despite all odds, Blacks could lift themselves up as a race from backwardness.
International Journal of Middle East Studies
In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism in the mid-1970s, the Arab League invited Mizrahi (... more In the wake of Israeli Black Panther activism in the mid-1970s, the Arab League invited Mizrahi (Afro-Asian) Jews, especially those in Israel, to return to their homeland. Some Israelis used the invitation as an opportunity to highlight the extent of anti-Mizrahi discrimination by departing for the Arab world. Albeit small in number in comparison to those who left Israel for other destinations, those who repatriated made a huge impact on perceptions of Israeli emigres. Their importance rested not in their numbers but in the significant threat posed to the Israeli establishment. Afro-Asian Jewish repatriation sent a message that the Zionist project, particularly as the opposing nationalist movement to Pan-Arabism, was a failure.
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies