Hillel Appeals to Sephardim to Become More Active in Jewish Life

An appeal to the newly established American Sephardic Federation, as part of the World Sephardi Federation, to take an active and leading role in American Jewish community life and in American Jewish organizations so that Israel can reduce the social gap between Sephardim and Ashkenazim, was made here last night by Israel Minister of Police Shlomo Hillel, himself a Sephardic Jew.

He told Sephardic Jews attending the founding convention at Congregation Shearith Israel that if American Sephardim want to help their brethren in Israel they have to be more involved in American Jewish life, and more involved in the Israeli efforts to solve its social problems. Hillel said that “the social problem in Israel is considered by Israel and the Israeli people the major national target. To try and achieve the narrowing of the social gap while at the same time advancing the country as a whole is the aim of Israel.”

Before the State of Israel, 80 to 90 percent were non-Sephardim. But after the State, as of today, about 60 percent of the population is Sephardic, he noted. “Most of the new immigrants did not have the possibility to start from the same starting point as those who were in Israel before 1948 in such areas as housing, education and employment. The newcomers had to make a larger effort to catch up to the established Ashkenazi community in Israel.”

According to Hillel, Israel faces a social problem because it had to deal simultaneously with problems such as security, economic problems and immediate absorption. “We are actually still dragging the mortgage and the burden of that period in which we could not postpone immigration and couldn’t give enough resources to adequately absorb the immigration,” he asserted.

WILL AID SEPHARDIM IN ISRAEL

At an earlier session, Prof. Daniel Elazar, who was elected president of the American Sephardic Federation, noted that “in Israel, while there is no conscious desire to discriminate against Sephardim, Ashkenazim do discriminate because Ashkenazim assume that Sephardim are backward and that there is a lack of talent. But the same Sephardic Jew from North Africa who in Israel is at the bottom of the barrel, in France has risen to heights in the academic and intellectual communities and is highly educated. It is all a matter of educational opportunity.”

Therefore, he said, one project of the new Federation as part of the World Sephardi Federation, would be to build an educational complex in Jerusalem to serve Sephardic needs. The complex will involve the expansion of an existing high school and rabbinical college and the building of a new Institute for Sephardic studies.

On the American scene, the Federation will work to advance a living Sephardic culture through Sephardic cultural festivals, academic forums, and research projects. Prof. Elazar declared that the American Sephardic Federation will “take a responsible approach toward encouraging greater support for Israel and for the amelioration of the condition of all Israelis suffering under poverty.” There are more than 100,000 Sephardim in the U.S., it was reported at the conference.