Who Is a Sephardi?

Labor Zionist David Ben-Gurion was the dominant political figure in the Yishuv (the Jewish settlement in pre-state Israel) during the 1930s and 1940s and in the State of Israel for its first two decades. Born David Grin in Płońsk (now part of Poland) to a Zionist family—his father was very active in the proto-Zionist organization Ḥoveve Zion (“Lovers of Zion”)—he attended traditional and reformed heders, and by age fourteen he was teaching Hebrew as part of Ezra, the Zionist youth club he cofounded in 1899/1900. In 1904, Ben-Gurion moved to Warsaw and became active in the Po‘ale Zion (“Workers of Zion”) movement, often organizing against the Jewish socialist Bund. He immigrated to Palestine in 1906 and found work as a teacher, farmer, and contributor to Ha-Aḥdut. He changed his name to Ben-Gurion in 1910. As he became more central to Zionist leadership in Palestine, he came to privilege the nationalist side of his political outlook while his Marxist socialism became increasingly moderate. Ben-Gurion was instrumental in forging the political power of the organized labor movement and in making Mapai the main political party in the Yishuv. He served as the Histadrut’s secretary general (1921–1935) and as chair of the Jewish Agency (1935–1948) before his election as the first prime minister of the new State of Israel in 1948. He held that office from 1948 to 1953 and from 1955 to 1963.

The Jerusalem-born Elie Eliachar (alternately, Eliahu Elisar) spent decades advocating for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, demanding inclusion, respect, and the preservation of their culture. Eliachar descended from scholars and rabbis, and was nothing if not outspoken. Early in life, he studied law and medicine, but it was in politics and letters that he made his mark, serving in the Knesset, editing a newspaper (Echo of the Orient), and helping to found the World Sephardi Federation. In the 1970s, Eliachar turned to academia, creating a research center focusing on Sephardi and oriental Jewry. To his death, he remained one of their loudest, fiercest champions, insisting on their place at the center, not the margins, of Israeli society.