Seeing our pain, meeting it and allowing it to return to divinity is a critical component of activism. It is with this frame that I want to share my perspective on Mizrahi Jewish trauma in hopes that it will be in service to the wider conversation of collective healing. I do not claim to speak for all Mizrahi Jews, only for myself and for what I have witnessed in my body, my family, my community.

I periodically give talks connected to my book about internalized anti-Semitism and I facilitate “Dare to be Powerful” workshops, about working through internalized oppression to empower our activist leadership. I used an earlier version of this map in my January 2020 workshop and I’m excited about using it often in the future, to give folks this valuable tool for our healing and empowerment.

Growing up as post-Soviet Jewish immigrants on Turtle Island (the U.S.), we often felt not Jewish enough, not American enough, and sometimes not even Soviet enough. We internalized this on an individual level, never feeling fully accepted into any space and often feeling the need to conform for safety and belonging – key elements of internalized anti-Semitism highlighted in this map. Though our experience in American Jewish spaces has increased our access to opportunities, the need to straddle multiple worlds and the pressure to adapt to a dominant version of Jewishness has kept us from showing up as our full selves.