Paper short abstract:

To understand the Mizrachi women of my study, I must comprehend the systems of relations that made me an Ashkenazi woman. I offer an ethnic auto-biography with reference to Mizrachiyut’s fixed presence within it, as an attempt to answer 'How did I become an Ashkenazi woman?'

Paper long abstract:

During my work with women from the Gur Hasidic community (Ultra orthodox Jewish sect, El-Or 1994), my Ashkenazi (Jews of Europian origin) ethnicity was something I shared with them, connecting my family history with those of the women I studied. I was not religious, but I was an Ashkenazi woman with a family tree that included some Hasidim. When I worked with Zionist religious women (El-Or 2000), my ethnicity was unimportant, because, in that group, nationalism trumps ethnicity. Unlike them, I was not religious, nor was I right-wing in my politics, but both my subjects and I were Israelis.

Studying Mizrachi (Jews of Arab countries origin), orthodox women (El-Or 2006) leaves me with very few assets. Economics, culture, family history, and current politics place innumerable barriers between me and my subjects. Any sociological parameter I might choose will place me and them on opposite sides and define the interaction between us as principally a relationship of power.

Therefore, to understand the Mizrachi women of my study, I must comprehend the systems of relations that made me an Ashkenazi woman. Such relationships are much more significant influences on my ethnic identity than that overly simplistic definition, "country of father’s birth,"? that demographers use to categorize Israelis. To answer the question "How did I become an Ashkenazi woman?"?, I must describe my Ashkenazi biography with reference to Mizrachiyut’s fixed presence within it. I will accomplish this by using my own professional tool — ethnography. In this case, it is auto-ethnography — an ethnic autobiography.