LEVANTE
Connected to British colonialism, and other European countries’ colonialism. It is how Eastern and Western cultures are mingled in the culture of the colonized, Eastern people. My father was an example of a Levantine: a Sephardic Jew who spent his childhood under the imperialist rule of the Ottomans: to live in Salonica those days was very local on one side, and very cosmopolitan, on the other side. His primary school was an Italian one, and in another school he learned French language and culture. (He loved Molliere very much). After coming to Palestina-Eretz-Yisrael, he learned Hebrew and English. During his life he used to read books in French and English.
Since childhood, he played the violin and reached a high level of accomplishment. As a child I grew up with the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc. For me this music was part of being a Sephardic Jewish girl in Eretz-Yisrael. My grandfather from my mother’s side used to sing prayers with oriental melodies on the Sabbath and during feasts. It means that the Levantine culture is a mix-up of eastern and western cultures, and it seems that it is more adopted by middle and upper classes (because their double-bind role in the colonial situation as being occupied and occupiers at the same time).
The woman that opened this issue in Israel was Jacqline Cahanov, a Mizrahi woman born in Cairo, who came to Israel in the sixties of the 20th century. She wrote in English but has been translated into Hebrew. The Levantine identity is an important resource in the study of Euro-Colonialism, and Orientalism.
Esther Eillam / one of the founding mothers of the feminist movement in Israel
