"I Am an Arab Jew” with Sami Chetrit
November 8, 2020
Northwestern was honored to host Professor Sami Shalom Chetrit for a fascinating talk, entitled "I am an Arab Jew". Chetrit reviewed how in the newly established state of Israel in the 50s and 60s of the previous century Jewish immigrants from Arab countries were met with hostility and degradation by the majority of Israeli society. He also portrayed the identity conflicts these immigrants encountered, and the ways the Arab-Jewish identity is still a complex model in modern Israel, though much more present and expressed in recent years by poets, philosophers, and artists in the Israeli cultural space.
Chetrit chairs the School of Audio and Visual Arts in Sapir College, Israel. He is a renowned poet, a filmmaker, and an author of novels and essay books. He was born in Morocco and grew up in Israel. In his writing, he examines the rich Jewish-Arab history, culture, and conflicts.