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gothhabiba · 6 months

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loving your falafel research saga and just wanted to ask - something I remember hearing about falafel is that while Israeli culture definitely appropriated it, the concept of serving it in pita bread with salads, tahini etc. is a specifically Israeli twist on the dish. I wonder if you found/know anything about that?

The short answer is: it's not impossible, but I don't think there's any way to tell for sure. The long answer is:

The most prominent claim I've heard of this nature is specifically that Yemeni Jews (who had immigrated to Israel under 'right of return' laws and were Israeli citizens) invented the concept of serving falafel in "pita" bread in the 1930s—perhaps after they (in addition to Jews from Morocco or Syria) had brought falafel over and introduced it to Palestinians in the first place.

"Mizrahim brought falafel to Palestine"

This latter claim, which is purely nonsense (again... no such thing as Moroccan falafel!)—and which Joel Denker (linked above) repeats with no source or evidence—was able to arise because it was often Mizrahim who introduced Israelis to Palestinian food. Mizrahi falafel sellers in the early 20th century might run licensed falafel stands, or carry tins full of hot falafel on their backs and go from door to door selling them (see Shaul Stampfer on a Yemeni man doing this, "Bagel and Falafel: Two Iconic Jewish Foods and One Modern Jewish Identity," in Jews and their Foodways, p. 183; this Arabic source mentions a 1985 Arabic novel in which a falafel seller uses such a tin; Yael Raviv writes that "Running falafel stands had been popular with Yemenite immigrants to Palestine as early as the 1920s and ’30s," "Falafel: A National Icon," Gastronomica 3.3 (2003), p. 22).

On Mizrahi preparation of Palestinian food, Dafna Hirsch writes:

As Sami Zubaida notes, Middle Eastern foodways, while far from homogeneous, are nevertheless describable in a vocabulary and set of idioms that are “often comprehensible, if not familiar, to the socially diverse parties” [...]. Thus, for the Jews who arrived in Palestine from the Middle East, Palestinian Arab foods and foodways were “comprehensible, if not familiar,” even if some of the dishes were previously unknown to most of them. [...] They found nothing extraordinary or exotic in the consumption, preparation, and selling of foods from the Palestinian Arab kitchen. Therefore, it was often Mizrahi Jews who mediated local foods to Ashkenazi consumers, as street food vendors and restaurant owners. ("Urban Food Venues as Contact Zones between Arabs and Jews during the British Mandate Period," in Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean, p. 101).

Raviv concurs and furnishes a possible mechanism for this borrowing:

Other Mizrahi Jewish vendors sold falafel, which by the late 1930s had become quite prevalent and popular on the streets of Tel Aviv. [...] Tel Aviv had eight licensed Mizrahi falafel vendors by 1941 and others who sold falafel without a license. [FN: The Tel Aviv municipality granted vending license to people who could not make their living in any other way as a form of welfare.] Many of the vendors were of Yemenite origins, although falafel was unknown in Yemen. [FN: Many of the immigrants from Yemen arrived in Palestine via Egypt, so it is possible that they learned to prepare it there and then adjusted the recipe to the Palestinian version, which was made from chickpeas and not from fava beans (ṭaʿmiya). Shmuel Yefet, an Israeli falafel maker, tells about his father, Yosef Ben Aharon Yefet, who arrived in Palestine from Aden [Yemen] in the early 1920s and then traveled to Port Said in 1939. There he became acquainted with ṭaʿmiya, learned to prepare it, and then went back to Palestine and opened a falafel shop in Tel Aviv [youtube video].]*

But why claim that Yemeni Jews invented falafel (or at least that they had introduced it from Yemen), even though its adoption from Palestinian Arabs in the early days of the second Aliya, aka the 1920s (before Mizrahim had begun to immigrate in larger numbers; see Raviv, p. 20) was within living memory at this point (i.e. the 1950s)? Raviv notes that an increasing (I mean, actually she says new, which... lol) negative attitude towards Arabs in the wake of the Nakba (I mean... she says "War of Independence") created a new sense of urgency around de-Arabizing "Israeli" culture (p. 22). Its association with Mizrahi sellers allowed falafel to "be linked to Jewish immigrants who had come from the Middle East and Africa" and thus to "shed its Arab association in favor of an overarching Israeli identification" (p. 21).

Stampfer again:

On the one hand (with regard to immigrants from Eastern Europe), [falafel] underscored the break between immediate past East European Jewish foods and the new “Oriental” world of Eretz Israel.** At the same time, this food could be seen as a link with an (idealized) past. Among the Jewish public in Eretz Israel, Yemenite falafel was regarded as the most original and tastiest version. This is a bit odd, as falafel—whether in or out of a pita—was not a traditional Yemenite food, neither among Muslims nor among Jews. To understand the ascription of falafel to Yemenite Jews, it is necessary to consider their image. Yemenite Jews were widely regarded in the mid-20th century as the most faithful transmitters of a form of Jewish life that was closest to the biblical world—and if not the biblical world, at least the world of the Second Temple, which marked the last period of autonomous Jewish life in Eretz Israel. In this sense, eating “Yemenite” could be regarded as an act of bodily identification with the Zionist claim to the land of Israel. (p. 189)

So, when it's undeniable that a food is "Arab" or "Oriental" in origin, Zionists will often attribute it to Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Turkey, &c.—and especially to Jewish communities within these regions—because it cannot be permitted that Palestinians have a specific culture that differentiates them in any way from other "Arabs." A culinary culture based in the foodstuffs cultivated from this particular area of land would mean a tie and a claim to the land, which Zionist logic cannot allow Palestinians to possess. This is why you'll hear Zionists correct people who say "Palestinians" to say "Arab" instead, or suggest that Palestinians should just scooch over into other "Arab" countries because it would make no difference to them. Raviv's conclusion that the attribution of falafel to Yemeni immigrants is an effort to detach it from its "Arab" origins isn't quite right—it is an attempt to detach it, and thus Palestinians themselves, from Palestinian roots.

"Yemeni Jews first put falafel in 'pita'"

As for this claim, it's often attributed to Gil Marks: "Jews didn’t invent falafel. They didn’t invent hummus. They didn’t invent pita. But what they did invent was the sandwich. Putting it all together.” (Hilariously, the author of the interview follows this up with "With each story, I wanted to ask, but how do you know that?")

Another author (signed "Philologos") speculates (after, by the way, falsely claiming that "falafel" is the plural of the Arabic "filfil" "pepper," and that falafel is always brown, not green, inside?!):

Yet while falafel balls are undoubtedly Arab in origin, too, it may well be that the idea of serving them as a street-corner food in pita bread, to which all kinds of extras can be added, ranging from sour pickles to whole salads, initially was a product of Jewish entrepreneurship.

Shaul Stampfer cites both of these articles as further reading on the "novelty of the combination of pita, falafel balls, and salad" (FN 76, p. 198)—but neither of them cites any evidence! They're both just some guy saying something!

Marks had, however, elaborated a little bit in his 2010 Encyclopedia of Jewish Food:

Falafel was enjoyed in salads as part of a mezze (appetizer assortment) or as a snack by itself. An early Middle Eastern fast food, falafel was commonly sold wrapped in paper, but not served in the familiar pita sandwich until Yemenites in Israel introduced the concept. [...] Yemenite immigrants in Israel, who had made a chickpea version in Yemen, took up falafel making as a business and transformed this ancient treat into the Israeli iconic national food. Most importantly, Israelis wanted a portable fast food and began eating the falafel tucked into a pita topped with the ubiquitous Israeli salad (cucumber-and-tomato salad).

He references one of the pieces that Lillian Cornfeld (columnist for the English-language, Jerusalem-based newspaper Palestine Post) wrote about "filafel":

An article from October 19, 1939 concluded with a description of the common preparation style of the most popular street food, 'There is first half a pita (Arab loaf), slit open and filled with five filafels, a few fried chips and sometimes even a little salad,' the first written record of serving falafel in pita. [Marks doesn't tell you the title or page—it's "Seaside Temptations: Juveniles' Fare at Tel Aviv," p. 4.]

You will first of all notice that Marks gives us the "falafel from Yemen" story. I also notice that he calls Salat al-bundura "Israeli salad" (in its entry he does not claim that European Jewish immigrants invented it, but neither does he attribute it to Palestinian influence: the dish was originally "Turkish coban salatsi"). His encyclopedia also elsewhere contains Zionist claims such as "wild za'atar was declared a protected plant in Israel" "[d]ue to overexploitation" because of how much of the plant "Arab families consume[d]," and that Israeli cultivation of the crop yielded "superior" plants (entry for "Za'atar")—a narrative of "Arab" mismanagement, and Israeli improvement, of land used to justify settler-colonialism. He writes that Palestinians who accuse "the Jews" of theft in claiming falafel are "creat[ing] a controversy" and that "food and culture cannot be stolen," with no reflection on the context of settler-colonialism and literal, physical theft that lies behind said "controversy." This isn't relevant except that it makes me sceptical of Marks's motivations in general.

More pertinent is the fact that this quote doesn't actually suggest that this falafel vendor was Yemeni (or otherwise) Jewish, nor does it suggest that he was the first one to prepare falafel in pitas with "fried chips," "sometimes even a little salad," and "Tehina, a local mayonnaise made with sesame oil" (Cornfeld, p. 4). I think it likely that this food had been sold for a while before it was described in published writing. The idea that this preparation is "Israeli" in origin must be false, since this was before the state of "Israel" existed—that it was first created by Yemeni Jewish falafel vendors is possible, but again, I've never seen any direct evidence for it, or anyone giving a clear reason for why they believe it to be the case, and the political reasons that people have for believing this narrative make me wary of it. There were Palestinian Arab falafel vendors at this time as well.

"Chickpea falafel is a Jewish invention"

There is also a claim that falafel originated in Egypt, where it was made with fava beans; spread to the Levant, including Palestine, where it was made with a combination of fava beans and chickpeas; but that Jewish immigration to Israel caused the origin of the chickpea-only falafal currently eaten in Palestine, because a lot of Jewish people have G6PD deficiencies or favism (inherited enzymatic deficiencies making fava beans anywhere from unpleasant to dangerous to eat)—or that Jewish populations in Yemen had already been making chickpea-only falafel, and this was the falafel which they brought with them to Palestine.

As far as I can tell, this claim comes from Joan Nathan's 2001 The Foods of Israel:

Zadok explained that at the time of the establishment of the state, falafel—the name of which probably comes from the word pilpel (pepper)—was made in two ways: either as it is in Egypt today, from crushed, soaked fava beans or fava beans combined with chickpeas, spices, and bulgur; or, as Yemenite Jews and the Arabs of Jerusalem did, from chickpeas alone. But favism, an inherited enzymatic deficiency occurring among some Jews—mainly those of Kurdish and Iraqi ancestry, many of whom came to Israel during the mid 1900s—proved potentially lethal, so all falafel makers in Israel ultimately stopped using fava beans, and chickpea falafel became an Israeli dish.

Gil Marks's 2010 Encyclopedia of Jewish Food echoes (but does not cite):

Middle Eastern Jews have been eating falafel for centuries, the pareve fritter being ideal in a kosher diet. However, many Jews inherited G6PD deficiency or its more severe form, favism; these hereditary enzymatic deficiencies are triggered by items like fava beans and can prove fatal. Accordingly, Middle Eastern Jews overwhelmingly favored chickpeas solo in their falafel. (Entry for "Falafel")

The "centuries" thing is consistent with the fact that Marks believes falafel to be of Medieval origin, a claim which most scholars I've read on the subject don't believe (no documentary evidence, + oil was expensive so it seems unlikely that people were deep frying anything). And, again, this claim is speculation with no documentary evidence to support it.

As for the specific modern toppings including the Yemeni hot sauce سَحاوِق / סְחוּג (saHawiq / "zhug"), Baghdadi mango pickle عنبة / עמבה ('anba), and Moroccan هريسة / חריסה ("harissa"), it seems likely that these were introduced by Mizrahim given their place of origin.

*You might be interested to know that, despite their Jewishness mediating this borrowing, Mizrahim were during the Mandate years largely ethnically segregated from Eastern European Zionists, who were pushing to create a "new" European-Israeli Judaism separate from what they viewed as the indolence and ignorance of "Oriental" Jewishness (Hirsch p. 101).

This was evidenced in part by Europeans' attitudes towards the "Oriental" diet. Ari Ariel, summarizing Yael Raviv's Falafel Nation, writes:

Although all immigrants were thought to require culinary education as an aspect of their absorption into the new national culture, Middle Eastern Jews, who began to immigrate in increasing numbers after 1948, provoked greater anxiety on the part of the state than did their Ashkenazi co-religionists. Israeli politicians and ideologues spoke of the dangers of Levantization and stereotyped Jews from the Middle East and North Africa as primitive, lazy, and ignorant. In keeping with this Orientalism, the state pressured Middle Easterners to change their foodways and organized cooking demonstrations in transit camps and new housing developments. (Book review, Israel Studies Review 31.2 (2016), p. 169.)

See also Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, "Longing for the Aromas of Baghdad: Food, Emigration, and Transformation in the Lives of Iraqi Jews in Israel in the 1950s," in Jews and their Foodways:

[...] [T]he Israeli establishment was set on “educating” the new immigrants not only in matters of health and hygiene, [77] but also in the realm of nutrition. A concerted propaganda effort was launched by well-baby clinics, kindergartens, schools, health clinics, and various organizations such as the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and the Organization of Working Mothers in order to promote the consumption of milk and dairy products, in particular. [78] (These had a marginal place in Iraqi cuisine, consumed mainly by children.) Arab and North African cuisines were criticized for being not sufficiently nutritious, whereas the Israeli diet was touted as ideal, as it was western and modern. […] [T]he assault on traditional Middle Eastern cuisines reflected cultural arrogance yet another attempt to transform immigrants into “new Jews” in accordance with the Zionist ethos. Thus, European table manners were presented as the norm. Eating with the hands was equated with primitive behavior, and use of a fork and knife became the hallmark of modernity and progress. (pp. 100-101)

[77. On health matters, see Davidovich and Shvarts, “Health and Hegemony,” 150–179; Sahlav Stoller-Liss, “ ‘Mothers Birth the Nation’: The Social Construction of Zionist Motherhood in Wartime in Israeli Parents’ Manuals,” Nashim 6 (Fall 2003), 104–118.]

[78. On propaganda for drinking milk and eating dairy products, see Mor Dvorkin, “Mif’alei hahazanah haḥinukhit bishnot ha’aliyah hagedolah: mekorot umeafyenim” (seminar paper, Ben-Gurion University, 2010).]

**On the desire to shed "old, European" "Jewish" identity and take on a "new, Oriental" "Hebrew" one, and the contradictory impulses to use Palestinian Arabs as models in this endeavour and to claim that they needed to be "corrected," see:

Itamar Even-Zohar, "The Emergence of a Native Hebrew Culture in Palestine, 1882—1948"

Dafna Hirsch, "We Are Here to Bring the West, Not Only to Ourselves": Zionist Occidentalism and the Discourse of Hygiene in Mandate Palestine"

Ofra Tene, "'The New Immigrant Must Not Only Learn, He Must Also Forget': The Making of Eretz Israeli Ashkenazi Cuisine."

#sorry for this but you should've known better than to ask me about falafel at this stage in my life #falafel research saga

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yhwhrulz · 4 months

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neriyahuybettebatyah · 7 months

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🍷Shabbat Shalum🍞

(Versión Natzarena)

📜Génesis/Bereshit 6:9-22

Parashah 2: Noah/Noach (Noé) Bereshit 6:9-11:32 Y éstas son las generaciones de Noaj. Noaj era un hombre recto y siendo perfecto en su generación, Noaj era bien placentero a YHWH.

[10]Noaj engendró tres hijos, Shem, Ham, y Yefet.

[11]La tierra estaba corrompida ante YHWH, la tierra estaba llena de violencia.

[12]YHWH tzebaot vio la tierra, y estaba corrompida; porque toda carne había corrompido su camino sobre la tierra.

[13]Y YHWH dijo a Noaj: "El tiempo de todo hombre ha venido ante mí, pues a causa de ellos la tierra está llena de iniquidad. Yo los destruiré a ellos y a la tierra.

[14]Hazte un arca de madera cuadrada; harás el arca con compartimientos y la cubrirás con brea por dentro y por fuera.

[15]Aquí está como la harás; el largo del arca será de 450 pies, su ancho setenta y cinco pies y su altura cuarenta y cinco pies.

[16]Estrecharás el arca cuando la estés haciendo, y en un cubito hacia arriba tú la terminarás. Pon una puerta a su lado, y la edificarás con piso de abajo, segundo y tercero la harás.

[17]"Entonces Yo mismo traeré la inundación de agua sobre la tierra para destruir de debajo del cielo toda cosa viviente que respira; todo en la tierra será destruido.

[18]Pero Yo estableceré un Pacto contigo; tú entrarás dentro del arca, tú, tus hijos, tu esposa y las esposas de tus hijos contigo.

[19]"Y de todo ganado y de todas las cosas que se arrastran y de toda bestia salvaje, aun de toda carne tú traerás por pares de todos, dentro del arca, para que puedas alimentarlos contigo; ellos serán macho y hembra.

[20]De cada clase de criatura que vuela, cada clase de animal de crianza, en cada clase de animal que se arrastra en la tierra, por parejas vendrán a ti, para que puedan mantenerse vivos.

[21]También toma de todas las clases de alimento, y recógelas para ti; será alimento para ti y para ellos."

[22]Esto es lo que Noaj hizo; él hizo todo lo que YHWH tzebaot le ordenó.

Génesis/Bereshit 7:1-24

[1]YHWH dijo a Noaj: "Entra en el arca, tú y toda tu familia; porque Yo he visto que tú en esta generación eres justo delante de mí.

[2]De todo animal limpio tomarás siete parejas, y de los animales inmundos, una pareja;

[3]y de las criaturas limpias que vuelan del cielo, por sietes, macho y hembra; y de las criaturas inmundas que vuelan, por pares, macho y hembra, para mantener zera en toda la tierra.

[4]Porque en siete días más Yo causaré que llueva sobre la tierra por cuarenta días y cuarenta noches; Yo raeré de la tierra a todo ser viviente que Yo he hecho."

[5]Noaj hizo todo lo que YHWH le ordenó hacer.

[6]Noaj tenía 600 años de edad cuando el agua inundó la tierra.

[7]Noaj entró en el arca con sus hijos, su esposa y las esposas de sus hijos, a causa de las aguas de inundación.

[8]De las criaturas limpias que vuelan, y del ganado limpio y del ganado inmundo, y de todas las cosas que se arrastran en la tierra,

[9]entraron y fueron a Noaj en el arca, como YHWH había ordenado a Noaj.

[10]Después de siete días el agua inundó la tierra.

[11]En el vigésimo séptimo día del segundo mes de los 600 años de la vida de Noaj todas las fuentes del gran abismo fueron rotas, y las ventanas del cielo fueron abiertas.

[12]Llovió en la tierra por cuarenta días y cuarenta noches.

[13]En el mismo día que Noaj entró en el arca con Shem, Ham y Yefet, los hijos de Noaj, la esposa de Noaj y las tres esposas de los hijos de Noaj que los acompañaban;

[14]y de toda bestia salvaje por su especie, todo animal de cría de todas las especies, toda cosa que se arrastra por la tierra de todas las especies, y toda criatura que vuela por su especie.

[15]Ellos entraron y fueron a Noaj en el arca, parejas de toda clase, toda carne, en los cuales hay aliento de vida, como YHWH ordenó a Noaj.

[16]Aquellos que entraron, macho y hembra, de toda carne como YHWH le había ordenado; y YA

YHWH los encerró adentro.

[17]La inundación estuvo cuarenta días en la tierra; el agua creció muy alto e hizo flotar el arca; así que fue levantada de la tierra.

[18]El agua inundó la tierra y creció más honda, hasta que el arca flotaba en la superficie del agua.

[19]El agua sobrecogió la tierra con gran fortaleza; todas las montañas debajo del cielo fueron cubiertas;

[20]el agua cubrió las montañas por más de veintidós pies y medio.

[21]Todos los seres que se movían en la tierra perecieron - criaturas que vuelan, animales de crianza, otros animales, insectos, y todo ser humano,

[22]todas las cosas que tienen aliento de vida; cualquier cosa que había en tierra seca murió.

[23]El borró a todo ser viviente de la faz de la tierra - no sólo seres humanos, sino animales de crianza, animales que se arrastran y criaturas que vuelan. Ellos fueron raídos de la tierra; solamente Noaj fue dejado, junto con aquellos que estaban con él en el arca.

[24]El agua retuvo su poder sobre la tierra por 150 días.

Génesis/Bereshit 8:1-22

[1]Y YHWH se acordó de Noaj, de toda bestia salvaje y todo animal de crianza, y todas las criaturas que vuelan, y todas las cosas que se arrastran, tantas como había con él en el arca, y YHWH causó un viento pasar por sobre la tierra, y el agua se quedó.

[2]También las fuentes del abismo y las ventanas del cielo fueron cerradas, la lluvia del cielo fue restringida,

[3]y el agua regresó de completamente cubrir la tierra. Fue después de 150 días que el agua bajó.

[4]En el vigésimo séptimo día del séptimo mes el arca vino a reposar en las montañas del Ararat

[5]El agua siguió bajando hasta el décimo mes; en el primer día del décimo mes las cumbres de las montañas fueron vistas.

[6]Después de cuarenta días Noaj abrió la ventana del arca que él había edificado;

[7]y envió afuera al cuervo para ver si el agua había cesado, el cual voló y no regresó hasta que el agua fue seca de la tierra.

[8]Luego él envió una paloma para ver si el agua se había ido de la superficie de la tierra.

[9]Pero la paloma no encontró lugar para que sus patas descansaran, así que ella regresó a él en el arca, porque el agua todavía cubría la tierra. El la puso en sus manos, la tomó y la trajo a él en el arca.

[10]Esperó otros siete días y de nuevo envió la paloma desde el arca.

[11]La paloma vino a él al anochecer, y allí en su pico había una hoja de olivo, una ramita en su boca, así que Noaj supo que el agua había cesado de sobre la tierra.

[12]El esperó aún otros siete días y envió la paloma, y ella no regresó más a él.

[13]Para el primer día del primer mes del año 601 de la vida de Noaj el agua había menguado de la tierra; y Noaj removió la cubierta del arca cual él había hecho, y vio que el agua había menguado de la faz de la tierra.

[14]Fue en el vigésimo séptimo día del segundo mes que la tierra estaba seca.

[15]Y YHWH habló a Noaj, diciendo:

[16]"Salgan del arca, tú, tu esposa, tus hijos y las esposas de tus hijos contigo.

[17]Traigan con ustedes toda carne que tienen con ustedes - criaturas que vuelan, animales de crianza, y toda cosa que se arrastra en la tierra - para que ellos puedan proliferar en la tierra, ser fructíferos y multiplicarse en la tierra."

[18]Así que Noaj salió con sus hijos, su esposa y las esposas de sus hijos,

[19]todos los animales, toda cosa que se arrastra y toda criatura que vuela, lo que se moviera en la tierra, conforme a sus familias, salieron del arca.

[20]Noaj edificó un altar a YHWH. Entonces tomó de todo animal limpio y de toda criatura que vuela limpia, y ofreció ofrendas quemadas en el altar.

[21]YHWH olió el aroma dulce, y YHWH consideró, y dijo: "Yo nunca jamás maldeciré la tierra a causa de los hombres, puesto que las imaginaciones del corazón de la persona son torcidas desde su juventud; Yo no destruiré jamás toda criatura viviente como he hecho.

[22]Todos los días de la tierra, no cesará el tiempo de la siembra y de la cosecha, frío y calor, verano y primavera, y día y noche."