“ My Abba died when I was 20 so I don’t remember everything of his experiences. My Abba and his family moved to Israel during the revolution. They lost everything, their business, their security. They didn’t go to Israel first though- they went to multiple MENA countries where they had to hide their identity. That’s a whole other long story though.
When my Abba was growing up he was constantly bullied for being “Arab”. He physically got beat up all the time. My Sabba was the only who spoke Arabic. So, the language divide made everything worse. He always spoke on feeling unintelligent. Everyone lived in tents with nothing. Ashkenazim literally treated them less than. The moment Israelis even when I grew realize that we are Persian - we were/are (that I don’t know since if it’s changed), we were treated like we don’t belong, especially by Ashkenazim.
When I was growing up in Israel, we were very poor. My Abba was constantly rejected from job opportunities. I can’t count the times my Sabba and Savta had to rescue us financially. He would be over qualified for positions and still wouldn’t get them. When he did get positions, he was under paid and the whole time he would be mocked at work. He got a job offer in America that made it where we could survive without fear of when we could eat. “
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