The Conditions for Creating the Varying Image of Middle Eastern and North African Jews in Israel in the 1950s The Case of Michael Simon

This article examines the personal diary of Dr. Michael Simon, the first chief of protocol for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that he wrote in April 1955 during his visit to Morocco. The diary raises questions about the beliefs, perceptions, stances, and images that prevailed among European Jews in Israel vis-à-vis Middle Eastern and North African Jews during the first decade of the State of Israel’s existence. I propose that Simon’s outlook on Moroccan Jewry was complex, integrative, and free of stereotypes. Analyzing Simon’s case enables an exploration of the conditions that informed his views of Morocco’s Jews, conditions that were manifested in different ways by most of the Israelis of European heritage whose writings dealt with Middle East and North Africa Jews and their descendants in Israel.