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Ashley Perry

Ashley Perry is an adviser to the Middle East Forum’s Israel office. He served as an adviser to Israel’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister from 2009 to 2015. He is president of Reconectar, an organization dedicated to relinking the more than 200 million descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews to Israel and Jewish life. Originally from the United Kingdom, he moved to Israel in 2001.

Unfortunately, this history—the forced exodus of Jews who, along with their descendants, constitute the majority of Jews in Israel—is barely studied, mostly ignored and seemingly of little interest to the general population and even to Diaspora Jewry.
The debate over what to eat or not eat (the “kitniyot” debate) can serve to divide us, but that would be missing the point of the holiday.
It is rare that a week passes without a new initiative in the Jewish world to promote pluralism and diversity. However, what is almost always missing, with very few exceptions, is a voice from outside the Ashkenazi world.
While deciding on the title for this blog, we were keenly aware of the use of terminology and its sometimes confusing and divisive role. How are non-Ashkenazi Jews to be referred to? We encompass such a variety of backgrounds, cultures, languages and traditions, it is almost impossible to find a word that encapsulates all these disparate groups.