Authenticity, identity and the politics of belonging: Sephardic Jews from North Africa and India within the Toronto Jewish community

This study explores racial, ethnic and cultural identity and the construction of community boundaries in relation to the concept of authenticity. The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of authenticity, and how it serves as the basis of inclusion or exclusion within racial, ethnic and religious communities. This research explores how who holds power can be used to marginalize and exclude members of diverse (non-hegemonic) identities within communities. While I am using the example of the Toronto Jewish community, the theoretical content and application of this specific case study sheds light on how the problem of authenticity is relevant to other racial, ethnic and religious communities, not only in the Toronto and Canadian context, but globally.This research destabilizes the notions of Jewish identity and Jewish community as absolute and unified categories. I show that it is misleading and inadequate to speak of a singular Jewish identity, history or culture because of the many ways of living Jewish identity in a variety of historical, social, political, economic and geographic contexts. I argue that the ways in which the notion of an authentic Jewish identity is used operates to marginalize diverse (Sephardic) Jewish identities within community boundaries, and explore how North African and Indian Jewish identities are rendered inauthentic.This dissertation focuses on two particular case studies: (1) the establishment of the Sephardic Hebrew day school, Or Haemet Sephardic School, and (2) the establishment of the Indian Jewish prayer congregation, Congregation BINA. These case studies are situated within the social and historical formation of the Toronto Jewish community. The establishment of these institutions separate from those of the established Ashkenazi-dominated institutions signifies the North African and Indian Jewish communities' resistance to "Ashkenazification", and the empowerment of Sephardic community members through the establishment of their own institutions that celebrate their diverse (Sephardic) Jewish identities.Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University (Canada), 2008.School code: 0267