The paradox of diversity in the Israeli academia: reproducing white Jewishness and national supremacy

This paper claims that policies designed to promote diversity and provide Ethiopian Jews with opportunities in Israeli institutions of higher learning create a paradox where, rather than diversifying student bodies and faculties in universities, they bolster the reproduction of national and religious supremacy of white Jews in the Israeli academia. Interviews with 50 Ethiopian students reveal that the racialized cultural indexes on which Israeli society structures its racialized attitudes towards Ethiopian immigrants have not been purged from university campuses. Instead, I argue, they continue to suffuse and shape those very programs designed to combat them by reinventing Jewish privilege and national exclusivity in Israeli universities.

Automated summary

This paper argues that policies promoting diversity in Israeli institutions of higher learning inadvertently reinforce the national and religious supremacy of white Jews. Interviews with Ethiopian students reveal that racialized attitudes towards Ethiopian immigrants still exist on university campuses, shaping programs meant to combat them and perpetuating Jewish privilege and exclusivity in Israeli universities.