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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 27, 2026

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Grok tells me it’s 30-45% Ashkenazi. Mizrahi outnumber Ashkenazi but it’s not far outnumber. But more importantly the Ashkenazi are the ones who conquered Israel. That’s where the military and money to support Israel originates.

I think it's more like 32% Ashkenazi to 45% Mizrahi.

That’s within in my range. And you own data doesn’t support your claim that Mizrahi far outnumber Ashkenazi. And the 32% number seems to exclude Russian Jews who are some would just consider as Ashkenazi Jews and push the two groups to basically equal proportions.

It’s interesting people want to debate the Ashkenazi versus Mizrahi components of Israel. And my gut says it’s because antisemitism is actually anti-Ashkenazi because the Ashkenazi are the ones with power and money. They are colonizers. While Mizrahi are just along for the ride.

The Mizrahi would essentially be a group like the Kurds if they didn’t have some shared ancestry with Ashkenazi.

Grok tells me

Wikipedia, citing a paywalled scientific study from year 2019:

CategoryProportion of Jews in Israel (%)
Mizrahi45
Ashkenazi32
Soviet12
Beta Israel3
Mix/other8

Wouldn't Soviet jews be predominantly Ashkenazi?

I'm more surprised that in 2019 anybody still identifies as Soviet. It's a been a few decades since their fall, c'mon now. Maybe the Soviet Jews came in such large numbers that they have some different subculture or something. Anybody know?

'In a 2019 study, in a sample meant to be representative of the Israeli Jewish population, about 44.9% percent of Israel's Jewish population were categorized as Mizrahi (defined as having grandparents born in Asia or North Africa)'

Also Jews are mobile enough just using grandparents' birthplace seems like it's insufficiently informative. The Wikipedia article reads like if an Ashkenazi family moved circa 1945 and managed to have kids around then that their descendants would now be classified as Mizrahi even if they were palpably Ashkenazi. Also Sephardic erasure.