Avigdor Kahalani is one of those countless success stories, the living embodiment of Jews of all backgrounds forging a new multiethnic country.
(March 26, 2025 / JNS) It’s not often that one Jew’s life refutes so many anti-Israel lies. But when a relative of mine in Israel recently mentioned a chance meeting with Avigdor Kahalani, I was reminded of the numerous ways in which he is a living symbol of truth in a world of anti-Israel liars.
Kahalani is the son of Jewish immigrants from Yemen. They lived in the same city where the Houthi terrorists today have their headquarters, Saadia. Which makes him and his family “people of color” just as much as Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar. “Jews of color,” in fact, constitute a majority of Israel’s population.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that only 45% of Israeli Jews are of Ashkenazi, or European, descent. Fully 55% are immigrants, or children of immigrants, from the Middle East, Africa or Asia. The old stereotype that all, or even most, Israelis are descended from European Jews who came to Israel because of the Holocaust should be relegated to the dustbin of history.