Menachem Begin began his historic address: "I want to confess to you that until this morning I had never heard the word 'tzchachtzchachim' (a derogatory term used against some Sephardim) and I had no idea what it meant... In the underground, during the era of the revolution, Galili asked me, 'How can we solve the problem of the Sephardim in the Eitzel?' I looked at him in shock, and I said to him, 'Yisrael, what are you saying? What is the problem?' And he said, 'What, haven't you heard? The problem of the Sephardi sector.'
"So I still say to him: What is the problem? There is no problem! We are all brothers, we are all Jews, we are all equal – All of us! ... Gidi, who was involved in the historic action in the King David Hotel, was a Sephardi, the one in charge of all the prisoners in Latrun was a Yemenite, and all of our boys stood at attention in front of him! What problem? There is no problem! We are all Jews! We are all brothers! We all fight together!
"The sons of the Mizrachi sector were courageous fighters, heroes. In the underground, some of them were hanged by the British, and until their last breath they continued to sing Hatikvah. They startled an entire world with their outstanding bravery. They went to prison, to concentration camps, they fought and did not crack, they shouted at the British judges the words: We do not recognize your authority. You must leave here, go away from Eretz Yisrael!
"Feinstein was of a European origin. How do you say it – Ashkenazi. Moshe Barezani was a Sephardi, from Iraq. The night after they were sentenced to die, and the next morning their bodies would have to be taken down from the gallows, the rabbi was an old man. He said he would come to take them down, but they didn't want to cause disrespect for the rabbi, so they blew themselves up with hand grenades. They fought! Ashkenazim? Iraqis? They were Jews! Brothers! Warriors!"
[Menachem Begin, the Tzchachtzchachim Speech, 1981]
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A child stood at the entrance of the kindergarten and loudly declared: "No Ashkenazim allowed!" A sweet-looking little girl approached the entrance. The young "guard" asked her: "Are you Ashkenazi or Sehpardi?"
I will never forget the innocent reply of that sweet young girl. "What does that mean, Ashkenazi or Sephardi? What am I, a synagogue?" And she went right on, into the kindergarten.
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The only valid answer to racism and deprivation is what was said by Menachem Begin and by the young girl in the kindergarten. The cultural differences between us are a matter for the synagogue. Outside of this, we are all brothers. We are all Jews
