It is certainly jarring to read Arendt, the great proponent of binational coexistence and Arab rights, disparage the “oriental mob”—otherwise known as Sephardic Israelis—who stand outside the courthouse, “as if one were in Istanbul or some other half-Asiatic country.”¹³¹ (All pariahs are not, apparently, created equal.) In her view, it was unfortunate that “the European element [has been] very much pushed into the background.”¹³²

Yet even the European element, at least if it came from the East, can disappoint: Chief Prosecutor Gideon Hausner is “a typical Galician Jew, very unsympathetic. […] Probably one of those people who don’t know any language.” As the trial progresses, Arendt will find Hausner “increasingly revolting.”¹³³

(Source.)

Ugh… unfortunately, this is not the first example that I have seen of a Jewish adult expressing ethnocentrism. As early as the sixteenth century, the Ashkenazi Mayer Winterbach expressed contempt for ‘Oriental Jews’, and I made a thread on the sometimes unpleasant relations between Ashkenazim and Sephardim in concentration camps, so I am sad to say that Arendt’s attitude towards Eastern Jews is not that surprising. Thankfully, this phenomenon is less common than it used to be (although some Jews still get frustrated with their Ashkenazi siblings).