Tag #127924 - Interview #89861 (Dan Mizrahy)

My nationality is Jewish. I was raised knowing this and, even if I hadn’t known, I would have found out along the way. As far as I’m concerned, I was taught not to be ashamed of my ethnic origin, but not to brag about it either – just take it for what it is. I happened to be born in Bucharest and to bear the name Mizrahy. This stands for ‘eastern’ in Hebrew. My parents were born in Bucharest too; I, my parents, and my parents’ parents spoke Romanian. I was taught to think in Romanian, to feel in Romanian, and to play like a Romanian. This is probably why – or this is partly why – over the years, I found it difficult to understand the reason why I was ostracized or, in the ‘happier cases,’ only marginalized – more or less overtly – on the sole grounds of my ethnic origin.