Abstract
The return to piyyut and to Arab-Jewish Mizrahi culture in Pedaya’s work is part of a broader political and cultural project which aims to remap and reorganize the Hebrew and Israeli cultural canon. In the national-Zionist context, this project aims to create an alternative to the rejection of exile and the reduction of Jewish religion and identity into a national culture, and the description of Arabs as “other” and as enemies. Instead, in Pedaya’s work, the return to the piyyut and to the Jewish- Arab culture becomes a platform for reclaiming Mizrahi and Jewish identity, offering possibilities for a spiritual connection between Judaism and Islam.