(Prepared by Dr. Henry Green, University of Miami, Department of Religious Studies)
Jews have resided in North Africa and the Middle East in substantial numbers, reflecting a presence 500 hundred earlier than Christianity and 1,300 hundred years earlier than Islam, the Abrahamic religions. Until 1492, the majority of world Jewry, the Sephardi lived in these geographical areas. With the advent of the United Nations’ Resolution 181, passed in November 1947, to establish a state of the Jews, the population of Sephardi in Arab countries has become almost invisible, reduced from nearly one million in 1948 to less than 25,000 today. Approximately 50% of those displaced, or their descendants, live in Israel.
Who are the ancestors of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews?
The Babylonian (Iraqi) patriarchs and matriarchs of Judaism: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah and Rachel and many of the rabbis of the Talmud (Iraq) originated from the area around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Who are the Sephardi Jews from Islamic lands pre 1492?
Many rabbis, scholars and statesmen were born and lived in Islamic states from the Atlantic Ocean to India pre 1492. Sa’adia Gaon (10th century) was born in Egypt and lived in Iraq. A towering theologian he also authored numerous piyyutim (religious hymns). Yehuda Halevi (10th-11th centuries) was born in Spain, became a physician and is viewed by many as the greatest Jewish poet pre the exile of Jews from Spain in 1492. Rabbi Isaac of Fez (11th century) was born in Morocco and was the first to produce a “Code” of Jewish law, a summary of the Talmud. Samuel Ibn Nagrela (11th century) was born in Spain and served as the royal vizier (chief executive officer) to King Habus of Grenada. Maimonides (12th century) was born in Spain and migrated first to Morocco, then Palestine and finally Egypt where he served as the physician to the royal vizier Al-Fadil as well as the leader of the Egyptian Jewish community and wrote numerous works and responsa still viewed as foundational to Judaism. Benjamin of Tudela (12th century), born in Spain, was an itinerant traveler that preceded Marco Polo. He visited Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Persia (Iran), and North Africa reporting on what he saw and, in particular, the Jewish communities. And Moses de Leon (13th century), born in Spain and viewed as the author or editor of the Zohar (Jewish mysticism), are just a few among the many prominent Sephardi.
What is the Evidence?
Archaeology, papyrus (ancient paper), sociology and numismatic (coins) data trace more than 3,000 years of recorded Jewish history in the Middle East and North Africa and a Jewish presence in Islamic countries for more than a millennia.
Geography, Community and Demography pre the Enlightenment (1700)
Jews lived from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east. Although living in disparate parts of the Islamic world, on the broad issues of Jewish law (Halacha) and customs (mishpat), community organization and common cultural patterns such as religious rituals, they had much in common in spite of diverse local traditions. They often shared elements of a language (e.g., Arabic), folk culture and ethos and took pride in their Sephardi Jewish identity. From their midst, came the epicenter of secular, religious and intellectual leadership of Jewish civilization. In 1400, the overwhelming majority of world Jewry lived in the Islamic world. However, under Islamic rule, Jews and Christians were considered second-class subjects, Dhimmis (“protected People”). Dhimmis were “people of the Book” and were granted special, but unequal status under Islam. Tolerance meant that they had to pay special taxes and were restricted legally and judicially. Tolerant and intolerant rulers came and went; and so did the quality of living of the Sephardi Jew.
Life under Colonialism---1800s to World War Two:
In many of the Islamic countries where Jews lived, European colonization changed the status of the Jews. Italians (Libya), the British (Aden/Yemen, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt) and the French (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon and Syria) provided “foreign” protection and often accorded European rights, entitlements and opportunities to the Sephardi-Persian-Babylonian Jews, as well as smaller sectarian forms of Judaism. In Algeria, for example, Jews became full French citizens. Jewish schools were prevalent and became a catalyst to transform community structures in territories controlled by western colonial powers. In due course, similar to European Jewish communities in London, Paris and Berlin, synagogues, welfare institutions, cemeteries, fraternal clubs, kosher restaurants, youth camps, etc. welcomed modernity and civil rights.
Life Under Nazism:
Hitler’s rise to power had tragic consequences for Jews in most Islamic countries across North Africa and the Middle East. Anti-Jewish policies became the norm. Algerian Jewry was disenfranchised; a German army occupied Tunisia; an Italian army seized Libya. Shortly thereafter, plans to erect labor camps were begun in Tunisia and Libya; and transportation of the Sephardi to European death camps was launched. Nazi discriminatory laws were introduced: confiscation of property, fines, taking of hostages, and anti-Semitic riots erupted in many countries. The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was exiled to Baghdad in 1939 and sought Nazi license to exterminate Jews in Arab countries as well as Palestine. In Baghdad, Iraq in 1941, under the pro-Nazi government headed by Rashid Ali (al-Gaylani) and the support of al-Husseini, a pogrom erupted, the Farhud (Kurdish word for “forced dispossession”), and left hundreds of Iraqi Jews dead or wounded. Igniting during the festival of Shavuot (June 1st and 2nd), Iraqi survivors living in Israel today are claiming compensation and state benefits under Israel’s Disabled Victims of Nazi persecution. According to the scholar, Edwin Black, “the original plans for anti-Jewish action of June 1st were intended to mimic Nazi extermination campaigns in Europe”.
Life Post-Nazism and Under Independent Islamic and Arab rulers:
In the period post-World War Two, new nation states arose in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf region. Anti-colonial demonstrations and the fruition of forceful independence movements led to the deterioration of the civil rights of minorities. This was compounded for Jews because of the Zionist movement and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Arab countries declared war on Israel (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan). State-legislated discrimination and repressive measures made life for Jews in Arab countries increasingly untenable. For some Arab states, the legacy of Nazism endured. For example, the Arab League drafted many discriminatory laws reminiscent of the Nuremberg laws in Germany under Nazism. The Sephardi/Mizrahi became political hostages of the Arab-Israeli struggle. In numerous countries Sephardi were stripped of citizenship, forced out of the labor market, assets frozen and Jewish religious and communal life restricted. In Iraq, identifying with Zionism became a capital crime with policies of dispossession and strategies for expulsion.
Today:
In 1948 when Israel was founded, it is estimated that approximately one million Jews lived in the Middle East (including Palestine) and North Africa, 10% of world Jewry. One generation later, less than 20% remained in this geographical region (excluding Israel). Approximately 50% had migrated to Israel, 25% to France (mostly from the French colonies in North Africa), 12% to the United States and the rest to other areas of the world (such as Canada, England, and Argentina). With the ascent of the Ayatollah and Iranian Islamic (Shia) fundamentalism in 1979, the majority of Jews that have lived there for centuries have left, mostly to the United States. Today less than 25,000 reside in Arab countries. Forced migration often meant communal and individual self-liquidation. In Iraq, a Jewish community of 150,000 in 1948, will soon be without a Jewish presence; 5 Jews endure, all elderly
Human Rights and the Sephardi:
The Jews who were displaced from Arab countries are refugees as defined by the United Nations.
“A refugee is a person owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reason of race, religion, nationality, and membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country” (1951 UN Convention on Status of Refugees)
Failure to recognize the rights of Jews exiled from Arab lands in North Africa and the Middle East is an important marker in Israel’s decision to decree by law an annual memorial commemoration day for the Sephardi.
Additional insights from Dr. Green and Israel Consular General Lior Haiat:
Miami Harold Article, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews a Forgotten part of the Refugee Equation