Commemoration the expulsion of Jews
From the middle of the 20th century Arab nationalism and Islamism began their continuing ascent resulting in the expulsion of 860,000 Jews from Arab lands…resulting this year in the establishment of a world day of remembrance.
Racheline Barda writes:
As part of a world-wide commemoration of the tragedy of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, a short film entitled The Forgotten Refugees will be shown on Sunday, November 30 at 5.00pm, at the Sydney Jewish Museum.
Racheline Barda
Jews have lived in the Middle East and North Africa for over twenty-five centuries, long before the arrival of the Arabs and the advent of Islam.
From the mid-twentieth century, with the rise of Arab nationalism and Islamism, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflicts, some 850,000 Jews from Egypt, Irak, Iran, Lebanon, Lybia, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia were forced to leave their homes, their jobs, their property, and their ancient past and undertake a “second exodus”, totally dispossessed.
Personal testimonies from Egyptian, Iraqi, Libyan, and Yemenite Jews describe the expropriation, the persecution, and the trauma the Jews endured in the hands of their respective government at the time. They settled mostly in Israel but also in Western Europe, the Americas, and even in far away Australia. Their story is mostly unknown both in the Jewish world and the world at large. This is why they are called ‘The Forgotten Refugees”.
It is time to remember them and acknowledge their loss and their suffering.
POB 136
1224 chene-bougeries/Switzerland
You apparently omitted the nearly 150’000 jews compelled to leave ALGERIA in 1963 and 1964. Most of these people, holders of french passports left to France while the others left to Israel,Canada, USA and other countries. I guess you can obtain more precise infomation from one of the many Algerian associations existing in Paris. As far as I am concerned, I was born in Egypt.
This film will be showing at the Sydney Jewish Museum! Preaching to the converted, as it were, and as usual. As much as I would like to see it myself, I do know about these Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Most Jews do. PLEASE, please arrange somehow to have it shown out there in the big wide world so that those who harbour ignorant antagonism towards Israel can see the other side of the coin. I know some visitors to the Sydney Jewish Museum may not be Jewish, but would bet most are.