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THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN SYRIA BEFORE 1948

The last Jews who wanted to leave Syria departed with the chief rabbi in

October 1994. Prior to 1947, there were some 30,000 Jews made up of three

distinct communities, each with its own traditions: the Kurdish-speaking Jews

of Kamishli, the Jews of Aleppo with roots in Spain, and the original eastern

Jews of Damascus, called Must'arab. Today only a tiny remnant of these

communities remains.

The Jewish presence in Syria dates back to biblical times and is intertwined

with the history of Jews in neighboring Eretz Israel. With the advent of

Christianity, restrictions were imposed on the community. The Arab conquest

in 636 A.D, however, greatly improved the lot of the Jews. Unrest in

neighboring Iraq in the 10th century resulted in Jewish migration to Syria

and brought about a boom in commerce, banking, and crafts. During the reign

of the Fatimids, the Jew Menashe Ibrahim El-Kazzaz ran the Syrian

administration, and he granted Jews positions in the government.

Syrian Jewry supported the aspirations of the Arab nationalists and Zionism,

and Syrian Jews believed that the two parties could be reconciled and that

the conflict in Palestine could be resolved. However, following Syrian

independence from France in 1946, attacks against Jews and their property

increased, culminating in the pogroms of 1947, which left all shops and

synagogues in Aleppo in ruins. Thousands of Jews fled the country, and their

homes and property were taken over by the local Muslims.

For the next decades, Syrian Jews were, in effect, hostages of a hostile

regime. They could leave Syria only on the condition that they leave members

of their family behind. Thus the community lived under siege, constantly

under fearful surveillance of the secret police. This much was allowed due to

an international effort to secure the human rights of the Jews, the changing

world order, and the Syrian need for Western support; so the conditions of

the Jews improved somewhat.

Jews have lived in Egypt since Biblical times, and the conditions of the

community have constantly fluctuated with the political situation of the

land. Israelite tribes first moved to the Land of Goshen (the northeastern

edge of the Nile Delta) during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV

(1375-1358 B.C).

During the reign of Ramses II (1298-1232 B.C), they were enslaved for the

Pharaoh's building projects. His successor, Merneptah, continued the same

anti-Jewish policies, and around the year 1220 B.C, the Jews revolted and

escaped across the Sinai to Canaan. This is the biblical Exodus commemorated

in the holiday of Passover. Over the years, many Jews in Eretz Israel who

were not deported to Babylon sought shelter in Egypt, among them the prophet

Jeremiah. By 1897 there were more than 25,000 Jews in Egypt, concentrated in

Cairo and Alexandria. In 1937 the population reached a peak of 63,500.

Friedman wrote in "The Myth of Arab Tolerance", "One Caliph, Al-Hakem of the

Fatimids devised particularly insidious humiliations for the Jews in his

attempt to perform what he deemed his roll as "Redeemer of mankind", first

the Jews were forced to wear miniature golden calf images around their necks,

as though they still worshipped the golden calf, but the Jews refused to

convert. Next they wore bells, and after that six pound wooden blocks were

hung around their necks. In fury at his failure, the Caliph had the Cairo

Jewish quarter destroyed, along with it's Jewish residence, in".

In 1945, with the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the cultivation of

anti-Western and anti-Jewish sentiment, riots erupted. In the violence, 10

Jews were killed, 350 injured, and a synagogue, a Jewish hospital, and an

old-age home were burned down. The establishment of the State of Israel led

to still further anti-Jewish feeling: Between June and November 1948, bombs

set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly

200. 2,000 Jews were arrested and many had their property confiscated.

Rioting over the next few months resulted in many more Jewish deaths. Between

June and November 1948, bombs set off in the Jewish Quarter killed more than

70 Jews and wounded nearly 200.

Jews In 1956, the Egyptian government used the Sinai Campaign as a pretext

for expelling almost 25,000 Egyptian Jews and confiscating their property.

Approximately 1,000 more Jews were sent to prisons and detention camps. On

November 23, 1956, a proclamation signed by the Minister of Religious

Affairs, and read aloud in mosques throughout Egypt, declared that "all Jews

are Zionists and enemies of the state," and promised that they would be soon

expelled.

Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave the country. They were allowed to

take only one suitcase and a small sum of cash, and forced to sign

declarations "donating" their property to the Egyptian government. Foreign

observers reported that members of Jewish families were taken hostage,

apparently to insure that those forced to leave did not speak out against the

Egyptian government. AP, (November 26 and 29th 1956); New York World

Telegram).

In 1979, the Egyptian Jewish community became the first in the Arab world to

establish official contact with Israel. Israel now has an embassy in Cairo

and a consulate general in Alexandria. At present, the few remaining Jews are

free to practice Judaism without any restrictions or harassment. Shaar

Hashamayim is the only functioning synagogue in Cairo. Of the many synagogues

in Alexandria only the Eliahu Hanabi is open for worship.

By 1957 it had fallen to 15,000. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, there was a

renewed wave of persecution, and the community dropped to 2,500. By the

1970s, after the remaining Jews were given permission to leave the country,

the community dwindled to a few families. Jewish rights were finally restored

in 1979 after President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords with

Israel. Only then was the community allowed to establish ties with Israel and

with world Jewry. The majority of Jews reside in Cairo, but there are still a

handful in Alexandria. In addition there are about 15 Karaites in the

community. Nearly all the Jews are elderly, and the community is on the verge

of extinction.

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ PRIOR TO 1948

The Iraqi Jews took pride in their distinguished Jewish community, with it's

history of scholarship and dignity. Jews had prospered in what was then

Babylonia for 1200 years before the Muslim conquest in AD 634; it was not

until the 9th century that Dhimmi laws such as the yellow patch, heavy head

tax, and residence restriction enforced. Capricious and extreme oppression

under some Arab caliphs and Momlukes brought taxation amounting to

expropriation in AD 1000, and 1333 the persecution culminated in pillage and

destruction of the Bagdad Sanctuary. in 1776, there was a slaughter of Jews

at Bosra, and in bitterness of anti Jewish measures taken by Turkish Muslim

rulers in the 18th century caused many Jews to flea.

The Iraqi Jewish community is one of the oldest in the world and has a great

history of learning and scholarship. Abraham, the father of the Jewish

people, was born in Ur of the Chaldees, in southern Iraq, around 2,000 A.D.

The community traces its history back to 6th century A.D, when Nebuchadnezzar

conquered Judea and sent most of the population into exile in Babylonia.

The community also maintained strong ties with the Land of Israel and, with

the aid of rabbis from Israel, succeeded in establishing many prominent

rabbinical academies. By the 3rd century, Babylonia became the center of

Jewish scholarship, as is attested to by the community's most influential

creation, the Babylonian Talmud.

Under Muslim rule, beginning in the 7th century, the situation of the

community fluctuated. Many Jews held high positions in government or

prospered in commerce and trade. At the same time, Jews were subjected to

special taxes, restrictions on their professional activity, and anti-Jewish

incitement among the masses.

Under British rule, which began in 1917, Jews fared well economically, and

many were elected to government posts. This traditionally observant community

was also allowed to found Zionist organizations and to pursue Hebrew studies.

All of this progress ended when Iraq gained independence in 1932.

In June 1941, the Mufti-inspired, pro-Nazi coup of Rashid Ali sparked rioting

and a pogrom in Baghdad. Armed Iraqi mobs, with the complicity of the police

and the army, murdered 180 Jews and wounded almost 1,000.

Although emigration was prohibited, many Jews made their way to Israel during

this period with the aid of an underground movement. In 1950 the Iraqi

parliament finally legalized emigration to Israel, and between May 1950 and

August 1951, the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government succeeded in

airlifting approximately 110,000 Jews to Israel in Operations Ezra and

Nehemiah. This figure includes 18,000 Kurdish Jews, who have many distinct

traditions. Thus a community that had reached a peak of 150,000 in 1947

dwindled to a mere 6,000 after 1951.

Additional outbreaks of anti-Jewish rioting occurred between 1946-49. After

the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionism became a capital crime.

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN IRAQ AFTER 1948

In 1950, Iraqi Jews were permitted to leave the country within a year

provided they forfeited their citizenship. A year later, however, the

property of Jews who emigrated was frozen and economic restrictions were

placed on Jews who chose to remain in the country. From 1949 to 1951, 104,000

Jews were evacuated from Iraq in Operations Ezra and Nehemiah; another 20,000

were smuggled out through Iran. In 1952, Iraq's government barred Jews from

emigrating and publicly hanged two Jews after falsely charging them with

hurling a bomb at the Baghdad office of the U.S. Information Agency.

With the rise of competing Ba'ath factions in 1963, additional restrictions

were placed on the remaining Iraqi Jews. The sale of property was forbidden

and all Jews were forced to carry yellow identity cards. After the Six-Day

War, more repressive measures were imposed: Jewish property was expropriated;

Jewish bank accounts were frozen; Jews were dismissed from public posts;

businesses were shut; trading permits were cancelled; telephones were

disconnected. Jews were placed under house arrest for long periods of time or

restricted to the cities.

Persecution was at its worst at the end of 1968. Scores were jailed upon the

discovery of a local "spy ring" composed of Jewish businessmen. Fourteen

men-eleven of them Jews-were sentenced to death in staged trials and hanged

in the public squares of Baghdad; others died of torture. On January 27,

1969, Baghdad Radio called upon Iraqis to "come and enjoy the feast." Some

500,000 men, women and children paraded and danced past the scaffolds where

the bodies of the hanged Jews swung; the mob rhythmically chanted "Death to

Israel" and "Death to all traitors." This display brought a world-wide public

outcry that Radio Baghdad dismissed by declaring: "We hanged spies, but the

Jews crucified Christ." (Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam Hussein and

the Crisis in the Gulf, p. 34).

Jews remained under constant surveillance by the Iraqi government. Max

Sawadayee, in "All Waiting to be Hanged" writes a testimony of an Iraqi Jew

(who later escaped): "The dehumanization of the Jewish personality resulting

from continuous humiliation and torment...have dragged us down to the lowest

level of our physical and mental faculties, and deprived us of the power to

recover.".

In response to international pressure, the Baghdad government quietly allowed

most of the remaining Jews to emigrate in the early 1970's, even while

leaving other restrictions in force. Most of Iraq's remaining Jews are now

too old to leave. They have been pressured by the government to turn over

title, without compensation, to more than $200 million worth of Jewish

community property. (New York Times, February 18, 1973).

Only one synagogue continues to function in Iraq, "a crumbling buff-colored

building tucked away in an alleyway" in Baghdad. According to the synagogue's

administrator, "there are few children to be bar-mitzvahed, or couples to be

married. Jews can practice their religion but are not allowed to hold jobs in

state enterprises or join the army." (New York Times Magazine, February 3,

1985).

In 1991, prior to the Gulf War, the State Department said "there is no recent

evidence of overt persecution of Jews, but the regime restricts travel,

(particularly to Israel) and contacts with Jewish groups abroad.".

Persecutions continued, especially after the Six-Day War in 1967, when many

of the remaining 3,000 Jews were arrested and dismissed from their jobs.

Finally In Iraq all the Jews were forced to leave between 1948 and 1952 and

leave everything behind. Jews were publicly hanged in the center of Baghdad

with enthusiastic mob as audience.

The Jews were persecuted throughout the centuries in all the Arabic speaking

countries. One time, Baghdad was one-fifth Jewish and other communities had

first been established 2,500 years ago. Today, approximately 61 Jews are left

in Baghdad and another 200 or so are in Kurdish areas in the north. Only one

synagogue remains in Bataween, - once Baghdad's main Jewish neighborhood.-

The rabbi died in 1996 and none of the remaining Jews can perform the liturgy

and only a couple know Hebrew. (Associated Press, March 28, 1998).

THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS IN ALGERIA PRIOR TO 1948

Jewish settlement in present-day Algeria can be traced back to the first

centuries of the Common Era. In the 14th century, with the deterioration of

conditions in Spain, many Spanish Jews moved to Algeria. Among them were a

number of outstanding scholars, including the Ribash and the Rashbatz. After

the French occupation of the country in 1830, Jews gradually adopted French

culture and were granted French citizenship.

On the eve of the civil war that gripped the country in the late 1950s, there

were some 130,000 Jews in Algeria, approximately 30,000 of whom lived in the

capital. Nearly all Algerian Jews fled the country shortly after it gained

independence from France in 1962. Most of the remaining Jews live in Algiers,

but there are individual Jews in Oran and Blida. A single synagogue functions

in Algiers, although there is no resident rabbi. All other synagogues have

been taken over for use as mosques.

In 1934, a Nazi-incited pogrom in Constantine left 25 Jews dead and scores

injured. After being granted independence in 1962, the Algerian government

harassed the Jewish community and deprived Jews of their principle economic

rights. As a result, almost 130,000 Algerian Jews immigrated to France. Since

1948, 25,681 Algerian Jews have emigrated to Israel.

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