@mena-jews

The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention

jewishdiaspora-blog :

By ANDRÉ ACIMAN

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S speech to the Islamic world was a groundbreaking event. Never before has a young, dynamic American president, beloved both by his countrymen and the nations of the world, extended so timely and eager a hand to a part of the globe that, recently, had seen fewer and fewer reasons to trust us or to wish us well.

As important, Mr. Obama did not mince words. Never before has a president gone over to the Arab world and broadcast its flaws so loudly and clearly: extremism, nuclear weapons programs and a faltering record in human rights, education and economic development — the Arab world gets no passing grades in any of these domains. Mr. Obama even found a moment to mention the plight of Egypt’s harassed Coptic community and to criticize the new wave of Holocaust deniers. And to show he was not playing favorites, he put the Israelis on notice: no more settlements in the occupied territories. He spoke about the suffering of Palestinians. This was no wilting olive branch.

And yet, for all the president’s talk of “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world” and shared “principles of justice and progress,” neither he nor anyone around him, and certainly no one in the audience, bothered to notice one small detail missing from the speech: he forgot me.

The president never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about any of the other 800,000 or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century. With all his references to the history of Islam and to its (questionable) “proud tradition of tolerance” of other faiths, Mr. Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.

Nor did he bother to mention that with this flight and expulsion, Jewish assets were — let’s call it by its proper name — looted. Mr. Obama never mentioned the belongings I still own in Egypt and will never recover. My mother’s house, my father’s factory, our life in Egypt, our friends, our books, our cars, my bicycle. We are, each one of us, not just defined by the arrangement of protein molecules in our cells, but also by the things we call our own. Take away our things and something in us dies. Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn’t die right away; it took four decades of exile to finish him off.

Mr. Obama had harsh things to say to the Arab world about its treatment of women. And he said much about America’s debt to Islam. But he failed to remind the Egyptians in his audience that until 50 years ago a strong and vibrant Jewish community thrived in their midst. Or that many of Egypt’s finest hospitals and other institutions were founded and financed by Jews. It is a shame that he did not remind the Egyptians in the audience of this, because, in most cases — and especially among those younger than 50 — their memory banks have been conveniently expunged of deadweight and guilt. They have no recollections of Jews.

In Alexandria, my birthplace and my home, all streets bearing Jewish names have been renamed. A few years ago, the Library of Alexandria put on display an Arabic translation of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” perhaps the most anti-Semitic piece of prose ever written. Today, for the record, there are perhaps four Jews left in Alexandria.

When the last Jew dies, the temples and religious artifacts and books that were the property of what was once probably the wealthiest Jewish community on the Mediterranean will go to the Egyptian government — not to me, or to my children, or to any of the numberless descendants of Egyptian Jews.

It is strange that our president, a man so versed in history and so committed to the truth, should have omitted mentioning the Jews of Egypt. He either forgot, or just didn’t know, or just thought it wasn’t expedient or appropriate for this venue. But for him to speak in Cairo of a shared effort “to find common ground … and to respect the dignity of all human beings” without mentioning people in my position would be like his speaking to the residents of Berlin about the future of Germany and forgetting to mention a small detail called World War II.

André Aciman, a professor of comparative literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center, is the author of the memoir “Out of Egypt.”

My Interview with the son of an Iranian refugee

jewishdiaspora-blog :

How do you feel your Iranian heritage informs your Jewish practice and daily life?

Daniel Shemian: I definitely think I’m very lucky to live in Los Angeles since there’s such a large Persian population and I can kind of live in two worlds and combine a lot of traditions around me. On the weekends I go to Nessah Temple which is walking distance from my house and where basically the entire congregation is Iranian-American. So when I’m there I definitely feel immersed in that sort of culture—the service might be in Hebrew but after that, lunch conversation is in Farsi. Because of that connection there’s all sorts of Persian traditions that I can integrate into my life, big and small. I mean, when I think about how my family does Shabbat: there’s always at least three families over, we’ll have a big meal of traditional Persian food and we probably won’t even start eating until 9:30.

At the same time, I go to a day school that’s split pretty much 50-50 between Sepharadic and Ashkenazi Jews so I’m exposed to that aspect of Jewish culture too. So in a lot of a ways I have a great medium because I’m not in such a small minority that I can’t have a comfortable community but I don’t feel segregated either.

How about for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

DS: I having parents who were refugees makes me even more passionate about Israel and at times even more compassionate for Palestinians. As a Jew, I know I speak for almost my entire community when I say that Israel is incredibly important to me. Because I know that had my parents not been able to enter the US like a lot of Jews weren’t during World War II, Israel would have accepted my parents. And I would have been an as Israeli. And I almost do feel like an Israeli.

What do you think about the current situation in Iran?

DS: I mean, its hard. Its hard to watch the protests, or hear the leadership of the country speak and think, “I could have still been living in that place.” Its like a whole other world and its pretty scary.

Would you return there if the country was hospitable to Jews?

DS: I’m not sure. I don’t think so. Because I’ve really established a life for myself here, as have my parents, my grandparents, and I want all of my children to have all the advantages America has to offer that I feel in a lot of ways Iranians still don’t have. So, if one day god willing Iran is a safe place for Jews again I would celebrate, and I would visit again, and I would probably even wear an Iranian jersey when the World Cup came on, but no, I wouldn’t move there.

What would you say to Jews still living in those small communities or any relatives you have left in Iran?

DS: I would say to them that we are thinking of you, we are waiting for you to come join us or for us to join you and to stay safe.

prorochestvo:

Cochin Jews – the oldest Jewish community in India.

darkhei-noam :

poppoppopblowblowbubblegum:

ketubah from bombay, india, 1911

I love ketubah art and this one is so lovely (you can see the original here). The groom’s name was Shalom bar Aharon, and the bride Rivqa bat Binyamin. Check out the peacocks flanking the crown, which can be read both on a cultural level (peacocks as an Indian symbol of love and India in general, the crown for the British Empire) and religious level (the crown representing the “crown” of Torah and the birds as representatives of the keruvim who flank the Torah Ark in the Torah and in much Jewish art, see Epstein).

jewishvirtuallibrary :

“They’re Not Nice” Alley in Jerusalem, Israel; 2011.

The Israeli Black Panthers were a group of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish activists who began in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem in 1971.  They protested against high housing prices, social problems, racism, and fought for an increase in the social welfare budget.  On April 13, 1971 - prior to a meeting with the Israeli Black Panthers - then-Prime Minister Golda Meir had said, “They’re not nice” in reference to the group’s protests.  In 2011, a group of artists in the Musrara neighborhood named two previously unnamed alleys as “They’re Not Nice Alley” and “Black Panthers Way”.

jewishvirtuallibrary-blog :

In this photo: Yitzhak Hofef Hai, from India’s Cochin province.  One of the first settlers of Kfar Yuval.  1975.  x

The first Jews to come to India were the Jews in Cochin in southern India (today, its the port city of Kochi) were the so-called “Black Jews,” who traditionally spoke the Judeo-Malayalam tongue, native to the state of Kerala.

Most of Cochin’s Jews have emigrated (principally to Israel), intermarried, or converted, and now there are believed to be only 13 elderly Indian-born Jews, from seven families, still living in Kochi.

To learn more about the Cochin Jews, and Indian-Israel relations, please click here!  

jewishvirtuallibrary :

Two Bukharan Jewish Men Finalize a Wedding Agreement in Central Asia; 1870. x

The ketubbah, or wedding agreement, is customary written in Aramaic - the language of Talmudic law - and states the fundamental responsibilities of the husband to the wife as outlined by the Torah.  

To read more about the ketubbah from an Orthodox-Jewish perspective, click here.

amazighbuffy :

I found four coats or ‘qapa-t’ (pl) purported to be from Morocco, in the online gallery of Réunion des Musées Nationaux. The top is from unknown provenance, just like the other two, but the lower qaba is from Ida Oultit, Taroudant.

And I just couldn’t place them. I haven’t seen these styles being showcased, or displayed, or even referenced (though obviously I haven’t read every report ever). In my eyes, they seemed completely unique to Morocco. I almost doubted they were Moroccan at all, because they looked more Egyptian or Syrian to me. Though they’re not Egyptian or Syrian in style either, as they’re just a bit too loose and the trimming doesn’t fit. The trimming is somewhat Ottoman-by-way-of-Algeria in style but missing the typical motifs, and hadn’t seen Algerians wear these.

Because of how much more tailored they were, I compared them with other tailored fashions from Morocco’s history and ethnic groups. So taking their construction into account, they had to be either from the pre-18th c., when depending on the fashion at the time, [wealthy] Moroccan men sometimes wore very fitted kaftans (which is not likely as both of these are dated to the 19th c.) oooor! they were Sephardi/Jewish Moroccan and I simply wasn’t familiar. 

I vaguely remembered seeing a photo taken in the 1930′s by Jean Besancenot, that showed a gentleman in southern Morocco in fitted clothes.

And what do you know, biiiiiiii

Rabbi David Ben-Baruch Cohen Azogh, Mogador (Essaouira). Head of the corporation “Amine” of goldsmiths.

The same buttoned-sleeves, and more fitted cut. It looks like the exact same style, but without the buttons in the first extant coat, though he is wearing similar buttons on his jabador underneath. I actually think the green coat probably wasn’t worn as an everyday item, because it seems rather ornate, but who knows. Rabbi David Ben Baruch is also from the same region the second coat is purported to be from. 

And then I found more examples of this type of button-less, fitted coat, worn by Jewish men in the early 20th c in Taroudant. It’s essentially part of a jabador (ensemble clothing worn in northwest Africa, influenced by Ottoman-Algeria), but the style is it’s own.

I don’t have their names unfortunately, but it’s good to recover this part of Moroccan history. Just because I didn’t know, doesn’t mean others didn’t. I mean, more people have seen these photographs in exhibitions and what not. But I don’t think people take the time to really look, so even in the gallery of Réunion des Musées Nationaux they were not tagged as Jewish or Sephardi Moroccan, and I think they should be. That is the culture.

Question: Is there a way to be a better anti-Zionist gentile that doesn't involve screwing over Jewish people and their traumas? (Deep in my heart, I want MENA Jews to be able to live in the countries of their ancestors and tell Israel to go fuck itself for co-opting their trauma for Israel's political needs, but I'm not sure how to put it.)
Answer:

there’s something about this that bothers me i can’t figure out what @angrymarocaine i think you’d be more adept at answering this

Livre du samedi : Les juifs algériens dans la lutte anticoloniale

itsnotserious :

« Pour nous qui venions à peine d’avoir l’âge de raison en ces jours d’humiliation, ces années de jeunesse ont à jamais marqué notre vie et c’est pourquoi nous sommes fiers de l’injure qu’on nous lançait comme un opprobre : Oui, nous sommes des juifs indigènes algériens… Et après ? Vous n’aurez pas notre cœur contre un certificat de nationalité dont vous vous servez comme d’un couperet de guillotine. »

Diffusées clandestinement durant la guerre d’indépendance, ces lignes ont été écrites en 1957 par des juifs algériens qui, nés citoyens français vers 1930, déchus de la citoyenneté française durant trois années et exclus de l’école sous Vichy, sont devenus des militants communistes algériens après la Seconde Guerre mondiale avant de rejoindre le FLN en 1956.

De l’entre-deux-guerres à l’indépendance de l’Algérie, une petite minorité de juifs issus de familles autochtones ont suivi des trajectoires comparables, les déplaçant en quelques années des projets sociaux ordinaires de leurs parents – faire de leurs enfants de bons Français plus ou moins juifs – vers le projet politique inouï de s’affirmer Algériens. Bouleversant l’ordre du monde colonial par leurs prises de position politiques, par leurs sociabilités transgressives et jusque dans leur intimité affective, ces hommes et ces femmes ont engagé leur vie pour une Algérie décolonisée et socialiste dont ils seraient citoyens, participant pleinement – mais non sans difficultés dans leur confrontation avec le nationalisme algérien dominant – au mouvement national, aux épreuves de la clandestinité et de la répression durant la guerre d’indépendance, et aux premières années de construction de l’Algérie indépendante.

thewesternkingdom :

From the Jewish Museum of Casablanca - the only Jewish Museum in the “Arab World”.

jewishhenna :

The mellah [Jewish quarter] of Marakech, circa 1920, by “Félix” (Fernand Bidon). For more about the mellah I highly recommend Emily Gottreich’s book The Mellah of Marrakech: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco’s Red City.

jewishdiaspora-blog :

An NPR interview with the last living Jew in Afghanistan.

awed-frog :

mysteryspotillusions :

you can read about it here.

Houthis Expel the Last of Yemeni Jews

and in sadly-related news, only four Jews now remain in Iraq :(

Iraq’s Jewish community dwindles to fewer than five

There is also one Jew left in Afghanistan. Jews had been living in the country for fifteen centuries, but they were decimated in the 1930s by the Afghan kings and persecuted by later governments.

jewishdiaspora-blog :

The view inside of an ancient Jewish temple now serving as a school for Afghani children in need.

“Behind a parade of old mud brick shops, through narrow winding alleys, a tiny door opens onto a sundrenched courtyard, where school children giggle and play alongside the ghosts of Afghanistan’s Jewish past.

The Yu Aw is one of four synagogues in the old quarter of Herat city in west Afghanistan, which after decades of abandonment and neglect, has been restored to provide desperately-needed space for an infant school.”

Afghanistan’s Jewish community, once said to have numbered  40,000 or more, now consists of just one person, Zebolan Simanto. He receives a care package from New York every spring with matzos, grape juice and oil to conduct the Seder, the meal on the first evening of Passover.

Source

A Brief History of Jews in the Middle East

jewishdiaspora-blog :

 JEWS IN SYRIA BEFORE 1948

“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.

Keep reading

jewishdiaspora-blog :

A Jewish Music Band in Baghdad, first half of 20th Century
From right to left: Nahom Ebn Yehuda-
String player (Rummana), Abraham Shasha-Drum player (Dunbug), Hugui Pattaw-String player (Santoor), Efrayim Pattaw-Drum player (Daff)

decolonizejewish :

jewishdiaspora-blog :

A Page from an Iraqi Passover Haggada, 1971

Hebrew and Arabic translation in
Hebrew letters (Sharh).
Iraq 1791.
Half-pen hand-writing
Written by Asslan Ben Yosef Asslan.

Question: hey, jw - do you know anything about traditional ways north african and especially moroccan jews used to do their hair?
Answer:

Yeah! This is a big topic and the answer is basically “it depends where and when…” Traditional hairstyles and head-coverings differed greatly between single and married women (I assume you’re talking about women), between rural and urban areas, and between the pre-colonial and (post-)colonial periods.

In general, young women kept their hair covered with a simple scarf, and/or sometimes braided (as in this photo from Ksar-es-Suq / Er-Rachidia, 1946). In rural areas, married women wore various types of headdresses, some quite elaborate, which differed from region to region. Some examples (with great explanatory posts from my friend Maya):

• the mehdor, a kind of wide headband of silver wire and fabric, worn in central Morocco
  
• the grun (”horns”), a coiled horizontal headdress covered with cloth, worn in the southern Atlas Mountains
• the sarma, a tall conical headdress of cut metal, worn in coastal Algeria (there’s a similar type of headdress, more pointed, worn in Tunisia)

Above: Two married Jewish girls, Erfoud, ca. 1935 (photo by Jean Besancenot) — the girl on the left is wearing the grun headdress.

One great source for you is Jean Besancenot’s 1940 book Costumes du Maroc (it was reprinted in 1988 and can be found or requested in most libraries)… He spent several years in the late 1930s documenting clothing and jewelry styles with photographs and drawings, and had a strong focus on Jewish communities. You can actually see some of his original negatives of Moroccan Jews here (just scroll over for the flipped positive version).

Above: A young Jewish woman from Tinghir (Todgha valley, Atlas), wearing a headdress of woven hair covered with a coin-diadem known as a sfifa. Photo by Besancenot, ca. 1934-9.

Another wonderful book about Moroccan hairstyles, again with many historical photos from both Jewish and non-Jewish communities, is Mireille Morin-Barde’s book Coiffures féminines du Maroc: au sud du Haut Atlas.

In rural areas, these complex traditional headdresses lasted well into the 20th century. In more urban areas, the influence of French and other European fashions meant that by the 19th century, Jewish women had adopted simple colourful scarves, as seen in many of the Orientalist paintings of Jewish women by Delacroix and others.

Above: Jewish Woman in Tangiers, 1886, painted by Emile Vernet-Lecomte.

By the 20th century, many of the Jews in the large urban centres of Fes, Casablanca, Rabat, etc. had adopted European fashion to the extent that women usually wore their hair in French styles without any covering at all, as you can see in this photo from the 50s or 60s — the bride is wearing a traditional headdress as part of the keswa el-kbira, but the other women have short uncovered hair in a European style. 

Hope this helps point you in good directions — good luck researching!

Saharan Jews under French rule

mena-jews :

As the French annexed in the year 1882 the Saharan territory as protectorate, the Saharan Jews fell under French governance. While the Jews in Northern Algeria were seen as more “European” and got benefits under the French rule, the Saharan Jews didn’t see much of those privileges like the right for citizenship.

Saharan Jews were exempt from taxes, states registers and military service, neither they could vote nor attend to public schools.
Furthermore, they were governed by the “Mosaic Law” which allowed them to engage inpolygamous marriages and uncomplicated divorce proceedings. The French reasoned that the Saharan Jews would live according to the Torah than the French civil war. Saharan Jews remained “uncivilised” in a land where a civilising mission dominated.

Source: Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Saharan Jews and the fate of French Algeria

badesaba :

Pahlavi era Judeo-Persian communities.

Boy’s school Gym class, Jewish students with school uniform and Pahlavi cap, Yazd, 1931

Students, teachers, and school directors, Hamadan, 1927.

Why does Holocaust Remembrance Day ignore Middle Eastern Jews? - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

littlegoythings :

Tonight begins the commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. If you must read one article, read this one.

Nazi persecution of North African Jews to be included in 12th Grade exams

jewish-privilege :

In a break with its Euro-centric history curriculum, the Education Ministry will include the persecution of North African Jewry during the Holocaust in material it prepares for grade 12 students, beginning September 1. The material will be part of the bagrut (matriculation) exam.

“The subject of the Tunisian Holocaust was taught a few years ago as part of history studies in the upper grades, and students were tested on it in the matriculation exams,” the Education Ministry explained in a statement, but the material only addressed the “Jewish experiences in Tunisia during the six months of the occupation part of the Holocaust.” There was no reference to the history of Jewish communities in other North African countries occupied by the Nazis from 1940 to 1943.

…Now, “with the reintroduction of the previously studied chapters, students will also be able to learn more about the Holocaust of North African Jewry as part of the mandatory program.”

The Education Ministry said that prior to this, “there were schools whose staff dealt with the fate of North African Jews under the Nazi occupation, but the vast majority of teachers chose to focus on Nazi ideology, the fate of Polish Jews, Romania, Jewish resistance and extermination.”

Education Minister Rafi Peretz said the decision to incorporate the Nazi persecution of North African Jews into the compulsory history material is an ethical move to create a common denominator among all students.

“For years, the story of Islamic countries’ Jews during the Nazi occupation has been absent from our discourse,” Peretz said. “It is our duty to make every student feel that they are a significant part of the story we are teaching in the education system, which belongs to and reflects all parts of Israeli society.”

Between 415,000 and 470,000 Jews in North Africa faced oppression, antisemitism and anti-Jewish legislation in Vichy-controlled Algeria and Morocco, and under Italian fascist rule in Tunisia and Libya.

According to Yad Vashem, “the Jews of Algeria, who held French citizenship, were stripped of their rights, required to wear an identifying mark, and subjected to admission quotas, even in primary schools.”

In Libya, where the Italians had already started applying discriminatory racial laws from 1938, “the bureaucracy stepped up its depredations, marking Jews’ passports, restricting their cultural activities, and banishing thousands to concentration camps – foremost Giado – where hundreds died of starvation and disease,” Yad Vashem explained. “Hundreds of Jews with foreign citizenship were sent to concentration camps in Europe.”

Moroccan Jews experienced the least amount of persecution, but they were not exempt from anti-Jewish regulations. Jews there had civil rights, “and anti-Jewish laws were not formally enacted, but the French bureaucracy introduced a set of anti-Jewish regulations,” according to Yad Vashem.

Tunisian Jews were the only North African country subjected to the direct occupation by the Nazis after the allies invaded North Africa in November 1942.

German forces entered Tunisia, and “along with a SS unit were tasked with applying anti-Jewish policy.” They occupied Tunisia for six months.

The Germans began to expropriate Jewish belongings “and mobilized many Jews for the construction of fortifications. German decrees primarily affected the Jews of the capital, Tunis, but in other communities, such as Djerba, they were also mistreated and sent for forced labor,” Yad Vashem explained. “The Jews of the capital were forced to establish a local Judenrat, which was ordered to select 5,000 to 6,000 Jews, some of whom were sent to labor camps.”

Notwithstanding the conditions, most Jews were saved from mass deportations and murder that European Jewry experienced because Allied forces began liberating North Africa in November 1942.

nostalgerie:

Libyan Jewish Women

Here is a list of movies about Arab Jews, North African Jews, African Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Sephardic Jews, Jews in the Muslim world, and Muslim-Jewish relations

decolonizejewish :

A Yemeinite Habbani family celebratin Passover in Tel Aviv, British Mandate of Palestine, 1946

myjewishaesthetic :

Postcard of the Sir Albert Sassoon Synagogue, Baghdad, 1947

mideastnrthafricacntrlasia :

Eti Levi and Yaakov Nashawi are an Israeli music duo of Iraqi and Moroccan origin. They sing traditional Arabic and Jewish music from the MENA.