Jewish Communities in the Arab World

Before the emergence of the State of Israel in 1948,

there was a large number of Jews

living in the Arab world, something like 800,000.

And there were Jews in Lebanon,

in Syria, in Egypt, and Iraq.

The Jewish community in Iraq was the most ancient

going back to two and a half millennia ago.

It was the most prosperous, the most successful,

and the best integrated into local society.

But before 1948, there were Jews throughout the Arab world,

and Muslim-Jewish coexistence was not a distant dream.

It was everyday reality that Jews and Arabs lived

side by side until the arrival of Zionism.

My family and I, we were Arab Jews.

We spoke Arabic at home.

We didn't speak any other language.

Our culture was Arab culture.

Our food was the most delicious, spicy, Middle Eastern food.

It wasn't European food.

So in every sense of the word,

we were Arab Jews.

We Arab Jews had much more in common,

linguistically and culturally, with non-Jews around us.

We had much more in common with them

than we had with Jews in Eastern Europe.

In March 1950, the Iraqi Parliament passed a law which

said any Jew who wants to leave the country

is free to do so.

They have a year to register to leave on a one-way visa.

And not many Jews registered to leave.

And in the next year,

five bombs exploded in Jewish premises in Baghdad,

and that created a panic,

and that helped to precipitate the exodus to Israel.

Before the emergence of the State of Israel in 1948,

there was a large number of Jews living

in the Arab world, something like 800,000.

And there was the most ancient going

back to two and a half millennia ago.

It was the most prosperous, the most successful,

and the best integrated into local society.

But before 1948, there were Jews throughout the Arab world,

and Muslim-Jewish coexistence was not a distant dream.

It was everyday reality.

The Jews and Arabs lived side by side until

the arrival of Zionism.

My family and I, we were Arab Jews.

We spoke Arabic at home.

We didn't speak any other language.

Our culture was Arab culture.

Our food was the most delicious.