Below is a very relevant question posed by a researcher at the
Middle East department of Bar-Ilan University. This is one of many such stories
that are very rarely brought into the open.
The outbreak of mob violence against Baghdad
Jewry known as the Farhud, or “violent dispossession,” broke out on June 1,
1941. During the two days of violence, rioters killed 180 Jews, wounded 600
others and raped an undetermined number of women. They also looted some 1,500
stores and homes.
The Farhud was the beginning of what became a broad Nazi-Arab alliance in the
Holocaust. The Farhud was both Nazi-inspired and encouraged by a prominent Arab
leader, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who escaped from
the British in Palestine and arrived in Iraq in October 1939.
While everyone is familiar with the Palestinian Nakba, few in Israel are
aware of the tragic history of the Farhud or the fate of the Jews from Arab
countries who were chased from their homes, leaving all their property and
possessions behind. This, even though these Jews and their descendants
constitute over 55 percent of Jewish Israeli citizens today.
Approximately 900,000 Jews left their homes in Arab countries between the years
1948-1970. Some of them came to Israel while others immigrated to other
countries. Many were forced to leave behind property of great value – property
that was sometimes seized by the governments of the countries they fled.
Unfortunately nothing is taught by the Education Ministry about the pogroms
suffered by the Jews in Arab countries, or of their rich and unique culture.
Pupils are not exposed to the Farhud riots. They are not taught about the riots
in Egypt and Libya in which hundreds of marauding Muslims desecrated, burned
and destroyed synagogues in November 1945. Hundreds of Jews were killed just
because they were Jews.
The tragedy of these Jews has been downplayed and almost unheard of for many
years. No one talks about the suffering of these refugees who were ousted from
these Arab countries.
No one speaks of the tremendous amount of Jewish property and wealth that was
left behind. No one mentions the hundreds of synagogues or holy places, the
numerous cemeteries or the communal property that was confiscated by the Arab
governments, mainly by the Iraqi and Egyptian governments.
There is a need to create a national committee to investigate the following
subjects: the value of the property the Jews left behind; a documented list of
personal and communal property of Jews in each country; the integration of the
rich culture and legends of these Jews in the programs of the Education
Ministry; the creation of a Jewish Cultural Center for Jews from the Arab
countries; preservation of synagogues that remain in Arab hands; keeping watch
over the holy places and shrines of the righteous and rabbis in these
countries; and the restoration and prevention of the destruction of cemeteries
in these countries.
The question remains: why has Israel not demanded compensation for the Jewish
properties left behind or stolen in Arab countries? Israel did little to break
the silence about the dire circumstances of the Jewish exodus from Arab
countries. Last year State Comptroller Joseph Shapira issued a scathing report
on the state’s failure to take action toward the restoration of property that
was lost when hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Iran and the Arab states
came to Israel in the years after Independence in 1948.
In his report Shapira wrote: “Israel is dealing with the issue lackadaisically,
not paying it sufficient attention. It has not set any policy or budget, nor
has it allocated resources toward researching and documenting the assets or
collecting information about the rights of the Jews who came from those
countries.” Shapira described the situation as “bleak,” a “fiasco” that could
be “a perpetual tragedy.”
The Knesset and the Israeli government need to create a National Restoration
Committee for Jews from Arab countries whose property was stolen.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett should introduce more elements of Mizrahi
Jewish culture into the education system. Our children must learn the culture
of their grandfathers.
