Libyan Jew in grandma's wedding dress to face UN

The UN will be forced to confront the issue of the forgotten Jewish refugees for the first time when a Jewish refugee from Libya wearing her grandmother's wedding dress appears before the UN Human Rights Council.

Here is the JJAC press release:

New York, NY (March 14, 2008) - For decades, the United Nations has ignored the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Now they will no longer will be able to do so.

Appearing in Geneva before the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 19, 2008, will be Regina Bublil Waldman, a Jewish refugee who fled Libya in 1967, in fear of her life.

Celebrating her heritage, Mrs. Waldman will be testifying wearing her grandmother’s Libyan wedding dress. At the same time, she will be “mourning” the loss of her heritage, as in 1948, there were 36,000 Jews living in Libya. Today, there are none left.

Mrs. Waldman will share traumatic and painful experiences from her native country:

-She was six years old when her madrassah teacher asked: “If you have 10 Jews, and you kill five of them, how many Jews do you have left to kill?

-She will testify, how, as a teenager, during the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab world, her Libyan neighbors took to the streets shouting, “Edbah el Yehud!” (Slaughter the Jews!).

Mrs. Bublil Waldman will be representing Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), which seeks rights and redress for Jews displaced from Arab countries.