The story
of five Jewish women actresses, singers and musicians, each whom rose to fame in their respective
countries and throughout the Arab world, is the larger story of 850,000 Jews tragically expelled from 1947
to 1972. Hen Mazzig explains in the Link (With thanks: Lily):
1. Lilian Levy Cohen,
aka Camelia, was the most famed Egyptian actress. She was Jewish, born
in 1929, and in the 4 short years of her career starred in 18 movies.
Camelia died in a plane crush in 1950. The story about the plane crash
being the adoing of King Farouk was widely accepted, although the reason
for the crash was officially “unknown”. Before her death, she was
accused of being a secret agent for Israel.
2. Leila Murad
was an Egyptian singer and actress, and one of the most prominent
superstars in the Arab world in her era. She was born as Lillian Zaki
Murad Mordechai to a Jewish family in Cairo. With the establishment of
Israel and threats to her life, she converted to Islam in 1947.
3. Salima Mourad
was a well-known Iraqi Jewish singer and was highly respected in the
Arab world. She was given the nickname “Pasha” by the Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Said, who loved her music. Nazem al-Ghazali, a muslim
student of Mourad, ne of the singers nurtured by Mourad became her
husband, and one of the most famous singers in Iraq, a Muslim man, Nazem
al-Ghazali. In 1963 Al-Ghazali died suddenly of cardiac arrest, from
that moment she refused to sing and didn’t leave the house. Mourad was
very proud of her Jewish heritage but when she died, in 1974, she was
buried in a Muslim cemetery.
4. Alice Fitoussi
was an Algerian Jewish singer and musician, born in Algeria. She is
known for her songs in the Andalusian and hawzii style during Algeria’s
pre-independence period. In 1947 she began to only sing poetic songs in
honor of Prophet Mohammed, for an Arab-Muslim audience.
5. Zohara Alfasiya
was Moroccan Jewish singer and poet. Considered as the queen of the
melhoun and gharnati genres, she was one of the pioneers of modern
Arabic music and the first female recording artist in Morocco. Following
immense pressure In 1962, she left Morocco for Israel. She lived in
poverty in the Israeli city of Ashkelon until she passed away.
Ours and their stories have been ignored by the international community for far too long. Time to demand justice from the UN, the International Community and the Arab League who took everything from us. They took our lives, they stole our land and property and they must pay for the cultural genocide of MENA Jews.
Interesting article. It would have been nice if the author could write in english.
ReplyDeleteJust a footnote, the international community only cares about the stars from Hollywood and foreign celebrities who made it in Hollywood. As someone who lives near there, I can tell you stories of people who are a-list celebrities in their home countries only to be treated like dirt when they come here. Much like zohara al fasiya experienced in Israel.