Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries

One-stop blog on Jews from Arab and Muslim Countries and the Middle East's forgotten Jewish refugees, updated daily

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

To combat Shoah denial, call out Arab antisemitism

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The path to true reconciliation surely lies in a balanced view of history, where Jewish victims of Arab anti-Semitism are allowed to tell th...
Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Sixty years since the Egoz sank, with the loss of 43

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Sixty years have passed since the Egoz (Pisces), a Mossad smuggling boat carrying 42 illegal emigrants from Morocco, capsized. All on bo...
Monday, April 19, 2021

Young Canadian cleans up Sudan Jewish cemetery

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A young Canadian Jew has embarked on a project to clean up Khartoum's Jewish cemetery. Chaim Motzen has set up a...
Sunday, April 18, 2021

Tripoli synagogue 'to become Islamic centre'

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Once the handsomest synagogue in Tripoli, plans could be afoot to turn the Dar al Bishi synagogue into an Islamic centre. In a  JTA report ...
Friday, April 16, 2021

BBC Arabic downplays Jewish suffering in Iraq

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Following the March 2021 passing of one of Baghdad’s very last Jews, 61-year-old Dr. Dhafer Fouad Eliyahu, BBC Arabic published a piece dra...
Thursday, April 15, 2021

Albert Arie, Egypt's oldest Jew, dies in Cairo

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The oldest Jew in Egypt has died in Cairo, just short of his 91st birthday.  Albert Arie was born in 1930 into a middle class Jewish famil...
Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Halimi killer won't stand trial: 'a devastating blow'

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France’s highest court on Wednesday found that the killer of a Jewish woman was not criminally responsible and could not go on trial, provok...

The forgotten (or ignored) tragedy of Tunisian Jewry

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The Nazis occupied Tunisia for six months in 1942. They even imposed the yellow star in the town of Sfax. However, the impact of Nazism o...
Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Moroccan Israelis demand Oujda massacre be recognised

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Descendants of families murdered in the 1948 riots in the northeastern Moroccan towns of Oujda and Jerada are set to ask the Israeli governm...
Monday, April 12, 2021

Photos show Palestinian Mufti visiting Nazi camp

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Coinciding with Yom Hashoah, the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem has published three out of six photographs in which the wartime Palestinia...
Sunday, April 11, 2021

We need to acknowledge the Shoah's impact outside Europe

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The Holocaust did impact  the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, and it is a near certainty that they would have been targeted for e...
Saturday, April 10, 2021

Dubai Rabbi chants Shoah prayer in Arabic

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With thanks Eli T, Niran)     A first in Dubai: Rabbi Elie Abadie, head of the Association of Gulf Jewish communities, r ecites a prayer f...
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Friday, April 09, 2021

Worrying rise in antisemitic attacks on Djerban Jews

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 News has reached Point of No Return of a worrying spate of attacks on Jews on the island of Djerba, Tunisia, one of the last remaining func...
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Thursday, April 08, 2021

In a first, Bahrain and Dubai commemorate the Shoah

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For the first time, Bahrain held a Yom Hashoah commemoration in the synagogue in the capital Manama, led by Huda Nonoo, former Bahrain ambas...
Wednesday, April 07, 2021

How refugees from Nazism were saved in Egypt

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 Tonight is the start of Yom Hashoah,  the Holocaust Memorial Day marked by Israel and Jews around the world on the anniversary of the Warsa...
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Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Loyalty of last Yemen Jews repaid with expulsion

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Rabbi Yahya Youssef went to extraordinary lengths to show loyalty to  Muslim Yemen, but was still expelled by the Houthi Islamists. Lyn Juli...

The last Jew of Afghanistan is leaving for Israel

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The writing seemed to have been on the wall - or rather off the wall -  in 2019, when  vandals tore up Zabulon Simantov's posters. He is...
Monday, April 05, 2021

New Cairo museum boasts Torah scrolls among the mummies

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Jews from Egypt were surprised to discover that a newly-opened museum in old Cairo boasts two Torah scrolls  in a display case,  cheek-by-jo...
Sunday, April 04, 2021

Morocco and Israel to celebrate first joint Mimouna

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This year, hard on the heels of the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and Morocco, the Mimouna festival, which marks the end of ...
Friday, April 02, 2021

Rabbis tend to Passover needs in 22 Muslims lands

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  Passover is being openly celebrated in Bahrain and in the Gulf countries, where over 100 guests attended a seder in Dubai. Meanwhile, The...
Thursday, April 01, 2021

Kitniyot ban may be on the wane

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For centuries, Ashkenazi Jews have observed a ban on kitniyot -   eating lentils, peas, beans, rice and other foods at  Passover. The rabbis...
Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Expelled Yemeni Jews arrive in Cairo

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Expelled by the Iranian-backed Houthis,  13 Jews of Yemen departed for Cairo, Egypt, according to the Times of Israel. This leaves just six ...
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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Tobie Nathan captures mysticism of Cairo Jewish quarter

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Tobie Nathan is the author of a dozen novels and numerous psychoanalytic studies. Born to a Jewish family in Cairo in 1948, Nathan had to fl...
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Monday, March 29, 2021

Saudi report: last Yemenite Jews are to be expelled (updated)

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Update: The American Sephardi Federation has independently verified the report, and confirms that the Iranian-backed Houthis have indeed ma...
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Sunday, March 28, 2021

Sing 'Ma Nishtana', Iraqi-style

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With thanks: Sandra A traditional Iraqi-Jewish seder table (photo: New York Times) As Jewish families the world over sit down to their Passo...
Friday, March 26, 2021

May we celebrate Passover using Zoom?

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Are we permitted to celebrate Pesah using Zoom ? The question arose last year when the coronavirus pandemic broke, separating families who w...
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