Yom HaGirush, observed on November 30, commemorates the 1950s expulsions of Jews from Iraq and other Arab states. David Kahtan, son of an Iraqi Jew, set out to understand how his father’s community vanished. The result of his search:
The Long Journey Home: The Untold Story of Iraq’s Jews.

19 November at 7 pm UK (2 pm EST): HARIF, the Association of Jews from MENA, will be holding their Annual Commemoration, online and in-person. Info and tickets: https://www.jw3.org.uk/spektrix/ChooseSeats?EventInstanceId=1115812ANCNHQLBGNPKHPCQVMLGDLMRDN. 

And on 28 November, HARIF encourages synagogues worldwide to participate in a mass kaddish for people buried in Arab lands whose graves cannot be visited. A prayer for this observance is included in the article in both Hebrew and English.

The photo shows Emir Faisal visiting Rabbi Dangoor and
elders of the Iraqi Jewish community in 1925.

Edwin speaks on the history of the Farhud and the grim possibility of a similar pogrom in America.

We encourage our community to read The Farhud before the lecture to understand the history and be ready with questions.

After the establishment of Israel, Arab nations stripped their Jewish citizens of their property, funds, and citizenship, and expelled them. Will this happen next in Dagestan? Moscow? New York City?

Rabbi Elie Abadie and ZOA-MI President Sheldon Freilich join Edwin for another look at the horrid possibilities, Rabbi Manes Kogan provides additional reporting, and Nathan Lewin updates us on the lawsuit recently filed by the Brandeis Center against UC Berkeley.

Yom HaGirush, November 30, commemorates the coordinated expulsion of Jews from Arab nations. After the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel, most Arab nations followed the Nazi model of dispossessing and expelling their Jewish populations, planning to overload Israel’s ability to take them in. Some 850,000 men, women, and children were ejected—often with only the clothes on their backs. Many have forgotten. We have not. Mideast scholar Mordechai Kedar and Gulf States Senior Rabbi Elie Abadie join Edwin.

Yom HaGirush, November 30, commemorates the coordinated expulsion of Jews from Arab nations. After the 1948 founding of the modern state of Israel, most Arab nations followed the Nazi model of dispossessing and expelling their Jewish populations, often to overload Israel’s ability to take them in. Some 850,000 were expelled penniless and stateless. Lyn Julius, co-founder of HARIF-UK, and Elie Abadie, senior rabbi of the UAE, join Edwin Black, author of The Farhud and originator of International Farhud Day.