The history of the Jews in theArabian Peninsula reaches back to Biblical times. The Arabian Peninsula is defined as including parts of Iraq and Jordangeographically. Politically, the following countries are considered part of the peninsula:
- Bahrain (an island nation off the east coast of the peninsula)
- Kuwait
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- United Arab Emirates (a federation of seven states: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai,Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain)
- Yemen.
History of the Jews in Iraq
The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented over twenty-six centuries, from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 600 BCE, as noted in the Hebrew Bible and other historical evidence from the period, to modern Iraq. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities.
In the 1930s, the situation of the Jews in Iraq deteriorated. Previously, the growing Iraqi Arab nationalist sentiment included Iraqi Jews as fellow Arabs, but these views changed with ongoing conflict in the Palestinian Mandate. Despite protestations of their loyalty to Iraq, Iraqi Jews were increasingly subject to discrimination and harsh laws. On August 27, 1934 many Jews were dismissed from public service, and quotas were set up in colleges and universities. Zionist activities were banned, as was the teaching of Jewish history and Hebrew in Jewish schools. Following Rashid Ali's pro-Axis coup, the Farhud ("violent dispossession") pogrom of June 1 and 2, 1941, broke out in Baghdad in which approximately 200 Jews were murdered (some sources put the number higher), and up to 2,000 injured—damages to property were estimated at $3 million. There was also looting in many other cities at around the same time. Afterwards, Zionist emissaries from Palestine were sent to teach Iraqi Jews self-defense, which they were eager to learn. ." (Simon, Reguer, and Laskier, p. 364)
From 1950 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted 120,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. By 1968 only 2,000 Jews remained in Iraq. Today less than 100 Jews remain, all of whom live in Baghdad.
History of the Jews in Jordan
In Biblical times, much of the geography now in Jordan was part of the history of the Jews in the Land of Israel. According to the Hebrew Bible three of the Israelites' ancient tribes lived on the territory that is today known as Jordan: The Tribe of Reuben, the Tribe of Gad and the Tribe of Manasseh.
Since its 1516 incorporation in the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the vilayet(province) of Damascus-Syria until 1660, next of the vilayet of Saida (Sidon), briefly interrupted by the 7 March – July 1799 French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea.
During the siege of Acre in 1799, Napoleon issued a proclamation to the Jews of Asia and Africa to help him conquer Jerusalem. On 10 May 1832 it was one of the Turkish provinces annexed by Muhammad Ali's shortly imperialistic Egypt (nominally still Ottoman), but in November 1840 direct Ottoman rule was restored.
The British Balfour Declaration of 1917 promised both sides of the Jordan River to the Jewish people, but that was changed by the Churchill White Paper which created a split between the British Mandate of Palestine and Transjordan. Following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine of 1947, Jordan was one of the Arab countries that attacked the new Jewish state of Israel. It gained some victories but it was eventually defeated during the Six-Day war when it attacked Israel again. Jordan eventually signed the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace.
History of the Jews in Bahrain
The Arab states of the Persian Gulf
Bahrain's Jewish community is tiny, however the history of the Jews in Bahrain goes back many centuries, There was a Jewish presence in Bahrain for many centuries, now mostly the descendants of immigrants who entered the country in the early 1900s from Iraq,Iran and India, numbered 600 families in 1948. Over the next few decades, most left for other countries, especially England; some 36 families remain (as of 2006.)with the total of over then 100 members [1]
Relations between Bahraini Jews and Bahraini Muslims are highly respected, with Bahrain being the only state on the Arabian peninsula where there is a specific Jewish community. Bahrain is the only Gulf state with two synagogues and two cemetery's next to each other. One member of the community, Rouben Rouben, who sells TV sets, DVD players, copies, fax machines and kitchen appliances from his down-town showroom, said “95 percent of my customers are Bahrainis, and the government is our No. 1 corporate customer. I’ve never felt any kind of discrimination.”
Members play a prominent role in civil society: Ebrahim Nono was appointed in 2002 a member of Bahrain's upper house of parliament, the Consultative Council, while a Jewish woman heads a human rights group, the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society. According to the JTA news agency, the active Jewish community is "a source of pride for Bahraini officials".[2]
History of the Jews in Kuwait
The history of the Jews in Kuwait is connected to the history of the Jews in Iraq. In 1776 Sadeq Khan captured Basra, many of the inhabitants left the country and among them were Jews who went to Kuwait. With the Jews' efforts, the country flourished with its buildings and trades. Around 1860, their number increased and their trade flourished. They were mostly wholesalers and worked with India—Baghdad and Aleppo. They even exported to Europe and China. There were about 80 Jewish families in Kuwait living in one district where the Bank of Trade. They had their own Synagogue with their Sefer Torah. In the Synagogue, they had separate place for the women. Saturday is a sacred day. Jews didn't work that day. They also had their own Cemetery which shows that they lived there for a long time. Kuwait's population is now thirty five thousand and most of them are Arabs. Before 1914 there were about 200 Jews. Most of them went back to Baghdad and few went to India. There were two wealthy Jews in Kuwait but the rest were middle class, being Jewellers or material traders.[1]
History of the Jews in Oman
The Tomb of Job.
The history of the Jews in Oman goes back many centuries. There was a Jewish presence inOman for many centuries, however, the Jewish community in Oman is no longer existent. Some early Jewish biblical is associated with the biblical figure Job. The Tomb of Job is located 45 miles from the port city of Salalah. The documented Omani Jewish community was made famous by Ishaq bin Yahuda, a merchant who lived in the 9th century. Bin Yahuda lived inSohar, and sailed for China between the years of 882 and 912 after an argument with a Jewish colleague, where he made a great fortune. He returned to Shoar and sailed for China again, but his ship was seized and bin Yahuda was murdered at the port ofSumatra.
In the mid 19th century, the British Lieutenant James Raymond Wellsteddocumented the Jews of Muscat in his memoirs Travels in Arabia, vol. 1. He mentions that there are "a few Jews in Muskat (sic), who mostly arrived there in 1828, being driven from Baghdad . . .by the cruelties and extortions of the Pacha Daud." He also notes that Jews were not discriminated against at all in Oman, which was not the case in other Arab countries. Despite the lack of persecution in Oman, the community is believed to have disappeared before 1900.
During World War II, a Jewish American Army enlisted man, Emanuel Glick, encountered a small community of Omani Jews in Muscat, but this community consisted mostly of recent migrants from Yemen.
History of the Jews in Qatar
There are few Jews in Qatar, but the Anti-Defamation League has protested the existence of anti-judaic stereotypes in Qatar’s newspapers.[2]
As an indication of the opening up of Qatari society to Western influence, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that a forum on U.S.-Islamic relations in Qatar will feature Israeli and U.S. Jewish participants. Former President Clinton and Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, are the scheduled keynote speakers at the Jan.10–12 U.S.-Islamic Forum in Doha. The forum is sponsored by the Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World, funded by the Saban center, which was founded by American-Israeli entertainment mogul Haim Saban.[3]
A news report describes the preparations for US troops stationed in Qatar: "NEW YORK – The Jewish members of America's armed forces will again receive kosher K-rations this Pesach throughout the holiday, provided by the U.S. Defense Department...Each chaplain stationed in Iraq will hold two seders at base camps, with central seders taking place in Baghdad, Falluja and Tikrit. There will also be twoseders at the army headquarters in Bahrain, and air force headquarters in Qatar. Jewish soldiers stationed in remote locations will be able to attend seders led by soldiers who received special training for that purpose."[4]
History of the Jews in Saudi Arabia
The first mention of Jews in the area of what is today Saudi Arabia dates back, by some accounts, to the time of the First Temple. By the 6th and 7th centuries there was a considerable Jewish population in Hejaz, mostly in and around Medina (orYathrib as it called by the time), Khaybar, and Tayma.
There were three main Jewish tribes in Medina, forming the most important Hejazi community before the rise of Islam in Arabia. These were the Banu Nadir, the Banu Qainuqa and the Banu Qurayza.
There was a small Jewish community, mostly members of Bnei Chorath, lived in one border city from 1934 until 1950. The Yemeni city of Najran was conquered by Saudi forces in 1934, absorbing its Jewish community, which dates to pre-Islamic times.[5]With increased persecution, the Jews of Najran made plans to evacuate. The local governor at the time, Amir Turki ben Mahdi, allowed the 600 Najrani Jews[6] a single day on which to either evacuate or never leave again. Saudi soldiers accompanied them to the Yemeni border. These Jews arrived in Saada,[7] and some 200 continued south to Aden between September and October 1949. The Saudi King Abdulazizdemanded their return, but the Yemeni king, Ahmad bin Yahya refused, because these refugees were Yemenite Jews. After settling in the Hashid Camp (also called Mahane Geula) they were airlifted to Israel as part of the larger Operation Magic Carpet.[8]
There is limited Jewish activity in Saudi Arabia today. Jews and all other non-Muslims are not permitted to visit or live in Mecca. Public worship of all religions but Islam is strictly forbidden.
However, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the first Jew to hold that position, came to Saudi Arabia on ten official trips on diplomatic missions on behalf of the United States.[9]
During the Gulf War (1990–1991), when approximately a half million US military personal assembled in Saudi Arabia, and many were then stationed there, there were many Jewish US service personnel in Saudi Arabia. It is reported that the Saudi government insisted that Jewish religious services not be held on their soil but that Jewish soldiers be flown to nearby US warships.[10]
History of the Jews in the United Arab Emirates
In recent years the United Arab Emirates has adopted an anti-Zionism policy to Jewish academics as a result of Israel's perpetual state of conflict with the Arab world and authors from other countries who may have had to come to its territory."[11]
In July 2000, the Harvard Divinity School accepted $2.5 million from the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. In 2002, the Zayed Center published a report on the Holocaust that said Zionists—not Nazis—"were the people who killed the Jews in Europe."[12] The United States Department of State stated that the center published some books with themes such as "The Zionist Movement and its Animosity to Jews" and "Al Buraq Wall, Not Wailing Wall." It also allowed some anti-Zionsim language on its website, and hosted some speakers who promoted anti-Zionism views.[13]
Despite such strong prejudices, there have some new diplomatic openings to the US, Israel and Jews by the United Arab Emirates as reported in the media. In an article in USA Today Arabs try outreach to Israel, U.S. Jews, 2007, it is reported that: " Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, are making some of their most public overtures ever to Israel and American Jews in an effort to undercut Iran's growing influence, contain violence in Iraq and Lebanon and push for a Palestinian solution...Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have stepped up contacts with Israel and pro-Israel Jewish groups in the USA.[14]
History of the Jews in Yemen
Map of the modern state of Yemen
Local Yemenite Jewish traditions have traced the earliest settlement of Jews in this region back to the time of King Solomon. One explanation is that King Solomon sent Jewish merchant marines to Yemen to prospect for gold and silver with which to adorn the Temple in Jerusalem. Another legend places Jewish craftsmen in the region as requested by Bilqis, the Queen of Saba (Sheba). The immigration of the majority of Jews into Yemen appears to have taken place about the beginning of the 2nd century CE, although the province is mentioned neither by Josephus nor by the main books of the Jewish oral law, the Mishnah and Talmud.
In 500 CE, at a time when the kingdom of Yemen extended into far into northern Arabia and included Mecca and Medina, the king Abu-Kariba Assad (of the Tobban tribe) converted to Judaism, as did several tribal leaders under him and probably a significant portion of the population. Pagans and Christians were not forced to convert, since Judaism teaches that there are righteous and godly people in all religions, who will be saved as such. It is interesting that the Book of Job, in the Bible, concerns a wholly righteous man identified in its first sentences as a pagan Arab of the land of Uz, probably north-central Arabia. The kingdom had a tumultuous history. In 520, Abu-Kariba's son or relative Zoran Yusuf Dhu-Nuwas, took over the kingdom, and, in revenge it is said for the persecution of Jews in Byzantium, instituted taxes on the Christian population and especially harshly treated Byzantine merchants. This spurred Christians to appeal to the Byzantine Emperor to invade, but he referred the request onto the Christian Ethiopian king who obliged, crushing the Jewish kingdom and causing many Jews to flee northward into central Arabia and Medina. They added to the majority of Jews already in Medina.
The average Jewish population of Yemen for the first five centuries CE is said to have been about 3,000. The Jews were scattered throughout the country, but carried on an extensive commerce and thus succeeded in getting possession of many Jewish books. It seems that they were not deeply learned in Rabbinic traditions (although they were familiar with many midrashic interpretations of Torah passages), but they were certainly devout and observant Jews. Messianic hopes were strong and many messianic movements occurred down through the centuries. Maimonides, the great rabbi and thinker of the 12th century, leader of Egyptian Jewry, wrote his famous Letter to Yemen in response to desperate appeals from Jewish elders there about how to handle a madman who claimed to be the messiah and was wreaking serious harm on the community. Just within the nineteenth century there were three pseudo-messiahs: Shukr Kuhayl I (1861–65), Shukr Kuhayl II(1868–75), Joseph Abdallah (1888–93).
Emigration from Yemen to Palestine began in 1881 and continued almost without interruption until 1914. It was during this time that about 10% of the Yemenite Jews left. Due to the changes in the Ottoman Empire citizens could move more freely and in 1869 travel was improved with the opening of the Suez Canal, which shorted the travel time from Yemen to Palestine. From 1881 to 1882 a few hundred Jews left Sanaa and several nearby settlements. This wave was followed by other Jews from central Yemen who continued to move into Palestine until 1914. The majority of these groups moved into Jerusalem and Jaffa. Before World War I there was another wave that began in 1906 and continued until 1914.
The State of Israel at the beginning of 1948 initiated Operation Magic Carpet and airlifted most of Yemen's Jews to Israel.
References
- "History of the Jews in Kuwait". dangoor.com.
- "Countries at the Crossroads: Country Profile of Qatar" (PDF). unpan1.un.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 9, 2004.
- "Israelis, U.S. Jews in Qatar". Cleveland Jewish News.com.
- "Jewish soldiers in Iraq get kosher Pesach rations". jewishtoronto.net.
- Gilbert, Martin, "In Ishmael's House", 2000, (p. 5)
- Ahroni, Reuben "Jewish emigration from the Yemen, 1951-98", 2001 (p. 27)
- Shulewitz, Malka Hillel "The Forgotten Millions", 2000 (p.86)
- Gilbert, Martin, "In Ishmael's House", 2000, (p. 271)
- "Saudi Arabia". U.S. Department of State. December 21, 2007.
- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Saudi Arabia. Alpha Books. December 21, 2007.
- "British school bans books by Jews from its campus in the Persian Gulf". highbeam.com.
- "Harvard Must Give Back Tainted Money". Boston Globe.
- "United Arab Emirates: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices". US Dept. of State.
- Slavin, Barbara (2007-02-12). "Arabs try outreach to Israel, U.S. Jews". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
See also
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