Were Egypt’s Jews Really Expelled?

[EgyptianAmerican]

The new Israeli curriculum on Jewish communities in the Muslim world is welcome, but it highlights only the persecution. And in the case of Egypt, it’s not even clear a full-fledged expulsion happened

By Eyal Sagui Bizawe Sep 10, 2017

I was recently pleased to learn that the Education Ministry has decided, as part of efforts to redress a historical injustice, to inaugurate a new curriculum to include 12 “essential concepts” on Jewish communities from the Islamic world and further afield.

The curriculum implements the advice of a committee convened last year at the request of Education Minister Naftali Bennett and headed by poet Erez Biton. The panel was tasked with crafting recommendations on heightening the school curriculum’s attention to the heritage of Sephardi and Eastern Jewish communities.

The concepts include general (even too general) attention to lots of things, for example: Persian and Ethiopian Jewry, leading figures including the late Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the 17th century Yemenite poet Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, underground Zionist activity in Iraq, disasters including the forced conversion of Persian Jews in the city of Mashhad, the 19th-century Damascus blood libel, the death of North African Jews in the Holocaust and the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry.

If the approach can be summed up, it’s that the Jews in Muslim countries tended to matters in their own communities, wrote in Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic, engaged in Zionist activity – and in their spare were persecuted. There’s no attention to Jewish involvement in national or communist politics, literature in the local language or European languages, the establishment of the Iraqi broadcast-authority orchestra, the involvement of Jews in the Egyptian film industry, or the Jewish involvement in the war in Algeria. Not that all these had to be the basis for an “essential concept,” but at least one of them could have been highlighted.

Actually, you could conclude from the list of 12 concepts that the only contact that Mizrahi Jews – Jews from the Middle East – had with their local surroundings came in the form of the next pogrom. The theme is clear. After all, there’s nothing like some good trauma to bring us all together around our memory of national tragedy, where we can put the head of a Persian Jew on the shoulders of a Polish Jew and the head of a German Jew on the shoulders of an Iraqi Jew, wailing together that the shtetl is burning.

But is it possible in the same context to include “the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry”? After all, not only did this not influence the lives of Jews outside Egypt. It’s doubtful it can be viewed as an event that affected the whole of the Egyptian Jewish community. In addition, like the 1952 Cairo riots known as the Cairo fire, it’s difficult to state that it was a clearly anti-Jewish event.

I can already sense the ire of Egyptian Jews as I type these lines. After all, how is it that “one of our own” would deny the tragedy of the expulsion and play down the trauma of so many people? Even in Egypt they’re acknowledging the expulsion, expressing remorse and even making documentaries and writing investigative pieces on the subject.

So in my defense, let me make things clear. Jews were indeed expelled from Egypt. As far back as May 1948, when Israel declared its independence, Jews suspected of Zionist or communist activity were put in detention camps. Some of the detainees managed to gain their freedom in the first few months, but those who remained in custody until July 1949 were expelled.

In 1956, following the Sinai Campaign, or at it’s known in Egypt, the Tripartite Aggression (of Israel, Britain and France), the Egyptian police resumed detention without trial of hundreds of the heads of Jewish families, often without relatives knowing anything about the fate of those taken away. The bank accounts of many were confiscated, their businesses nationalized, their homes sealed, and many were forced to sign declarations that they had voluntarily forfeited their property. Many were also sent directly from transit camps to ships that took them out of Egypt, never to return. Their passports were stamped “departure without possible return.”

In addition, many of those who weren’t expelled were compelled in other ways to leave, whether out of fear or because they wanted to be with their relatives abroad, because they realized that Jews had no future in Egypt, or because they were Zionists. For many Egyptian Jews, it was impossible to remain even if they weren’t expelled.

Persecution obsession
But it’s indisputable that most of Egypt’s Jews were not expelled. In addition, with all my deep identification with members of my people, they were also not the only ones expelled. Unlike in 1948, in 1956 it was not only Jews who were evicted from the country but also members of other communities.
So again, you’’ll rightly ask, is this what I’m making a fuss about? After all, it’s possible that it was a typographical error by the Education Ministry or the reporter who wrote about the list of “essential concepts.” If all this is over the addition of a minor change in wording, we can call it “the expulsion of Jews from Egypt” instead of “the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry” and that’s that.


But I’m not convinced this case involves a typographical error rather than a persecution obsession, which in fact many people believe is the foundation of our existence as a people. After all, when we say “the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry,” it resonates in our mind and in the collective memory that includes a central traumatic event in the history of the Jewish people, “the expulsion of Spanish Jewry.” We can imagine rows of hooded soldiers gathering Egyptian Jews in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and giving them two options: convert to Islam or be expelled. Or even not giving them the choice but expelling them all. But such an event simply never occurred.

If this had been a central event that was appropriate for the list of 12 essential concepts, the Education Ministry might be so kind as to produce a list of research done on the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry. The activities of the Zionist underground in Iraq have been written about and researched, as has the Damascus blood libel. And there’s an endless number of studies on the expulsion of Spanish Jewry.

Elusive expulsion
But when it comes to the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry, I haven’t found even a single basic study, though I admit that, since I’m not a historian, it’s entirely possible I’ve missed one. And in all the studies I’m aware of about Egyptian Jewry, the expulsion doesn’t even get an entire chapter.

The expulsion is noted in passing at the end of a book by Gudrun Krämer on the Jewish community in Egypt between 1914 and 1952, as a topic beyond the study’s purview. In the book “The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry,” Joel Beinin devotes just a few paragraphs to the topic, as do books by Shimon Shamir, Ruth Kimchi, Najat Abdulhaq and others.

In “The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970,” the historian Michael Laskier writes that from November 1956 to 1958, between 23,000 and 25,000 Jews left the country. Laskier doesn’t claim that all of them were expelled, but let’s take a worst-case scenario. Even if 25,000 were expelled, of the 60,000 Jews that were in Egypt after the first wave of aliyah following the establishment of Israel, that would leave 35,000 not expelled. If it was clear policy to expel Jews, why not expel them all?

In a new Hebrew-language book “The Five Long Minutes: The Jews of Egypt, 1967-1970, the Arrests and Uprooting,” Cairo-born Ovadia Yerushalmi writes about the conditions in which Egypt’s Jews lived during the Six-Day War and the detention without trial of Jewish males, including himself.

“After the Sinai campaign the Egyptian government arrested several hundred Jews and imprisoned them in detention camps without trial and for no reason,” he writes. “Most of the Jews lost their livelihood. Many of them were expelled for being British or French citizens, and others had to leave due to the confiscation of their property. After the Sinai Campaign, the feeling also changed among the young people who had to remain in Egypt. They too understood that their future was outside Egypt, and they planned to leave at a suitable time for them.”

There is so much in this paragraph. First, we learn from the book’s title that even in the late ‘60s, there was still a Jewish community in Egypt – tiny, but not expelled. Second, we learn that many of the Jews arrested in 1956 were expelled, but not all of them or even a majority. Third, there were Jews with British or French citizenship. Fourth, there were young people who not only weren’t expelled but had to stay. They would leave when it suited them.
Many Jews of Egyptian origin won’t be pleased to read this, to put it mildly. Over the years, all they wanted was recognition of the trauma of expulsion. Like me, they've sought their personal story in the collective narrative, but as I see it, they’ve erred in describing their experience using terminology from others’ experience.


So, for example, they’ve referred to the detention camps as concentration camps and have spoken of their experiences as “the Nakba of Jews from Arab countries,” using the Arabic word that refers to the events during Israel’s War of Independence when Palestinians fled or were expelled from the country.

In a 1990 book about the Egyptian Jewish community, there’s even an incident called the Night of the Cinemas; it refers to the day Israel declared independence, May 14, 1948. The book describes the killing of hundreds of young Egyptian Jews on that day, but such an event never took place.

“Last night was a second Kristallnacht, this time not in Berlin but in the heart of serene Cairo!” the story’s female protagonist tells a Holocaust survivor. After all, what’s the story of Jews from Arab countries if it can’t be compared to the catastrophe of our brothers in Europe?

With all the cynicism in what I’m saying, there’s nothing in the above description that justifies the arrests and act of expulsion, and I certainly don’t play down the trauma that expellees from Egypt underwent. In my own family, some were expelled and much of their property was nationalized. But I’d like to hear these accounts in the Egyptian Jews’ own words, without the terminology used by Jews from Europe, or by Palestinians.

Writing history and teaching both carry responsibilities that go beyond emotional identification. If that’s the broader context in which school students will be learning about the “Expulsion of Jews from Egypt,” so be it. But if you teach it in a way that isolates the Jewish case from its general context, and again show them that in every generation some rise up to consume us and the Holy One in Zion is the one who saves us, don’t bother. Let’s leave matters with the pogroms in Odessa and Kishinev, or just move on to the next tragedy.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/egypt/.premium-1.811370

 

[MultaniGuy]

There is nothing wrong with Jews. There are many good Jews and some bad ones out there.

There are good and bad in every community.

Its just the zionists who are problem makers.

 

[gangsta_rap]

Will they not talk about Musa bin Maimun in their curriculum? How he was respected in Egypt and today he is recognized as the most powerful authority in Jewish faith and law.

 

[Gomig-21]

Great article. It makes a ton of sense to identify what actually happened and to correct the terminology while at the same time make sure that what actually happened isn't denied. But there wasn't a "mass expulsion" or a "concentration camp" - like event. They were most certainly persecuted and shamefully so. Having their properties seized and put into detention camps was essentially putting them on a boat and telling them to go somewhere else. Shameful, since they were Egyptians just like us, as are the Copts whom are Egyptians, just like us. The fact that the concept of living in harmony eluded us and still does till this day is a crying shame. Unfortunately one has to look outside of Egypt to learn what it's like to tolerate your own kind, no matter what religion they are. It is a sad part of our history there is no question about it.

We're friends with an Egyptian Jewish family here in the US and they couldn't be nicer, kinder, or more courteous. In fact, whenever we're together, I never think of them as Jewish Egyptians. They're just Egyptians.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

The new Israeli curriculum on Jewish communities in the Muslim world is welcome, but it highlights only the persecution. And in the case of Egypt, it’s not even clear a full-fledged expulsion happened

By Eyal Sagui Bizawe Sep 10, 2017

I was recently pleased to learn that the Education Ministry has decided, as part of efforts to redress a historical injustice, to inaugurate a new curriculum to include 12 “essential concepts” on Jewish communities from the Islamic world and further afield.

The curriculum implements the advice of a committee convened last year at the request of Education Minister Naftali Bennett and headed by poet Erez Biton. The panel was tasked with crafting recommendations on heightening the school curriculum’s attention to the heritage of Sephardi and Eastern Jewish communities.

The concepts include general (even too general) attention to lots of things, for example: Persian and Ethiopian Jewry, leading figures including the late Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the 17th century Yemenite poet Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, underground Zionist activity in Iraq, disasters including the forced conversion of Persian Jews in the city of Mashhad, the 19th-century Damascus blood libel, the death of North African Jews in the Holocaust and the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry.

If the approach can be summed up, it’s that the Jews in Muslim countries tended to matters in their own communities, wrote in Hebrew or Judeo-Arabic, engaged in Zionist activity – and in their spare were persecuted. There’s no attention to Jewish involvement in national or communist politics, literature in the local language or European languages, the establishment of the Iraqi broadcast-authority orchestra, the involvement of Jews in the Egyptian film industry, or the Jewish involvement in the war in Algeria. Not that all these had to be the basis for an “essential concept,” but at least one of them could have been highlighted.

Actually, you could conclude from the list of 12 concepts that the only contact that Mizrahi Jews – Jews from the Middle East – had with their local surroundings came in the form of the next pogrom. The theme is clear. After all, there’s nothing like some good trauma to bring us all together around our memory of national tragedy, where we can put the head of a Persian Jew on the shoulders of a Polish Jew and the head of a German Jew on the shoulders of an Iraqi Jew, wailing together that the shtetl is burning.

But is it possible in the same context to include “the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry”? After all, not only did this not influence the lives of Jews outside Egypt. It’s doubtful it can be viewed as an event that affected the whole of the Egyptian Jewish community. In addition, like the 1952 Cairo riots known as the Cairo fire, it’s difficult to state that it was a clearly anti-Jewish event.

I can already sense the ire of Egyptian Jews as I type these lines. After all, how is it that “one of our own” would deny the tragedy of the expulsion and play down the trauma of so many people? Even in Egypt they’re acknowledging the expulsion, expressing remorse and even making documentaries and writing investigative pieces on the subject.

So in my defense, let me make things clear. Jews were indeed expelled from Egypt. As far back as May 1948, when Israel declared its independence, Jews suspected of Zionist or communist activity were put in detention camps. Some of the detainees managed to gain their freedom in the first few months, but those who remained in custody until July 1949 were expelled.

In 1956, following the Sinai Campaign, or at it’s known in Egypt, the Tripartite Aggression (of Israel, Britain and France), the Egyptian police resumed detention without trial of hundreds of the heads of Jewish families, often without relatives knowing anything about the fate of those taken away. The bank accounts of many were confiscated, their businesses nationalized, their homes sealed, and many were forced to sign declarations that they had voluntarily forfeited their property. Many were also sent directly from transit camps to ships that took them out of Egypt, never to return. Their passports were stamped “departure without possible return.”

In addition, many of those who weren’t expelled were compelled in other ways to leave, whether out of fear or because they wanted to be with their relatives abroad, because they realized that Jews had no future in Egypt, or because they were Zionists. For many Egyptian Jews, it was impossible to remain even if they weren’t expelled.

Persecution obsession
But it’s indisputable that most of Egypt’s Jews were not expelled. In addition, with all my deep identification with members of my people, they were also not the only ones expelled. Unlike in 1948, in 1956 it was not only Jews who were evicted from the country but also members of other communities.
So again, you’’ll rightly ask, is this what I’m making a fuss about? After all, it’s possible that it was a typographical error by the Education Ministry or the reporter who wrote about the list of “essential concepts.” If all this is over the addition of a minor change in wording, we can call it “the expulsion of Jews from Egypt” instead of “the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry” and that’s that.


But I’m not convinced this case involves a typographical error rather than a persecution obsession, which in fact many people believe is the foundation of our existence as a people. After all, when we say “the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry,” it resonates in our mind and in the collective memory that includes a central traumatic event in the history of the Jewish people, “the expulsion of Spanish Jewry.” We can imagine rows of hooded soldiers gathering Egyptian Jews in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and giving them two options: convert to Islam or be expelled. Or even not giving them the choice but expelling them all. But such an event simply never occurred.

If this had been a central event that was appropriate for the list of 12 essential concepts, the Education Ministry might be so kind as to produce a list of research done on the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry. The activities of the Zionist underground in Iraq have been written about and researched, as has the Damascus blood libel. And there’s an endless number of studies on the expulsion of Spanish Jewry.

Elusive expulsion
But when it comes to the expulsion of Egyptian Jewry, I haven’t found even a single basic study, though I admit that, since I’m not a historian, it’s entirely possible I’ve missed one. And in all the studies I’m aware of about Egyptian Jewry, the expulsion doesn’t even get an entire chapter.

The expulsion is noted in passing at the end of a book by Gudrun Krämer on the Jewish community in Egypt between 1914 and 1952, as a topic beyond the study’s purview. In the book “The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry,” Joel Beinin devotes just a few paragraphs to the topic, as do books by Shimon Shamir, Ruth Kimchi, Najat Abdulhaq and others.

In “The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970,” the historian Michael Laskier writes that from November 1956 to 1958, between 23,000 and 25,000 Jews left the country. Laskier doesn’t claim that all of them were expelled, but let’s take a worst-case scenario. Even if 25,000 were expelled, of the 60,000 Jews that were in Egypt after the first wave of aliyah following the establishment of Israel, that would leave 35,000 not expelled. If it was clear policy to expel Jews, why not expel them all?

In a new Hebrew-language book “The Five Long Minutes: The Jews of Egypt, 1967-1970, the Arrests and Uprooting,” Cairo-born Ovadia Yerushalmi writes about the conditions in which Egypt’s Jews lived during the Six-Day War and the detention without trial of Jewish males, including himself.

“After the Sinai campaign the Egyptian government arrested several hundred Jews and imprisoned them in detention camps without trial and for no reason,” he writes. “Most of the Jews lost their livelihood. Many of them were expelled for being British or French citizens, and others had to leave due to the confiscation of their property. After the Sinai Campaign, the feeling also changed among the young people who had to remain in Egypt. They too understood that their future was outside Egypt, and they planned to leave at a suitable time for them.”

There is so much in this paragraph. First, we learn from the book’s title that even in the late ‘60s, there was still a Jewish community in Egypt – tiny, but not expelled. Second, we learn that many of the Jews arrested in 1956 were expelled, but not all of them or even a majority. Third, there were Jews with British or French citizenship. Fourth, there were young people who not only weren’t expelled but had to stay. They would leave when it suited them.
Many Jews of Egyptian origin won’t be pleased to read this, to put it mildly. Over the years, all they wanted was recognition of the trauma of expulsion. Like me, they've sought their personal story in the collective narrative, but as I see it, they’ve erred in describing their experience using terminology from others’ experience.


So, for example, they’ve referred to the detention camps as concentration camps and have spoken of their experiences as “the Nakba of Jews from Arab countries,” using the Arabic word that refers to the events during Israel’s War of Independence when Palestinians fled or were expelled from the country.

In a 1990 book about the Egyptian Jewish community, there’s even an incident called the Night of the Cinemas; it refers to the day Israel declared independence, May 14, 1948. The book describes the killing of hundreds of young Egyptian Jews on that day, but such an event never took place.

“Last night was a second Kristallnacht, this time not in Berlin but in the heart of serene Cairo!” the story’s female protagonist tells a Holocaust survivor. After all, what’s the story of Jews from Arab countries if it can’t be compared to the catastrophe of our brothers in Europe?

With all the cynicism in what I’m saying, there’s nothing in the above description that justifies the arrests and act of expulsion, and I certainly don’t play down the trauma that expellees from Egypt underwent. In my own family, some were expelled and much of their property was nationalized. But I’d like to hear these accounts in the Egyptian Jews’ own words, without the terminology used by Jews from Europe, or by Palestinians.

Writing history and teaching both carry responsibilities that go beyond emotional identification. If that’s the broader context in which school students will be learning about the “Expulsion of Jews from Egypt,” so be it. But if you teach it in a way that isolates the Jewish case from its general context, and again show them that in every generation some rise up to consume us and the Holy One in Zion is the one who saves us, don’t bother. Let’s leave matters with the pogroms in Odessa and Kishinev, or just move on to the next tragedy.

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/egypt/.premium-1.811370

Interesting article, bro.

Pretty much mirrors the stories of Jewish communities in all Arab countries stretching from Yemen to Morocco.

Great article. It makes a ton of sense to identify what actually happened and to correct the terminology while at the same time make sure that what actually happened isn't denied. But there wasn't a "mass expulsion" or a "concentration camp" - like event. They were most certainly persecuted and shamefully so. Having their properties seized and put into detention camps was essentially putting them on a boat and telling them to go somewhere else. Shameful, since they were Egyptians just like us, as are the Copts whom are Egyptians, just like us. The fact that the concept of living in harmony eluded us and still does till this day is a crying shame. Unfortunately one has to look outside of Egypt to learn what it's like to tolerate your own kind, no matter what religion they are. It is a sad part of our history there is no question about it.

We're friends with an Egyptian Jewish family here in the US and they couldn't be nicer, kinder, or more courteous. In fact, whenever we're together, I never think of them as Jewish Egyptians. They're just Egyptians.

Indeed.

Honestly speaking (this is only my view - I know that plenty of other Arabs disagree mainly due to politics) but I really don't look at, say an Yemeni Jew (now an Israeli citizen) any differently from a Yemeni Muslim expect for his citizenship. They are the same people after all. So not surprised to hear that many Egyptians consider the Egyptian Jews as their countrymen.

Anyway it has to be said that this relationship and "kinship" if you like, will become more fragmented and distant the older Israel gets. After all 2/3 of all Israeli Jews are originally from the Arab world (Arab Jews) but have in mind that Israel has desperately (for the past 70 years) tried to create a uniform Jewish culture. The children of those settlers are the most anti-past (anti their own origin, culture etc.) but I suspect that the grandchildren would want to know how they magically ended up in modern-day Israel and where they come from. Especially those non-Ashkenazi ones who don't exactly look like your average Polish Jew. However eventually Israel will turn into a US in the sense that "Israel" first will become the main "song". If it is not that already.

Great article. It makes a ton of sense to identify what actually happened and to correct the terminology while at the same time make sure that what actually happened isn't denied. But there wasn't a "mass expulsion" or a "concentration camp" - like event. They were most certainly persecuted and shamefully so. Having their properties seized and put into detention camps was essentially putting them on a boat and telling them to go somewhere else. Shameful, since they were Egyptians just like us, as are the Copts whom are Egyptians, just like us. The fact that the concept of living in harmony eluded us and still does till this day is a crying shame. Unfortunately one has to look outside of Egypt to learn what it's like to tolerate your own kind, no matter what religion they are. It is a sad part of our history there is no question about it.

We're friends with an Egyptian Jewish family here in the US and they couldn't be nicer, kinder, or more courteous. In fact, whenever we're together, I never think of them as Jewish Egyptians. They're just Egyptians.

BTW the persecution bit was a consequence of that time and events during that time (birth of Israel) and the political climate more than it was about an innate hatred for Jews. Something that history also confirms. Certainly this could have been dealt with differently and in hindsight the Arab governments should not have allowed or contributed to the Jewish mass-exodus to Israel. Hindsight is always the most clever person though.

 

[Gomig-21]

Indeed.

Honestly speaking (this is only my view - I know that plenty of other Arabs disagree mainly due to politics) but I really don't look at, say an Yemeni Jew (now an Israeli citizen) any differently from a Yemeni Muslim expect for his citizenship. They are the same people after all.

Exactly. And most of these people (if not all) never became Israeli citizens. They were forced to leave their own country. How shameful is that part of our history? It wasn't their fault that the Zionists set up shop next door. Our paranoia got the best of us and we didn't handle it well at all. The problem is that while things are slowly improving with every passing generation, amongst many Muslims, the opposite is happening just as much. This is something that will unfortunately be impossible to reconcile without a complete revamping of moral and social schools of thought, basically an impossibility. Sadly I'm not hopeful.

Sometimes I wonder, if the Israelis, within the next year packed up all their belongings and left, declaring an entire independent, autonomous, sovereign state of Palestine for the Palestinians, will our attitudes change? Or will we still look for someone to condemn?

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Exactly. And most of these people (if not all) never became Israeli citizens. They were forced to leave their own country. How shameful is that part of our history? It wasn't their fault that the Zionist set up shop next door. Our paranoia got the best of us and we didn't handle it well at all. The problem is that while things are slowly improving with every passing generation, amongst many Muslims, the opposite is happening just as much. This is something that will unfortunately be impossible to reconcile without a complete revamping of moral and social schools of thought, basically an impossibility. Sadly I'm not hopeful.

Sometimes I wonder, if the Israelis, within the next year packed up all their belongings and left, declaring an entire independent, autonomous, sovereign state of Palestine for the Palestinians, will our attitudes change? Or will we still look for someone to condemn?

Well said, brother.

In fact the Arab governments back then, maybe without even realizing it, helped Israel tremendously when they decided to make life as difficult as possible for their Jewish citizens. In return Israel gained a very significant number (almost 1 million - remember this is way back so 1 million people had a bigger economic, educational, political, military etc. "worth" so to speak back then than it has today) of new citizens that were mostly well-educated (of course far form all but a large portion were) and now ideologically very much aligned with the Israeli state.

This could have been handled differently and much better. I would imagine, had most of the Arab Jews remained, that Israel as a state (in terms of being the sole protector of Jews) would lose much of its appeal and much of the propaganda that has since been used, would no longer be applicable.

BTW you also have the case of Yemen where many Yemeni Jews actually left overnight, many oblivious to that and not wanting to leave.

You might have heard about this event:

Operation Magic Carpet is a widely known nickname for Operation On Wings of Eagles (Hebrew: כנפי נשרים‎‎, Kanfei Nesharim), an operation between June 1949 and September 1950 that brought 49,000 Yemenite Jews to the new state of Israel.[1] During its course, the overwhelming majority of Yemenite Jews – some 47,000 Yemeni, 1,500 Aden as well as 500 Djiboutian and Eritrean Jews and some 2,000 Jews from Saudi Arabia– were airlifted to Israel. British and American transport planes made some 380 flights from Aden, in a secret operation that was not made public until several months after it was over. At some point, the operation was also called Operation Messiah's Coming.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Magic_Carpet_(Yemen)

BTW we as children, not from that generation, will probably not understand much of what was going on back then, but I am sure that we might have had different views back then. As I told, hindsight is always right.

Hopefully the attitude (frankly it goes both ways) will change but on the other hand it is not easy to leave decades of hostility and pretend that nothing ever occurred. I think that this process will kickstart and reach its desired conclusion naturally as old generations will be replaced by newer ones and old wounds will be healed.

I mean how many of us have heard stories from our grandparents or great-grandparents about the evil savage Mongols? I suspect none.

 

[Dai Toruko]

It is a sin to live as a Jew in Egypt.
The Torah forbids to live there.

 

[Gomig-21]

In fact the Arab governments back then, maybe without even realizing it, helped Israel tremendously when they decided to make life as difficult as possible for their Jewish citizens. In return Israel gained a very significant number (almost 1 million - remember this is way back so 1 million people had a bigger economic, educational, political, military etc. "worth" so to speak back then than it has today) of new citizens that were mostly well-educated (of course far form all but a large portion were) and now ideologically very much aligned with the Israeli state.

The Arabs empowered them, indeed, if not by giving them more resolve, they gave them the world's empathy. At the time people around the world were reeling at the horrors of the holocaust, and the worst thing to do was to persecute them even more! I'ts dumbfounded at the lack of comprehension of this simple concept that none of our defunct leaders at the time realized. It's a disgrace because it borders stupidity.

You might have heard about this event:

I haven't, bro. I learn something from you everyday! That's incredible.

BTW we as children, not from that generation, will probably not understand much of what was going on back then, but I am sure that we might have had different views back then. As I told, hindsight is always right.

I understand that not being there makes us not really privy to the exact circumstances that led to their actions that we consider shameful in this day and age. Hindsight is always 20/20 but it's not like people weren't intelligent enough to gather thoughts and high level advice and dissect the circumstances and come up with possible scenarios of what their actions would cause and have sound plans to counter. That's really not asking much. Cause & effect was something Arab leadership lacked the understanding of on a staggering level, including Gamal Adbel Nasser himself. Nothing more evident than 1967. If he or his incompetent generals didn't realize the consequences of blocking the straights of Tiran and sending armor to the Israeli border and not be alert at every second of the day after pulling moves like that (and also after the same consequence happened 10 years earlier), then how can we ever forgive them for such failures of mega proportions when they are so obvious? It's tough TBH.

It is a sin to live as a Jew in Egypt.
The Torah forbids to live there.

That's a very interesting religious concept for the Jews. Maybe some of the Jewish member could explain it a bit better maybe.

The Prohibition Against Living in Egypt
Parshat Ki Tavo

Advanced
By Aryeh Citron

The prohibition to live in Egypt is mentioned three times in the Torah. It is first found in Exodus.1 Before the splitting of the sea, Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid! Stand firm and see G‑d's salvation that He will wreak for you today, for the way you have seen the Egyptians is [only] today, [but] you shall no longer continue to see them for eternity.'"

This is understood by the commentaries2 as a prohibition against returning to Egypt, and not merely as a prophecy that we will not see the might of the Egyptians again.

The second time we find the prohibition is in Deuteronomy. One of the prohibitions upon a Jewish king is that he may not acquire too many horses,3 "so that he will not bring the people back to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, for G‑d said to you, 'You shall not return that way any more.'"

Towards the end of Deuteronomy, the Torah details a litany of terrible curses that will befall the Jews should they not fulfill the commandments properly. The last verse of these curses reads4: "And G‑d will bring you back to Egypt in ships, through the way about which I had said to you, 'you will never see it again...'"

The Reasons
Various reasons are given for this prohibition. Some of them are:

1. The people of Egypt were very immoral, as the verse states5: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelled, you shall not do," and going to live there might influence the Jews in a negative way.6
2. The return of the Jews to Egypt would be an affront to G‑d, who specifically saved us from slavery there and removed us from there.7
3. The Arizal explains that wherever a Jew lives, he or she needs to extract the holiness that is "hidden" in that place and elevate it. When the Jews left Egypt, however, they emptied it of all holiness. The Talmud8 states "they made it like a [bird] trap that has no grain, and like the depths [of the sea] which have no fish." Therefore, it is considered pointless for a Jew to live in Egypt, as he cannot accomplish any elevation of holiness there.9

Understanding the Historic Jewish Presence in Egypt
Nevertheless, despite these verses and the tragedies detailed above, we find that many G‑d-fearing Jewish communities were established in Egypt, and many leaders of the Jewish people lived there. To name some of them: Maimonides, The Radvaz (Rabbi Dovid ben Zimra, 1479-1589), Rabbi Betzalel Ashekenazi (author of the Shitah Mekubetezet, and teacher of the Arizal), and the Arizal (in his youth).

Several explanations have been given for this. Some of them are:

1. The prohibition applies only to returning to Egypt from Israel (thus reversing the path of the Exodus—see the second reason for the prohibition, above).12
2. Along these lines, some say that it's only forbidden to return to Egypt via the same route of 42 encampments that the Jews followed in the desert.13
3. Some say that the prohibition only applied when the people of Egypt were particularly immoral, but is not a prohibition for all times.14
4. In a similar vein, some say that since most of the native Egyptians were exiled by Sennacherib and the Assyrians, the prohibition no longer applies.15
5. Some explain that the prohibition only applied when the Jews lived in the Holy land, and not after the destruction of the Temples and the ensuing exiles.16
6. The Radvaz17 says that the actual Torah prohibition would be violated only if a person moved to Egypt with the intention of living there. But a person may move there for temporary asylum or while he does some business. Once a person is there, if he decides to stay, it is still forbidden but not as severe, as it involves no physical action. Therefore, if the economic situation is difficult in other lands or if the Jews in other lands are being persecuted, it is permissible for those already in Egypt to stay.

http://www.chabad.org/library/artic...h/The-Prohibition-Against-Living-in-Egypt.htm

 

[The SC]

I have a real espionage story that happened in Iraq after the creation of Usrael.. I will try to translate it and post it here.. in brief, it shows how the Zionist movement was stirring trouble and manipulating Arab Jews to turn against Iraq with terrorist acts and undermining the economy, hence forcing the Iraqi government to respond harshly, and then the Zionist agents will convince the Arab Jews that it is better for them to go live in the newly founded Israel, where they will have peace.. one can replace the word Iraq by most names of Arab nations where Jews used to live peacefully until the advent of Israel..

The Arabs empowered them, indeed, if not by giving them more resolve, they gave them the world's empathy. At the time people around the world were reeling at the horrors of the holocaust, and the worst thing to do was to persecute them even more! I'ts dumbfounded at the lack of comprehension of this simple concept that none of our defunct leaders at the time realized. It's a disgrace because it borders stupidity.



I haven't, bro. I learn something from you everyday! That's incredible.



I understand that not being there makes us not really privy to the exact circumstances that led to their actions that we consider shameful in this day and age. Hindsight is always 20/20 but it's not like people weren't intelligent enough to gather thoughts and high level advice and dissect the circumstances and come up with possible scenarios of what their actions would cause and have sound plans to counter. That's really not asking much. Cause & effect was something Arab leadership lacked the understanding of on a staggering level, including Gamal Adbel Nasser himself. Nothing more evident than 1967. If he or his incompetent generals didn't realize the consequences of blocking the straights of Tiran and sending armor to the Israeli border and not be alert at every second of the day after pulling moves like that (and also after the same consequence happened 10 years earlier), then how can we ever forgive them for such failures of mega proportions when they are so obvious? It's tough TBH.



That's a very interesting religious concept for the Jews. Maybe some of the Jewish member could explain it a bit better maybe.

The Prohibition Against Living in Egypt
Parshat Ki Tavo

Advanced
By Aryeh Citron

The prohibition to live in Egypt is mentioned three times in the Torah. It is first found in Exodus.1 Before the splitting of the sea, Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid! Stand firm and see G‑d's salvation that He will wreak for you today, for the way you have seen the Egyptians is [only] today, [but] you shall no longer continue to see them for eternity.'"

This is understood by the commentaries2 as a prohibition against returning to Egypt, and not merely as a prophecy that we will not see the might of the Egyptians again.

The second time we find the prohibition is in Deuteronomy. One of the prohibitions upon a Jewish king is that he may not acquire too many horses,3 "so that he will not bring the people back to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, for G‑d said to you, 'You shall not return that way any more.'"

Towards the end of Deuteronomy, the Torah details a litany of terrible curses that will befall the Jews should they not fulfill the commandments properly. The last verse of these curses reads4: "And G‑d will bring you back to Egypt in ships, through the way about which I had said to you, 'you will never see it again...'"

The Reasons
Various reasons are given for this prohibition. Some of them are:

1. The people of Egypt were very immoral, as the verse states5: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelled, you shall not do," and going to live there might influence the Jews in a negative way.6
2. The return of the Jews to Egypt would be an affront to G‑d, who specifically saved us from slavery there and removed us from there.7
3. The Arizal explains that wherever a Jew lives, he or she needs to extract the holiness that is "hidden" in that place and elevate it. When the Jews left Egypt, however, they emptied it of all holiness. The Talmud8 states "they made it like a [bird] trap that has no grain, and like the depths [of the sea] which have no fish." Therefore, it is considered pointless for a Jew to live in Egypt, as he cannot accomplish any elevation of holiness there.9

Understanding the Historic Jewish Presence in Egypt
Nevertheless, despite these verses and the tragedies detailed above, we find that many G‑d-fearing Jewish communities were established in Egypt, and many leaders of the Jewish people lived there. To name some of them: Maimonides, The Radvaz (Rabbi Dovid ben Zimra, 1479-1589), Rabbi Betzalel Ashekenazi (author of the Shitah Mekubetezet, and teacher of the Arizal), and the Arizal (in his youth).

Several explanations have been given for this. Some of them are:

1. The prohibition applies only to returning to Egypt from Israel (thus reversing the path of the Exodus—see the second reason for the prohibition, above).12
2. Along these lines, some say that it's only forbidden to return to Egypt via the same route of 42 encampments that the Jews followed in the desert.13
3. Some say that the prohibition only applied when the people of Egypt were particularly immoral, but is not a prohibition for all times.14
4. In a similar vein, some say that since most of the native Egyptians were exiled by Sennacherib and the Assyrians, the prohibition no longer applies.15
5. Some explain that the prohibition only applied when the Jews lived in the Holy land, and not after the destruction of the Temples and the ensuing exiles.16
6. The Radvaz17 says that the actual Torah prohibition would be violated only if a person moved to Egypt with the intention of living there. But a person may move there for temporary asylum or while he does some business. Once a person is there, if he decides to stay, it is still forbidden but not as severe, as it involves no physical action. Therefore, if the economic situation is difficult in other lands or if the Jews in other lands are being persecuted, it is permissible for those already in Egypt to stay.

http://www.chabad.org/library/artic...h/The-Prohibition-Against-Living-in-Egypt.htm

Talking about immorality that went in Egypt, you should see what Zionist are up to in this espionage story i will bring here.. it is just appalling! I will tag you then..

 

[Gomig-21]

Talking about immorality that went in Egypt, you should see what Zionist are up to in this espionage story i will bring here.. it is just appalling! I will tag you then..

Just to be clear, it's not what I said, but what the Jewish interpretation in the source I posted of what was going on in the times of the Israelite and why it was a sin for them to return. So we're on the same page!

I look forward to the espionage story, love that stuff!

 

[jewishm]

 

[jewishm]