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Supreme Antiquities Authority head Zahi Hawass (photo: AFP) They had stayed away from the official inauguration of the restored Maimonides Synagogue on 7 March on the grounds that it was a ‘religious’ ceremony. Read More »
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The Rambam Synagogue: the ultimate miracle
Video courtesy of Yves Fedida of the Nebi Daniel Association The inauguration of the restored Maimonides Synagogue and Yeshiva in Cairo on 7 March was a poignant moment for the Nebi Daniel Association, which had worked long and hard to persuade Egypt that its Jewish heritage was worthy of preservation. Read More »
Iraqi Jew fails to vote despite queuing five hours
An Iraqi-born Jewish pensioner was left disappointed after he was unable to vote as an expatriate in the country’s general election last weekend, The Jewish Chronicle reports. David Sasson wanted to cast his vote in Wembley, north west London, but his hopes were dashed despite twice queuing for more than five hours. Read More »
Syrian stories of separation and escape
Rabbi Elie Abadie MD (photo HSJE) It was one of the largest ethnic cleansings of modern times, yet the media have largely ignored the mass exodus of Jews from Arab lands. The David Project’s Forgotten Refugees film has been trying to remedy this state of affairs, with its poignant stories of discrimination, expulsion and escape. Read More »
New law creates 3 million stakeholders in peace
From Nathan Jeffay of The Forward , the first real comment piece to be published since the passing of the Knesset bill requiring compensation for Jewish refugees from Arab countries was passed on 22 February. The piece says that all Israel’s Zionist parties supported the new law. Read More »
Egypt will bear costs of restoring Jewish heritage
What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine: Egypt is restoring Jewish antiquities because they are Egyptian. Read More »
The erasure of Jewish history and heritage
The Arab and Muslim outcry against Israel’s proposed restoration of Jewish heritage sites in Hebron is symptomatic of a campaign to deny and erase Jewish history and heritage in the region as a whole. Read my guest post on CiFwatch. Read More »
Egyptian officials stay away from Rambam opening
Culture minister Farouk Hosny and head of the Antiquities Authority Zaki Hawass stayed away from the inaugural ceremony of the restored Rambam synagogue in Cairo yesterday, on the grounds that it was purely religious, AFP reports: CAIRO — The Read More »
Left shows blindspot on Jewish rights in Jerusalem
Naomi Chazan of Meretz and veteran leftist Uri Avnery at Saturday’s protest Another demonstration took place over the weekend against Jews moving into Sheikh Jarrah , that area of East Jerusalem known to Jews as Shimon Hatzadik. Palestinians and much of the media claim it is ‘Arab’. Read More »
Rambam restoration will not lead to dialogue
Before restoration, the synagogue was roofless and prone to flooding (AP) Dignitaries from all over the world are flooding in for the official inauguration on Sunday of the Maimonides Synagogue in Cairo. Egypt has spent up to $2 m rebuilding it, but does not want its Jewish heritage to be a vehicle for dialogue and ‘normalisation’ with Israel. Read More »
Rambam synagogue: reminder of Egypt’s Jews
Video of Rambam Yeshiva restoration works (courtesy of Nebi Daniel )Rabbi Andrew Baker likes to think that the restored Maimonides synagogue, to be officially inaugurated on 7 March, will be a permanent reminder to the culture minister Farouk Hosni Read More »
Israel’s ‘crime’ : failing to use Jewish refugees
Israel committed the mistake, nay, the crime, of failing to use the Jewish refugees from Arab countries in putting its case. Addressing a London audience yesterday at the launch of the English edition of book The Dove Flyer, Eli Amir, the distinguished Baghdad-born writer, did not mince his words. Read More »
Soon, there will be nothing left of the Jews of Iraq
Hebrew inscription on the former Ark at the tomb of Ezra the Scribe (photo: AFP/Getty images) The author and journalist Marina Benjamin recalls her disappointing trip to Iraq in 2004 to search for her roots, invoked in her book Last Days in Babylon . Read More »
The Ashkenazi hotel-owners living in Karachi
The author of this fascinating article, Jonathan Marder, is the great-grandson of Solomon Wyse, one of very few Ashkenazi Jews living in Karachi. Both Wyse and his children ran hotels in the city. Read More »
Conditions deteriorate for minorities in Turkey
Jewish and Christian children being separated from Muslims at school, police disruption to synagogue services, and official interference in the selection of the community’s leadership – are these all signs of how things have changed for minorities Read More »
What about Ezekiel’s tomb, Irina Bokova?
UNESCO’s Director-General , Irina Bokova, has ‘expressed concern ‘ at the Israeli government’s plan to include in its renovation programme the biblical heritage sites of the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s tomb in Hebron. Read More »
The Sh’ia prejudice behind Iran’s foreign policy
The force driving Iran’s foreign policy is ideology: a Shi’ism that considers Jews ‘unclean’ and the unauthentic Jews and Christians of today ‘infidels’ – not protected peoples. Read More »
Kippa-wearing Jews feel safer in Djerba than Paris
The rubbish is piled high amongst the blue and white dwellings of Hara Seghira, the Jewish quarter of the Tunisian island of Djerba, but the locals are not worried. The government will do a thorough clean-up just before the holiday of Lag Ba’omer. Read More »
Purim and the obsessions of crackpot professors
Haman begging Esther for mercy, by Rembrandt With the festival of Purim around the corner, Jews turn to Persia and tell the story of how the Jewess Esther and her uncle Mordechai saved their people from extermination by the wicked Haman.Same story, different time. Read More »
Eli Amir, brilliant chronicler of the Iraqi exodus
Eli Amir Surprisingly few books about the Jews of Iraq in English have dealt in detail with the Taskeet, the period of the mass Jewish exodus from Iraq to Israel in 1950. All this is about to change, now that famous Israeli writer Eli Amir’s captivating novel The Dove Flyer has been hauled out of Hebrew language obscurity and published in English. Read More »
Pro-Arab MPS urge UK resettlement of Yemeni Jews
Diane Abbott MP With thanks: Rona This blog has been closely following the trials and tribulations of the tiny Jewish community still in Yemen. Over the last year, scores have left. But concern about their persecution now comes from an unlikely quarter. Read More »
Knesset passes Jewish refugees bill by 35 to 1
Israel’s Knesset last night passed a landmark bill safeguarding the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries by 35 votes to one. Read More »
Cairo synagogue attack does not alarm local Jews
Israelis residing in Cairo, as well as members of the small Jewish community seem unperturbed by Sunday’s attack on the main downtown synagogue in the Egyptian capital, according to Ynet News. In the attack, a man hurled a suitcase containing a makeshift bomb made of gasoline canisters at the synagogue. Read More »
Adly St synagogue in Cairo is firebombed
The Adly St synagogue, Cairo (AP) The Egyptian authorities are hesitating to call an attack on the Adly Street synagogue in Cairo a ‘terrorist attack’, The Egyptian newspaper Bikya Masr reports: CAIRO: A Jewish synagogue was attempted to be set ablaze by unnamed assailants in downtown Cairo. Read More »
Yad Vashem sidelines N. African victims of Nazism
A Jew who suffered under the Nazi occupation in Tunisia will have his story recorded by the Ben Zvi institute in Jerusalem, while the tribulations of a Jew who suffered in France will be studied at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. Read More »
Act now to ensure refugees bill protects your rights
The Knesset is expected to adopt a bill safeguarding the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries next Monday 22 February . Read More »
Jewish refugees must be tied to Palestinian issue
The fullest account yet of Monday’s important Knesset reception to mark the passing of Israel’s prospective law tying compensation for Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries to a future peace deal comes from Rachel Kliger of The Media Line. Read More »
The Iraqi-Jewish vamps of Indian cinema
Who today has heard of Sulochana and Nadira? These actresses of the pre-Bollywood era of Indian cinema were Jewesses of Iraqi origin. Fascinating article on Jweekly.com : Sulochana, aka Ruby Myers, and D. Bilimoria in the 1934 film “Indira M.A. Read More »
‘The Jews are the real refugees’ – Rivlin
Desinfos reports Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin’s remarks at the reception on Monday to mark the passage of the Knesset bill safeguarding refugee rights: “it’s not a one-way street”, he says. “Any future (peace) agreement must take the thousands of Jews who were driven from Arab countries, often leaving everything behind”. Read More »