This generally fair and nuanced Reuters report on the plight of Middle Eastern Jews, picked up by The New York Times to mark Israel’s 60th annversary, is long overdue. However, dhimmified Jews still living in several Arab countries and Iran dilute the message of displacement and persecution. (With thanks: a reader)

SIDON, Lebanon (Reuters) - A ruined cemetery lies by the sea in Sidon, the worn Hebrew inscriptions on the headstones a reminder of Lebanon’s once-thriving Jewish minority, which has all but vanished since the state of Israel emerged 60 years ago.

The graveyard sits in wasteland across the road from an unstable mountain of garbage piled over rubble collected from buildings destroyed in Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

“The Israeli troops came and looked after the cemetery,” recalled Mohammed al-Sarji, a Sidon environmentalist and film-maker. “After they left in 1985, it was neglected.”

The 1948 war at Israel’s creation, which forced some 700,000 Palestinians to flee their homeland, hardened Arab attitudes to deep-rooted Jewish minorities across the Middle East.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews were displaced. Some migrated voluntarily from mainly Muslim countries to the newly proclaimed Jewish homeland. Others were forced out by dispossession, discrimination or violence. Thousands stayed on.

Israeli statistics show more than 760,000 Middle Eastern Jews had moved to Israel by 2006, with more than 40 percent arriving in the first three years of the state’s existence.

Over the last six decades of Middle East tension, Jewish communities have dwindled to insignificance in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen, but cling on in countries such as Tunisia, Morocco and non-Arab Iran and Turkey.

Iran, seen by Israel as its deadliest foe, hosts 22,000 to 25,000 Jews, down from at least 85,000 before the 1979 Islamic revolution, when many went to the United States. Today, it is the biggest Jewish population in the Middle East outside Israel.

Morris Mottamed, who formerly held the Jewish seat in Iran’s parliament, noted that post-revolutionary turmoil and economic factors had prompted emigration among other minorities too.

Discrimination was not behind the Jewish outflow, he argued, adding that Iranian Jews enjoyed freedom of worship, education and travel. Their numbers had been stable for five years.

“I’m sure in future also there will be a very strong community of Jewish people in Iran,” Mottamed told Reuters.

Asked about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s call for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” he said he disagreed with it.

The United States says such hostility to Israel creates a threatening atmosphere for Iranian Jews. It also says they and other minorities suffer discrimination. Tehran denies this.

Morocco, which has warmer ties with Israel than most Arab countries, was home to around 400,000 Jews before 1948.

But after waves of migration, fewer than 4,000 remain, the residue of a 2,000-year history of peaceful, if unequal, cohabitation interspersed with episodes of bloody repression.

In the past, Moroccan Jews were considered subordinate to Muslims and discrimination was widespread. Every city has its Mellah, the poorest quarter to which Jews were once confined. Their residents were the first to leave when they could.

A Jewish cemetery, community centre and restaurant were among targets of Islamist suicide bombers who killed 45 people in Casablanca in 2003. But such violence against Jews is rare.

“There is no anti-Semitism in Morocco,” Simon Levy, 75, who chairs the Moroccan Museum of Judaism in Casablanca, told Le Soir daily. “There is a growing Islamist sentiment, and the Muslim has this certainty he is better than everyone else.”

But Morocco remains Levy’s home: “I made my choice long ago to stay in this country as a Moroccan, like my ancestors.”

Tunisia’s 2,000 Jews live in harmony with their Muslim neighbors, reflecting the policy of its secular government.

“We are doing our best to teach our children the Jewish religion as Muslims learn their religion,” said David Didoshim, headmaster of a Jewish school on the island of Djerba.

The community was jolted when an al Qaeda suicide bomber attacked a Djerba synagogue in 2002, killing 21 people.

Yet Hayim Haddad, a Jewish resident, said no Jews had left the island afterwards. “All the people know how much we are attached to our country Tunisia, whatever happens,” he added.

Tunisian Jews numbered 100,000 until the North African country won independence in 1956. Most then moved to France.

Conflict in Palestine in the 1930s made life harder for Egyptian Jews, as militant nationalist groups became active.

Israel’s advent in 1948 and the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952 added to their difficulties. In 1948, there were bomb attacks in Jewish areas and some Jews were killed in riots.

Jewish emigration accelerated after Israel attacked Egypt in 1956 and economic pressures mounted at home.

Many Jewish residents were entrepreneurs without Egyptian citizenship who opted to leave after the government nationalized their businesses and seized their wealth. Some were held in detention centers and coerced into leaving the country.

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Three months after the landmark ruling, allowing the minority Baha’i community to obtain official papers, Baha’is in Egypt continue to face difficulties in procuring the important documents.

Teenage twins Imad and Nancy Raouf Hindi, as well as other Baha’is have so far been unable to obtaining the documents, states the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Hossam Bahgat, head of the EIPR, was optimistic because the government hadn’t appealed the ruling, but expressed disappointment that the process of change was taking long.

We are encouraged by the positive signal that they did not appeal. But we think that all the necessary changes should not take three months,”

To read the EIPR report, click here.

Karmel Melamed produces five talking points to help sceptics find out the truth about how the Jewish minority is treated in Iran:

“I was recently approached by a non-Jewish American friend who point blank asked me why Iranians and Iranian Jews living in the U.S. were so opposed to the regime in Iran. “Jews are not mistreated in Iran, besides why are you guys making such a big deal about the Iranian government getting nuclear technology?” he asked.

“It took about two hours for me to explain the true nature of Iran’s regime to him in order for him to realize the very serious threat that that government poses to the world. He was obviously brainwashed by some left-leaning media outlets that have little knowledge of the mentality and true ideology of Iran’s radical Islamic clerics. The journalists or editors of such online or offline outlets have obviously never spent a single day living in Iran as religious minorities or understand the Persian language to grasp the sad reality of the reign of Iran’s clerics on that country.

“After my two-hour lecture, I suggested my friend chat with middle-aged or older Iranian Jews or other Iranian religious minorities about their experiences of living under the rule of the Ayatollahs. I also gave him the following five talking points to discuss with Iranian American Jews so as to better under the extent of the Iranian regime’s evil:

1) The countless hardships religious minorities such as Jews encountered when they cannot obtain certain educational or work advancements in Iran under this regime.

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After months of hard work, Mideast Youth, with the enormous help of ByteSense, finally launched Global Village TV (GVTV). I would especially like to thank Umar for making this opportunity for us much easier than it would’ve been without his help and guidance.

GVTV is a dynamic, educational platform, co-created by Baha’is and Muslims working hand in hand to cultivate an interfaith community.

For the past few months, we have been working diligently on this initiative, in hopes that it would contribute to improving and advancing serious interfaith.

We realized that in many forums, in the process of interfaith, the Baha’i Faith, Yezidi faith, and many other religions are left out. This community aims to change that.

You can view a brief demonstration of this network here:

We encourage you all to join.

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An article in The Jewish Week about a new Haggadah for men only has really got me confused. Here is an admittedly simplistic timeline of the last 35 years.

1. Judaism is seen as being too male centered, with commentaries on the Torah written by males for males and women excluded from various rituals.
2. Reform Judaism takes note and goes completely egalitarian - ordaining its first female Rabbi in 1972.
3. Over the next 30 years male participation in Reform Judaism drops drastically - going from 400 Brotherhoods with 40,000 members to 250 Brotherhoods with 20,000 members and dropping to only 20 -25 percent of Hebrew Union College Rabbinical student body.
4. Since “much of the new spirituality in Judaism feels effeminate to men”, in 2008, Reform Judaism attempts to woo men back by putting out a collection of commentaries on the Torah by male Rabbis about male topics.
5. In a further attempt to deal with the imbalance Reform Judaism then puts out a Haggadah exclusively for males and 25 Brotherhoods around the country buy these Haggadahs and conduct a MALE ONLY SEDER (even female Cantor’s excluded)!

So apparently men have different needs then women after all! They need their own space, agendas and perspective in order to connect to spirituality. Can you see why this would be confusing?

[Blessings for a wonderful Yom Tov to all - male and female! May we all be worthy of connecting to the spiritual emanations of global, national and personal redemption available to us through the mitzvot of Pesach.]

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Yemen’s Shi’ite rebels destroyed the vacant house of the (mainly Muslim Arab) state’s top rabbi, a security official said on Sunday, according to a Reuters report published in Haaretz.

Residents said the assailants from a group opposed to the U.S.-allied government destroyed the house of Yehia Youssuf in Saada, a northern province. The security official said it was not immediately known what weapons were used in the attack.

“They turned to the houses of other Jews after,” one resident said.

About 200 Yemeni Jews who lived in Saada, including Youssef, have been living in the capital Sanaa due to sporadic fighting between government forces and the rebel group, known as the Houthis.

The conflict in Saada has been raging on and off since 2004.

Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Yemen’s 19 million population, while most of the rest are from the Zaydi branch of Shi’ite Islam. Jews are estimated at a few hundreds.

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In its 2 April 2008 edition, Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported that the Ministry of Interior has just decided that the only option that will be given to the Baha’is of Egypt is to insert dashes “–” instead of leaving the religion field blank or writing “other” on ID cards.

The Ministry clarified that “leaving the religion field blank might open the door to inappropriate manipulation of official documents.”

This decision was expected since the Ministry has been considering its options on what choice it would make following Cairo’s Court of Administrative Justice ruling on 29 January 2008 to allow the Baha’is obtain ID cards and birth certificates.

The court permitted three options for registering their religious affiliation. These options were: 1) “other,” 2) dashes “–” or 3) to leave the field blank. As to which choice would eventually be used, the court had left the final decision for the Ministry of Interior to make.

This announcement is an indication that progress is being made by the Ministry in its efforts to proceed expeditiously with granting the Baha’is of Egypt their identity documents and birth certificates.

In a related case involving Egyptians who have returned to Christianity after having been declared Muslims at some point in their lives, the Ministry has decided to enter “formerly declared Muslim” on their ID cards that will be issued stating that they are currently “Christian.”

A Jewish producer in the Netherlands, Harry De Winter, blasted far-right anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders this weekend for his anti-Islam movie, Fitna, already banned from media outlets worldwide. Wilders is intent on broadcasting his Islamophobic film, after having its website pulled offline by its internet service provider, Network Solutions, and causing worldwide protest over its anti-Quran and anti-Islam contentions.

De Winter took out a front-page advertisement in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant to protest Wilders’ inflammatory actions, saying that:

“If Wilders had said the same thing about Jews (and the Old Testament) as he does about Muslims (and the Koran), he would have been ostracized a long time ago and accused of anti-Semitism.”

De Winter says Wilders’ anti-Islam hate speech are reminiscent of “how the persecution of Jews once started”, and said that for him, “there is no difference between the yarmulke and the headscarf.”

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This past Saturday, four bombs were hurled at a mosque in Biratnagar, Nepal’s second-largest city, during evening prayers. The attack resulted in the death of two, and left two men critically injured.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Nepal Defence Army, an extremist Hindu group whose aim is to restore Nepal’s status as the world’s only Hindu nation. Comprising of “former soldiers, ex-police personnel and victims of Maoist guerrillas”, the NDA has vowed to attack Islamic and Christian zealots, as well as communists.

The group also claimed it has trained suicide bombers, with the group’s leader quoted as saying:

“Now, like the Al Qaida, we are training suicide squads. “We have trained five suicide bombers who can go anywhere, including Singh Durbar

I’m sure the dhimmi-wits (they can be easily spotted - their mouth begins frothing and  they immediately begin screaming “Islamofascists…taqiyya…dhimmitude” once ‘Mooslamics’ are brought up) would find a way to spin it though, claiming the Muslims were at fault.

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Both The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz lend front page coverage to the adoption by the US House of Representatives of a resolution recognising the suffering of Jewish and other refugees for the first time. Rather than be an impediment, its supporters argued that the resolution would create a firmer foundation for peace talks between Israel and Arab parties.

Hilary Leila Kreiger of The Jerusalem Post reports :

“As peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians gather steam, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday urging that the issue of Jewish refugees be part of any agreement.

“While the Palestinian claim of a “right of return” for its refugees has long been an issue - and stumbling block - in final-status talks, the resolution seeks to have the suffering of Jewish refugees taken into account as well.

“Backers described it as the first congressional measure to recognize these refugees, and argued that it shouldn’t hinder the peace process, but rather ground it more firmly in the historical reality experienced by two peoples long at odds.

“This is not an impediment,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“He argued that raising the profile of Jewish refugees would create a stronger and more credible foundation for talks.

But the Arab American Institute suggested the resolution was unhelpful and “distracts attention” from other refugee issues, according to an action alert sent to its members last week.

“The non-binding House resolution recounts the history of the issue and calls on the US to make sure that any international resolutions relating to the “required resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue” also contain “similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish, Christian and other refugees from Arab countries.”

“It also demands that the US make clear its position that “as an integral part of any comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace… all refugees displaced from Arab countries, including Jews, Christians and other minority groups,” be recognized. (..)

“The world needs to understand that it’s not just Arabs and Palestinians, but it’s also Jewish people who were dispossessed of their homes and possessions, who were victims of terrorist acts and murder,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-New York) on a conference call Monday with resolution cosponsors Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) and Mike Ferguson (R-New Jersey). A companion resolution in the Senate has yet to be voted on.

“Regina Bubil-Waldman, a Jewish refugee who fled Libya as a child, welcomed the resolution with a quaver in her voice.

“It touches my heart, and I cannot tell you how emotional this is,” she said. “Only with historical truth can we build a better future - and today, that’s what we’re doing.”

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Haaretz article

JTA News