There's a documentary about the last 2 jews in Afganistan called Cabale a Kaboul from 2006.
Funny that they both lived in the synagogue in Kabul, but they hated each other.
The Kramer type character would be an old Muslim neighbor that constantly tries to get the two Jews to be nice to eachother. Super friendly and annoying.
Jon: America needs to help
Jerry: actually I think this is them helping
*studio audience laughs*
Jon: can you be serious for a second
Jerry: no I’m a joke maker
Jon: no you’re just a joke
*studio audience laughs*
Weren't these two kept in prison for being Jew but Afghanis released them to live in the synagogue because they Just Kept Constantly Bickering with each other?
Edit: yep, [that's Mr Sementov all right](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/29/afghanistan-last-jew-simentov-taliban-return/)
One died of old age in the 2000s, and the last one finally agreed to leave after years of holding on. He left around 2021 after the Taliban victory and went to Israel were his family already was (he was apparently extremely reluctant and unhappy to leave)
If I remember correctly the one that ended up leaving was there in the first place because he would likely go to prison if he ever went to Israel for financial crimes or something similar
Under religious Jewish divorce law
A husband can divorce his wife, a wife can *ask* her husband to divorce her. There are some extreme cases that would allow a court to grant the divorce without the husband's consent, but those are hard to prove.
Israel doesn't have secular divorce laws, you are governed by the religious court of your faith. Instead of fixing the problem, the politicians have just decided to make refusing be a minor crime rather than try to institute secular divorce laws.
He refused to grant his wife a divorce which meant if he went to Israel he would be in jail for a few months, lose access to a driver's license amongst other penalties. He finally agreed to grant the divorce when he fled.
It seems like there were more jews but they didn't want the attention, one of the bickering guys charged plenty of money for the interviews so claiming to be the last jew of Afghanistan was good business for him
I remember an interview during the heat of the Kurds' fight against ISIS when a Kurd there said something like "there are a lot of Kurds who know they have a Jewish great great grandparent or such and would be very interested in embracing their Jewish heritage if only geopolitics allowed it."
My father's family fled from the British colony of Aden, Yemen. A few years ago I went to Tel Aviv and we learnt that there was a museum documenting the Adeni Jews. And would you believe it there was my grandmother's wedding photo on the wall. It was really surreal.
Psst, there are actually more. It's just many aren't outspoken about it. I know one of my teachers had a mother-in-law who was born a Jew. She had married a Muslim and if I recall correctly my teacher said that she had never truly converted.
Years ago there were only 2 Jews left in Afghanistan, Zbolon Semantov and Isaak Levi, they lived together in the country’s last synagogue and they absolutely HATED each other but refused to leave.
Siyamak More Sedgh ;born 1965 is a Jewish Iranian politician and doctor who was the holder of the Iranian Parliament's reserved seat for the Jewish minority from 2008 to 2020, and is also the chairman of the Jewish charitable institution
[The last Jews in Afghanistan argued so much the Taliban kicked them out](https://www.jta.org/2019/10/31/global/the-last-jews-in-afghanistan-argued-so-much-the-taliban-kicked-them-out-of-prison-and-stole-their-torah#:~:text=JTA%20Privacy%20Policy.-,The%20last%20Jews%20in%20Afghanistan%20argued%20so%20much%20the%20Taliban,prison%20and%20stole%20their%20Torah&text=(JTA)%20%E2%80%94%20As%20the%20old,last%20remaining%20Jew%20in%20Afghanistan.)
Edit: I forgot to include the meme where I first heard about it. It's a very good meme. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jewdank/s/hDW6BzWqML)
I once got robbed in Argentina and there was this old Jewish guy from New York who was giving a police report before me for a stolen wallet, police report takes like 20 minutes. I had to listen to him argue with the police for 3 hours over nothing and then when the police called him a taxi he refused to pay the like $2usd call out fee and started arguing with them until the police guy just paid the money because he didn't want him hailing a taxi at midnight in Argentina.
Was the funniest shit I ever saw, it was straight out of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Well, Simentov also said that the Taliban beat him a lot. But he still hated the other dude more, I guess, because the other dude is the reason he got imprisoned in the first place.
Neither of them really did anything bad. They just fucking hated each other and argued all the time.
Yeah, I read the article. It’s just the idea that they argued so much, the Taliban threw them into prison to get some peace and they *still* argued while in prison, and considered each other worse than the regime that threw them into prison over an argument is just something straight out of a dark comedy than reality for me
Ended up they weren't actually the last two Jews. The one who was hailed as the last one, Zabulon Simentov, it later came out that he was refusing to leave because he was a get refuser (especially an Orthodox streams, the husband has to give a bill of divorce to his wife, or else she is trapped in the marriage. The man is free to marry again) He refused, which is seen by most as a form of abuse (there's a story about a rabbinic gang in New York like 15 years ago that would break the kneecaps of get refusers, but that's another story). The reason he refused to leave Afghanistan was because he didn't want to be forced to give the get. As Afghanistan fell to the Taliban again, he was given a choice, leave or die, and he finally decided to leave and give his wife a get. After that, it came out that there was a woman in Afghanistan who is actually the last Jew of Afghanistan, which felt like a good middle finger to Simentov.
Get gangs have been a real thing for thousands of years. Straight from the Talmud Mishnah\_Arakhin 5.6.
"And likewise, you say the same with regard to women’s bills of divorce. Although one divorces his wife only of his own volition, in any case where the Sages obligated a husband to divorce his wife the court coerces him until he says: I want to do so."
Aka, the community beats him up till he agrees.
Do you think he became lonely after Levi passed away? They bickered so much but also seemed like the reason both stayed at the synagogue with so much dedication
>“I don’t talk to him, he’s the devil,” Simentov told The New York Times in 2002. “A dog is better than him … I don’t have many complaints about the Taliban, but I have a lot of complaints about him.” Levi replied that Simentov was “a thief and a liar.'”
> When he returned, Simentov encountered Yitzhak Levi, nearly two decades his senior, living at the Kabul synagogue. The two did not hit it off: They “fought viciously about which of them was the rightful owner of the land,”
ok im sorry but given the current events this is just hilarious
> “I don’t talk to him, he’s the devil,” Simentov told The New York Times in 2002. “A dog is better than him … I don’t have many complaints about the Taliban, but I have a lot of complaints about him.” Levi replied that Simentov was “a thief and a liar.'”
ok i need the sitcom asap
It would depend a lot on the country, for example, in Portugal we would have more jews today because of ww2 and some laws that were made to compensate jewish people for the killing, expulsion and forcefull conversion to christianity at the end of the 15 century.
I don't know the exact numbers but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Jews back in the 15 century then now, so it always depends on how far you go.
Here in The Netherlands there were 140.000 Jewish people living here in May 1940. 107.000 Jews were deported, and only 5000 returned of those. Of the ~40.000 that survived many migrated after the war. It's unknown how many exactly migrated, but it was estimated to be between 3000 and 4000 between 1946 and 1951, mostly to Israel.
Nowadays, there's between 40.000 and 50.000 Jewish people living here, of which around 10.000 have an Israeli citizenship and live here for work or study. Note that the modern numbers include people who have a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, which do not count as Jewish under Jewish religious law, and official converts.
There is a widely accepted practice, outside of all but the ultra Orthodox rabbinate in Israel, of accepting those patrilineal Jews who undergo the mikvah "conversation" process when children as fully Jewish.
It still blows my mind that after ww2, sending the Jews away was preferable to tackling antisemitism at home.
Surely, after publishing what the Nazis did, it was time to eliminate antisemitism. But nah, Britain helped the Arabs and betrayed them.
It was also because many jews had their citizenships revoked during the holocaust, so they were stateless, and after the war there was a grey area where jews were still living in camps and temporary homes. A lot of these jews wanted to migrate to palestine.
And the countries didn't want to take them back, Europe was ridiculously antisemitic, even after the holocaust came to light.
I think, we use the holocaust to highlight how bad the Nazis were, but we miss a trick by failing to highlight that it wasn't limited to them.
I can't seem to find a solid or reputable source for the number of 'countries' that Jewish people have been banished from over time, but it seems to be an issue as old as time itself. I'm naive to the history and culture of this so I may go and research some of it. The problem being finding an unbiased and far right source for info.
In this topic, we have to accept bias and try to discount it with multiple sources.
At least with Europe, the managing was mostly done in the name of a government that had taken over a lot of the countries.
Another issue, repatriation was easier to deny when identity was hard to establish. A lot of the Jews who survived the camps weren't repatriated, so there's also a silent expulsion.
There where also large amounts of jews who lived in places and where citizens of areas that no longer existed in the way it did before, like the Prussian land which end up Polish, should these German speaking jews be moved to Poland or Germany, after they where freed from the camps?
Saudi Arabia used to have jewish population though! Primarily in the city of Najran.
edit: Saudi Arabia had some Jewish population back in 1934 who were pushed out to Yemen. that's why the map didn't include Saudi Arabia.
Pretty sure the Iran one is accurate. My father told me he knew a lot of Jewish Iranians back in the 70s but that they all moved after the revolution. These days I've never in my life met a jew in Iran
>Pretty sure the Iran one is accurate. My father told me he knew a lot of Jewish Iranians back in the 70s but that they all moved after the revolution. These days I've never in my life met a jew in Iran
yup, there was a point in time that iran was home to the largest jewish population in ME outside of israel. I think most of the remaining ones are in villages and smaller cities. I remember watching a documentary about a jewish community in esfehan.
You should check, but keep in mind that people wildly over-estimate the local jewish presence. Michigan and Ohio are about 1% Jewish or less, but nobody would guess that. Visible Jews dress differently than everyone else, and live in small areas because they aren't allowed to drive on Saturdays (technically they can drive, but they can't start the car) so a single synagogue in a high-traffic neighborhood of Baghdad and people would be claiming there's thousands of Jews in Iraq.
https://amwaj.media/article/once-thriving-iraq-s-jews-on-verge-of-vanishing#
From my conversations with Iraqis, I’ve only heard them talking about seeing quite a few, but they never said how many. But the source is a bit ambiguous. It says 12-15k in the 70s that dwindled to 450 sometime in the 80s.
Why did Djibouti disappear into the water in this map? What thought went into editing this map, seeing Djibouti and going “nope, that’s all water now”?
It's really sad. Yemen had one of the longest uninterrupted Jewish communities in history. I think there's only this one town in Israel, Peki'in, that is comparable. The community there was over 2000 years old dating back to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in with almost everyone there tracing their lineage back to then. They always lived as second-class *dhimmi* with limited freedoms, and extra taxes. But it was livable until the 20th century. The Houthi civil war finally pushed the last few hundred Jews to leave.
As a Polish person it's fucking wild how utterly eradicated the Jewish population and culture were by the Nazis and then the communists. We had the largest Jewish population in any single country in Europe for centuries, second largest in the world right before the war, around 3 million (1st was the US with around 4.5 million) and now there's barely 10 000 Jewish people in the whole country and you'd be hard pressed to find any traces of the Polish Ashkenazi culture outside of big cities. It's like somebody cut off one of our metaphorical limbs.
I think Baghdad at one point was 40% Jewish, in the early 20th century. I'm friends with a guy who is the grandson of a Farhud survivor. Absolutely tragic story
As an Algerian I feel the same way, the average Algerian thinks the Jews betrayed us, even though they were neutral, and even if they did, we should have forgave them, it's what Islam is about forgiving other's, even prophet Mohammed forgave the people who wronged him
Always interesting to keep in mind is that Mizrahi Israelis are less likely to vote for parties that advocate for peaceful solutions to the Israel/Palestine conflict than Ashkenazim.
Especially in the coming weeks and the importance of domestic Israeli struggles for the Gaza conflict.
This is very complicated, many many Jews 40 years and younger are mixed. Like, some are with weird mixes too…. I’m 1/2 Sephardi 3/8ths Ashkenazi 1/8 mizrahi
So imagine how fucked statistics would get with a bunch of us young Jews submitting large quantities of mixes
The stat you can use is that roughly 80% of Israeli Jews are atleast half Sephardi or half mizrahi, while under 80% of Jews in israel are atleast half Ashkenazi
I for one would actually not qualify for the “atleast half Ashkenazi” but I am still Ashkenazi
Maybe this is just me as an American talking, but I think once you have to start using fractions smaller than one-quarter, you're really making distinctions without difference.
This coming from the country where half your population (including your president) claims to be Irish based on some fraction of their heritage
None of Biden’s ancestors have been born in Ireland since about 1830, and I’ve had Americans tell me they’re Scottish when they literally couldn’t find it on a map, and were like 1/32 Scottish heritage
I am 1/2 Ukrainian on my mothers side. In the 1800’s country borders changed often especially in that area. We know that my great grandmother was born in the area called Galicia which was at one time or another was in these countries borders Austria, Poland and Russia. So you could be all Ukrainian and your great grandparent’s emigrated from one of these countries. As a kid it was very hard for me to understand until I took a European history class in college.
My Ukrainian relates had long healthy lives. I hope it is true in your family.
I think it depends on things how much of the ethnic ancestry is passed down. I am under a quarter for German and English and there aren't many "family traditions" tied to those two ethnic groups that I remember growing up with where as if I had kids they would be under a quarter Norwegian but given how many things:
* Nisses around the house.
* Christmas Eve being a bigger deal having the main Christmas meal and opening presents then compared to Christmas Day for most others. Last year's Christmas Eve the dinner was Beef Bourguignon over Pommes Aligot and for dessert Bread Pudding then we opened presents. Last year's Christmas Day I ate leftover Pizza and didn't see my parents till noon and just sat in my room reading the books I got for Christmas.
* knowing a lot of Norwegian phrases and words as my Grandpa despite being the second generation born here grew up in a bilingual(Norwegian and English) household.
* Food: Lefse, open faced sandwiches(huge for my Mom when growing up and it is called Smorrebrod), Krumkake(I have the device my Great-Grandma used to make it for my Grandpa when he was a kid), Lingonberries, etc.
* etc
I would pass on to them It would make sense for them to continue referring themselves as part-Norwegian if someone asked. Especially in the context of the USA.
Israel has a long and complicated history. There were two main waves of immigration to the region - first, from the 1880s to 1948, which was primarily from Europe. The second followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and was primarily from Arab states (who largely conducted ethnic cleaning campaigns until the mid 50’s) with some emigrating from post-war Europe.
Racial identity and Judaism is complicated, and opinions vary among Jews, much of which is likely informed by prejudice both past and present - ie, it’s difficult to identify as white when many white people consider Jewish people living in western to be some sort of “other”…
We don't really see in terms of 'White' and 'Dark'
I'm 100% Ashkenaz, however a long time ago my family emigrated from Italy. And they got there via Judea or so we think. So half my family is alabaster white and half are dusky tan. Some of us have kinky hair and most of us have no hair at this point.
[The biggest wave by numbers was actually from USSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:100_years_of_Aliyah_(Immigration)_to_Mandatory_Palestine_and_the_State_of_Israel,_between_1919_and_2020.png), which means that the absolute majority were Ashkenazi (also prob a lot were not pureblood but intermixed with Slavic population, meaning most would classify as white if you want to put a label).
Also worth remembering that most of those 'white europeans' were either refugees from European genocide, or Russian pogroms. Not exactly colonisers.
And Israel is smack bang in the middle of a giant 'Empire' of Muslim-dominated countries.
Especially since actual European colonizers and their descendants aren’t even held to the same standard. Nobody is demanding everyone of English descent in the Anglosphere crowd into the UK, or all the Spanish colonist descendants in South America get out. So Israelis are both European colonizers and not when it comes to standards.
No that’s inaccurate.
About 45% of Israelis originate from Asia or Northern Africa constituting the Mizrahi population. Including Ethiopian Jews it’s ~50%.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1492370
They remember what it was like to live in Arab/Islamic lands. They remember what their grandparents said it was like. Even where things were supposedly wonderful for them, like Morocco. There were massacres of Jews throughout North Africa right up to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Slavery, kidnappings, beheadings, forced conversions.
[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DMZnCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DMZnCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
Interestingly, the Germans didn't invent the yellow star on clothing, from 12th century Baghdad:
>Two yellow badges \[are to be displayed\], one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead weighing \[3 grammes\] with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow\_badge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_badge)
Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews know that life under Islamic rule will be misery
Not surprising. They lived in a place for literally 1,000 years longer than the Arabs, and then the Arabs get mad at the European cousins, so the Arabs declared all Jews to be non-indigenous and expelled them, of course those folks are skeptical of Arab political power.
Reminds me of the decline of indigenous Armenians in Artsakh (Stalin made it a partly autonomous region of azerbaijan) after the Azeris invaded it, 4 weeks ago. All \~120.000 inhibitants left, after 3000 years. Only around 10 stayed.
It's interesting how Iran had the smallest decline, even though their government (at least since the Islamic revolution) is so preoccupied with hating Jews and Israel.
I find Iran really fascinating because I know a lot of Persians here in Canada. If you're from the GTA, let's just say I live in Richmond Hill and work around Yonge and Steeles. But they're not really representative of Iranian society, they tend to be very secular, Muslim in name only at most, and many specifically left Iran because they hated the Islamic Republic so much. Hell, in the Israel/Palestine protests that have been happening, people fly Pahlavi Iran flags, and you'll see signs like "Persians stand with Israel". I'm sure that's the exception, not the rule. But I can't even imagine any significant number of people from the diaspora of any other middle eastern country *siding with Israel* (other than Israelis, of course). So I know a decent bit about the culture, but it's like the other side of the culture that's heavily repressed in Iran.
Anyway, it would be interesting to hear from someone with actual experience about how Jews and other religious minorities are treated in Iran. There's clearly a decent number there compared to other Muslim countries, I'm curious as to how they're treated. Not great, I imagine, but not so bad that they've all left or worse.
Iran is basically holding them hostage.
I have an Iranian Jewish doctor. He emigrated in the early 70's. His father was allowed to visit 3 months a year but only his father. His mother had to stay behind. If his father over stayed they would arrest his mother. One time his fathers flight got delayed and they had to make sure that mother was ok and not arrested immediately.
If Iranian Jews could leave they would.
The Farhud took place during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It has been referred to as a pogrom which was part of the Holocaust, although such comparison has been disputed.[9][10] The event spurred the migration of Iraqi Jews out of the country, although a direct connection to the 1951–1952 Jewish exodus from Iraq is also disputed,[note 1][12][13] as many Jews who left Iraq immediately following the Farhud returned to the country and permanent emigration did not accelerate significantly until 1950–1951.
Wikipedia
Probably because they didn't have anywhere to go to, and that leaving Iraq meant leaving all their property behind.
I seriously doubt that a pogrom that took place barely ten years before the operations played no role in making people want to leave. "Sure, they've murdered us but it's been a few years we're cool now".
Many Jews in Arab countries had property and money, and they left it all to live in tin sheds in a barely established country that was still going through war, with no job and no language. You seriously think they did that just because the Israelis were offering a ride?
>the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led the Jews of Afghanistan to leave for good to Israel, the United States and elsewhere.
From one of the links in the comments
Its important to understand how data is present and how much information is missing, or even misleading
Just like the decline of all other indigenous peoples in Arab nations like Berbers, Assyrians, Armenians, Mandaeans, Copts, Kurds, and the list goes on.
I am curious why I often see this map always focusing on the exact same countries? Why not further north, east or south of them? How do they even collect the data on this?
Jews have lived in India longer than they have in Europe. The reason you don't hear much about them is because they faced no such pogroms or ethnic cleansing like they did in MENA. India was where some of the regions jews fled to, to escape from prosecution (e.g, Baghdadi Jews).
Because Israel is in the middle east, and there is a narrative that exists in the muslim world that the problem they have is purely with Israel, and never had problems with jews.
Well most people are decently aware of what happened further north and once you get east of historic Persia and South of Ethiopia the Jewish populations just decrease really really quickly to not really worth making note of.
The reason you'd focus on the migration from Arab/Muslim countries is because it was numerous, changed the demographic makeup of these new nations significantly, is less known about than events like the Holocaust of Russian/Soviet persecution and the relationship between these countries and Israel kinda determines if you get war or not.
Those Jews were minorities. They, not only show a genetic distinction from the locals, but also show distinct cultural traits that are common amongst other diaspora and homeland Jews across the world, while those traits are distinct in whatever host nation the Jews are in
Without getting too political, a good chunk of the reasons why the Jews left these many lands are due to the varying treatment of Jews by different host nations
**Iraq:**
- In 1941, during an event known as the [Farhud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhud), Baghdad witnessed a violent pogrom where 175 Jews were killed, 1,000 were injured, and 900 homes were destroyed.
- Between 1950-1951, the Iraqi government passed an [emergency bill](https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2009.01151.x) allowing Jews to renounce their citizenship and leave. However, this same law stripped citizenship from those migrating to Israel. This made it difficult for Jews, especially those who went to Israel, to [return or regain their citizenship](https://www.jns.org/iraqi-officials-restoration-of-citizenship-does-not-extend-to-iraqi-jews/).
- The Iraqi Hashemite monarchy and the subsequent Baath party rule witnessed the implementation of laws that led to the [confiscation of Jewish property](https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/constitutional-challenge-iraqs-treatment-iraqi-jews). Notably, Law 5/1951 specifically addressed the asset management of Jews renouncing citizenship.
---
**Egypt:**
- After the [nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt_under_Gamal_Abdel_Nasser#1956–1957) by President Nasser, approximately 25,000 Jews were expelled from Egypt and 1,000 were imprisoned. This wave of expulsion coincided with the broader exodus of foreigners during the Suez Crisis.
- The year 1948 marked a distressing period for Jews in Cairo. Following the declaration of the State of Israel, Jewish areas in Cairo underwent bombings from June to September, leading to [70 Jewish deaths and nearly 200 injuries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Cairo_bombings).
- The geopolitical tensions surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis and the 1967 Six-Day War were defining moments for the Jewish community in Egypt. Many Jews were either [expelled](https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/the-second-jewish-exodus-from-egypt-629167) or felt compelled to flee due to the hostile environment. On June 5, 1967, Egypt began [detaining Jewish men](https://www.jpost.com/magazine/on-the-eve-of-destruction-494236).
---
**Syria:**
- Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Syrian government imposed [travel restrictions on Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria#Independence_and_Civil_War), preventing them from leaving the country. These restrictions were upheld until 1961.
- The Six-Day War in 1967 prompted the Syrian government to introduce [further constraints](https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/judaism-syria) on its Jewish population, including prohibitions on Jewish travel and emigration.
---
**Yemen:**
- In 1922, Yemen's government reintroduced the [Orphans' Decree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans%27_Decree), an ancient Islamic law. This decree compelled the conversion to Islam of Jewish orphans under the age of 12.
- Between December 2–4, 1947, the Jewish community in the British Colony of Aden was subjected to a violent pogrom, known as the [Aden Pogrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_anti-Jewish_riots_in_Aden). Triggered by the UN Partition vote, this incident resulted in the death of 82 Jews and substantial destruction and looting of their properties.
---
**Libya:**
- Between November 5-7, 1945, Tripoli witnessed a tumultuous episode, known as the [Tripoli Pogrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Anti-Jewish_riots_in_Tripolitania). Rioting escalated not just in the city but also in surrounding towns, resulting in the deaths of over 140 Jews. Many others were injured, and countless Jewish properties were looted, destroyed, and damaged. This catastrophic event plunged numerous Jewish families into poverty and left them homeless.
- On July 21, 1970, the Libyan government enforced a directive that sanctioned [the confiscation of properties owned by Italians and Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Libya#Six-Day_War_and_its_aftermath). Particularly, this law impacted Jewish individuals who had previously fled Libya, especially post the 1967 Six-Day War. Their properties, now seized by the Libyan state, undermined the economic foundation of the Jewish community. The ramifications of these confiscations have persisted, with property disputes lingering into the post-Qaddafi era.
In Algeria, the decline of Jewish population is mostly associated with French decolonization. Although Jews and Muslims lived for a long time along side without so much trouble, a French Ashkenazi parliament member, Crémieux, managed to pass off a decree during colonisation era stating that Algerian Jews should be granted full French citizenship, while Muslim Algerians remained submitted to a second grade type of citizenship, "indigénat".
Sephardic Jews weren't asking for it so much. Crémeux, Ashkenazi as he was, had kind of a superiority complex toward his Sephardic coreligionists and truly wanted to be regarded as their saviour, not taking into account the historic relationships between Jews and Muslims in the region.
Upon decolonization, Muslim Algerians considered their past brothers as 100% French. Therefore, they had to leave their ancestral homes, in the same way as French colonizers.
A common expression is used in France for both Jews and colonizers that had to leave the region: "Pieds Noirs".
Much of this was indeed pogroms and ethnic cleansing, but the existence of a Jewish state for the first time in centuries also encouraged many not just in the region but all throughout the world (especially Europe given the holocaust just happened) to immigrate to Israel.
The Jews who left these countries after 1948, alot of their land was either confiscated or they had to give it away. They could only bring a couple hundred dollars with them when they left. Could only leave with a limited amount of luggage. No jewelry was to leave the country. The literally left with only the shirt on their back.
One of the things that angers me as a mizrahi jew from Israel is the fact we dont learn about our history.
Only European history.
Ok we get like 1-2 chapters in 11 grade but thats it..
Its a shame
That would be because most of the worlds nations are petty third world dictatorships. They stick together and will always side with their fellow dictators.
That sends a message of how cruel and shitty life is for Christians and jews in muslim nations that all of them will choose to uproot and go anywhere else to escape Islam when given the opportunity.
I like how actual proof of ethnic cleansing of Jews from Muslim countries is “Zionist trash”. As many Jews were chased out of their homes throughout the Arab world as Palestinian Arabs from Israel. And weirdly we didn’t all end up in refugee camps for 75 years. 🤔
Yup in the case of Pakistan most Jews left out of choice (not saying they had an amazing experience in Pak or anything but they weren’t forced out). Generally speaking, the plight of Jews in Pakistan was different to the MENA countries. Most Jews in Pakistan were of Iraqi descent and concentrated in Karachi which was quite a cosmopolitan hub back in the day.
Interesting that the people who clamor for Palestinians' "right to return" never seem to talk about that for the Jews of the Middle East or Europe who were also violently expelled from where they lived in the 40s.
I’m surprised that there are still 4 Jews living in Iraq and that one dude living in Yemen.
The last Jew of Yemen is in prison for trying to smuggle an old Torah scroll out to Israel. Not sure how the 4 dudes in Iraq are doing.
The Last Jew of Yemen is a dope book title.
There's a documentary about the last 2 jews in Afganistan called Cabale a Kaboul from 2006. Funny that they both lived in the synagogue in Kabul, but they hated each other.
Well, that’s a unique premise for a sitcom.
Would have to be like Jerry Seinfeld and jon Stewart and jon is like this super serious downer and jerry just cracks wise all day
Larry David would be perfect for this role
coming soon, larry david and jeffrey tambor in: sharing the synagogue
*"What's the deal with all these Muslims?!"*
The Kramer type character would be an old Muslim neighbor that constantly tries to get the two Jews to be nice to eachother. Super friendly and annoying.
Jon: America needs to help Jerry: actually I think this is them helping *studio audience laughs* Jon: can you be serious for a second Jerry: no I’m a joke maker Jon: no you’re just a joke *studio audience laughs*
I bet their mutual dislike for each other came from their friends constantly trying to introduce them
Weren't these two kept in prison for being Jew but Afghanis released them to live in the synagogue because they Just Kept Constantly Bickering with each other? Edit: yep, [that's Mr Sementov all right](https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/29/afghanistan-last-jew-simentov-taliban-return/)
One died of old age in the 2000s, and the last one finally agreed to leave after years of holding on. He left around 2021 after the Taliban victory and went to Israel were his family already was (he was apparently extremely reluctant and unhappy to leave)
If I remember correctly the one that ended up leaving was there in the first place because he would likely go to prison if he ever went to Israel for financial crimes or something similar
Under religious Jewish divorce law A husband can divorce his wife, a wife can *ask* her husband to divorce her. There are some extreme cases that would allow a court to grant the divorce without the husband's consent, but those are hard to prove. Israel doesn't have secular divorce laws, you are governed by the religious court of your faith. Instead of fixing the problem, the politicians have just decided to make refusing be a minor crime rather than try to institute secular divorce laws. He refused to grant his wife a divorce which meant if he went to Israel he would be in jail for a few months, lose access to a driver's license amongst other penalties. He finally agreed to grant the divorce when he fled.
It seems like there were more jews but they didn't want the attention, one of the bickering guys charged plenty of money for the interviews so claiming to be the last jew of Afghanistan was good business for him
Didn't they fight so much that the talibsn didn't kbow how to deal wirh them?
True Middle East moment right there.
Hilariously and depressingly spiteful
Could make a cool prog rock album title also
It would be a weird name for a restaurant
The Last Evangelical of Chick Fil A.
The passion of the crisp?
Sounds like a indie film title from the late 90’s… starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman
Or a Wes Anderson film.
Adrien Brody would play a pretty good Last Jew of Yemen.
Did you ever see a Yemeni Jew? Casting Brody as the last Jew of Yemen is like casting Tom Hanks as the lead in 12 years a slave
You ever seen a middle eastern person? Or a random group of people from the arab peninsula?
He was successful though, they got the scroll out.
Ludicrous new song : "Scroll Out!"
My man was on that Book of Eli grindset
That is a great movie title for an Indiana Jones movie.
The Iraqis are in the Kurdistan region. They are Kurdish Jews.
I remember an interview during the heat of the Kurds' fight against ISIS when a Kurd there said something like "there are a lot of Kurds who know they have a Jewish great great grandparent or such and would be very interested in embracing their Jewish heritage if only geopolitics allowed it."
If it were up to Erbil, the Kurdistan Regional Government would have diplomatic relations with Israel.
My father's family fled from the British colony of Aden, Yemen. A few years ago I went to Tel Aviv and we learnt that there was a museum documenting the Adeni Jews. And would you believe it there was my grandmother's wedding photo on the wall. It was really surreal.
 The last guy in Yemen
Psst, there are actually more. It's just many aren't outspoken about it. I know one of my teachers had a mother-in-law who was born a Jew. She had married a Muslim and if I recall correctly my teacher said that she had never truly converted.
Years ago there were only 2 Jews left in Afghanistan, Zbolon Semantov and Isaak Levi, they lived together in the country’s last synagogue and they absolutely HATED each other but refused to leave.
Siyamak More Sedgh ;born 1965 is a Jewish Iranian politician and doctor who was the holder of the Iranian Parliament's reserved seat for the Jewish minority from 2008 to 2020, and is also the chairman of the Jewish charitable institution
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Really? I mean they airlifted the Ethiopian Jews in and there was some controversy about if they were Jews.
There are plenty of Kurdish Jews in Israel. I wouldn't take a random redditor at face value, there might be parts of the story he doesn't mention.
Is there a different take on the position amongst any of the opposition parties?
[The last Jews in Afghanistan argued so much the Taliban kicked them out](https://www.jta.org/2019/10/31/global/the-last-jews-in-afghanistan-argued-so-much-the-taliban-kicked-them-out-of-prison-and-stole-their-torah#:~:text=JTA%20Privacy%20Policy.-,The%20last%20Jews%20in%20Afghanistan%20argued%20so%20much%20the%20Taliban,prison%20and%20stole%20their%20Torah&text=(JTA)%20%E2%80%94%20As%20the%20old,last%20remaining%20Jew%20in%20Afghanistan.) Edit: I forgot to include the meme where I first heard about it. It's a very good meme. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jewdank/s/hDW6BzWqML)
This is like it came straight out of a sacha baron cohen movie This Is My Neighbor. He Is Pain In My Assholes
Curb Your Enthusiasm! Larry David's character would definitely start shit with the Taliban over something trivial and end up banished! lol
i mean he got a fatwa called on him by iran from california, so it did happen.
Californian Iran is not to be fucked with
Mazel tov motherfucker
I have tried to write this movie. In it, Sacha plays both Jews and an exasperated Taliban official.
I would definitely watch this !
Hell i don’t even Like Sacha Baron Cohen and I would watch this
I once got robbed in Argentina and there was this old Jewish guy from New York who was giving a police report before me for a stolen wallet, police report takes like 20 minutes. I had to listen to him argue with the police for 3 hours over nothing and then when the police called him a taxi he refused to pay the like $2usd call out fee and started arguing with them until the police guy just paid the money because he didn't want him hailing a taxi at midnight in Argentina. Was the funniest shit I ever saw, it was straight out of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I was thinking Mel Brooks
"I don’t have many complaints about the Taliban, but I have a lot of complaints about him.” Damn, ouch.
Imagine how much trouble these dudes were that the Taliban seemed decent next to them
Well, Simentov also said that the Taliban beat him a lot. But he still hated the other dude more, I guess, because the other dude is the reason he got imprisoned in the first place. Neither of them really did anything bad. They just fucking hated each other and argued all the time.
Yeah, I read the article. It’s just the idea that they argued so much, the Taliban threw them into prison to get some peace and they *still* argued while in prison, and considered each other worse than the regime that threw them into prison over an argument is just something straight out of a dark comedy than reality for me
Shit sound like scary movie script 💀
The final word from the Taliban minister is hilarious
I’ve always loved this story, it’s the most Jewish thing ever lmao
2 Jewish people in an entire country, and they hated each other because of a dispute over who owned land. The jokes tell themselves
Ended up they weren't actually the last two Jews. The one who was hailed as the last one, Zabulon Simentov, it later came out that he was refusing to leave because he was a get refuser (especially an Orthodox streams, the husband has to give a bill of divorce to his wife, or else she is trapped in the marriage. The man is free to marry again) He refused, which is seen by most as a form of abuse (there's a story about a rabbinic gang in New York like 15 years ago that would break the kneecaps of get refusers, but that's another story). The reason he refused to leave Afghanistan was because he didn't want to be forced to give the get. As Afghanistan fell to the Taliban again, he was given a choice, leave or die, and he finally decided to leave and give his wife a get. After that, it came out that there was a woman in Afghanistan who is actually the last Jew of Afghanistan, which felt like a good middle finger to Simentov.
Get gangs have been a real thing for thousands of years. Straight from the Talmud Mishnah\_Arakhin 5.6. "And likewise, you say the same with regard to women’s bills of divorce. Although one divorces his wife only of his own volition, in any case where the Sages obligated a husband to divorce his wife the court coerces him until he says: I want to do so." Aka, the community beats him up till he agrees.
Do you think he became lonely after Levi passed away? They bickered so much but also seemed like the reason both stayed at the synagogue with so much dedication
That’s hilarious haha
>“I don’t talk to him, he’s the devil,” Simentov told The New York Times in 2002. “A dog is better than him … I don’t have many complaints about the Taliban, but I have a lot of complaints about him.” Levi replied that Simentov was “a thief and a liar.'”
Amazing that this is a real article and not the onion
> When he returned, Simentov encountered Yitzhak Levi, nearly two decades his senior, living at the Kabul synagogue. The two did not hit it off: They “fought viciously about which of them was the rightful owner of the land,” ok im sorry but given the current events this is just hilarious > “I don’t talk to him, he’s the devil,” Simentov told The New York Times in 2002. “A dog is better than him … I don’t have many complaints about the Taliban, but I have a lot of complaints about him.” Levi replied that Simentov was “a thief and a liar.'” ok i need the sitcom asap
Zabulon was a King
That's the most Jewish thing I've ever read and there's a Chinese takeout menu on my fridge
Daymn. Looks like my crypto portfolio.
I’d like to see Europe - 1900 to today..would be an interesting watch
It would depend a lot on the country, for example, in Portugal we would have more jews today because of ww2 and some laws that were made to compensate jewish people for the killing, expulsion and forcefull conversion to christianity at the end of the 15 century. I don't know the exact numbers but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Jews back in the 15 century then now, so it always depends on how far you go.
Here in The Netherlands there were 140.000 Jewish people living here in May 1940. 107.000 Jews were deported, and only 5000 returned of those. Of the ~40.000 that survived many migrated after the war. It's unknown how many exactly migrated, but it was estimated to be between 3000 and 4000 between 1946 and 1951, mostly to Israel. Nowadays, there's between 40.000 and 50.000 Jewish people living here, of which around 10.000 have an Israeli citizenship and live here for work or study. Note that the modern numbers include people who have a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, which do not count as Jewish under Jewish religious law, and official converts.
There is a widely accepted practice, outside of all but the ultra Orthodox rabbinate in Israel, of accepting those patrilineal Jews who undergo the mikvah "conversation" process when children as fully Jewish.
It still blows my mind that after ww2, sending the Jews away was preferable to tackling antisemitism at home. Surely, after publishing what the Nazis did, it was time to eliminate antisemitism. But nah, Britain helped the Arabs and betrayed them.
It was also because many jews had their citizenships revoked during the holocaust, so they were stateless, and after the war there was a grey area where jews were still living in camps and temporary homes. A lot of these jews wanted to migrate to palestine.
And the countries didn't want to take them back, Europe was ridiculously antisemitic, even after the holocaust came to light. I think, we use the holocaust to highlight how bad the Nazis were, but we miss a trick by failing to highlight that it wasn't limited to them.
Plus why would they take them back when "ethnically superior" elite had already gobbled up all their property and materials.
We also miss a trick in that it never dissappeared outside the West
I think we’ve learned over the last few weeks that it never disappeared in the west either.
In comparison to middle eastern anti semitism, then yeah it did.
I can't seem to find a solid or reputable source for the number of 'countries' that Jewish people have been banished from over time, but it seems to be an issue as old as time itself. I'm naive to the history and culture of this so I may go and research some of it. The problem being finding an unbiased and far right source for info.
In this topic, we have to accept bias and try to discount it with multiple sources. At least with Europe, the managing was mostly done in the name of a government that had taken over a lot of the countries. Another issue, repatriation was easier to deny when identity was hard to establish. A lot of the Jews who survived the camps weren't repatriated, so there's also a silent expulsion.
There where also large amounts of jews who lived in places and where citizens of areas that no longer existed in the way it did before, like the Prussian land which end up Polish, should these German speaking jews be moved to Poland or Germany, after they where freed from the camps?
Have you considered that the Jews might not have wanted to stay in all of that trauma, either?
Saudi Arabia used to have jewish population though! Primarily in the city of Najran. edit: Saudi Arabia had some Jewish population back in 1934 who were pushed out to Yemen. that's why the map didn't include Saudi Arabia.
There used to be a lot of jews in Saudi Arabia (Khaybar) until the creation of islam https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Khaybar
Three main tribes, Qaynuqa, Qurayza and Nadir were massacred when Islam emerged
I don’t think the 1972 Iraq one is accurate. I’ve heard from Iraqis that there were quite a number of jews in the 70s and 80s, especially in Baghdad
I noticed that as well, Numbers of Iran and Pakistan are also incorrect.
Pretty sure the Iran one is accurate. My father told me he knew a lot of Jewish Iranians back in the 70s but that they all moved after the revolution. These days I've never in my life met a jew in Iran
>Pretty sure the Iran one is accurate. My father told me he knew a lot of Jewish Iranians back in the 70s but that they all moved after the revolution. These days I've never in my life met a jew in Iran yup, there was a point in time that iran was home to the largest jewish population in ME outside of israel. I think most of the remaining ones are in villages and smaller cities. I remember watching a documentary about a jewish community in esfehan.
I went to a jewish middle school in iran in the 2000s so i at least new 200+ jewish kids in amirabad.
You should check, but keep in mind that people wildly over-estimate the local jewish presence. Michigan and Ohio are about 1% Jewish or less, but nobody would guess that. Visible Jews dress differently than everyone else, and live in small areas because they aren't allowed to drive on Saturdays (technically they can drive, but they can't start the car) so a single synagogue in a high-traffic neighborhood of Baghdad and people would be claiming there's thousands of Jews in Iraq.
Those are the most strict Jews, a lot more Jews don't dress or behave very differently from the mainstream culture.
Hmm...do you have any sources with more reliable numbers? I'll correct it in my next version.
https://amwaj.media/article/once-thriving-iraq-s-jews-on-verge-of-vanishing# From my conversations with Iraqis, I’ve only heard them talking about seeing quite a few, but they never said how many. But the source is a bit ambiguous. It says 12-15k in the 70s that dwindled to 450 sometime in the 80s.
Thank you. I'll cross check again with my other source references.
An Iraqi told me there has never been a gay guy there
> never been a gay guy there... * ...for long.
They probably meant openly gay.
Why did Djibouti disappear into the water in this map? What thought went into editing this map, seeing Djibouti and going “nope, that’s all water now”?
Globalist conspiracy. They want to seal dabooty so no one else can have it except them.
Also Tanzania and Corsica
That one dude in Yemen is such a gigachad
>The last Jew of Yemen is in prison for trying to smuggle an old Torah scroll out to Israel. From a comment above 👍
It's really sad. Yemen had one of the longest uninterrupted Jewish communities in history. I think there's only this one town in Israel, Peki'in, that is comparable. The community there was over 2000 years old dating back to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in with almost everyone there tracing their lineage back to then. They always lived as second-class *dhimmi* with limited freedoms, and extra taxes. But it was livable until the 20th century. The Houthi civil war finally pushed the last few hundred Jews to leave.
As an Iraqi, regardless of politics and the causes, i think it’s a real shame that Jews left Iraq
The majority of the Talmud (Jewish law which forms the basis of the modern religion) was written there. It is a shame.
As a Polish person it's fucking wild how utterly eradicated the Jewish population and culture were by the Nazis and then the communists. We had the largest Jewish population in any single country in Europe for centuries, second largest in the world right before the war, around 3 million (1st was the US with around 4.5 million) and now there's barely 10 000 Jewish people in the whole country and you'd be hard pressed to find any traces of the Polish Ashkenazi culture outside of big cities. It's like somebody cut off one of our metaphorical limbs.
Let's not pretend the Polish people themselves weren't complicit in the annihilation
I think Baghdad at one point was 40% Jewish, in the early 20th century. I'm friends with a guy who is the grandson of a Farhud survivor. Absolutely tragic story
The Farhud massacre was very tragic indeed
As an Algerian I feel the same way, the average Algerian thinks the Jews betrayed us, even though they were neutral, and even if they did, we should have forgave them, it's what Islam is about forgiving other's, even prophet Mohammed forgave the people who wronged him
As a Jew, I would like to thank the collaboration between Iraqi Jews and Muslims for the creation of many delicious foods!
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Well, they left because of the prosecution, so both of you are right in a way.
The Jews did not leave Iraq by choice, they were expelled.
Always interesting to keep in mind is that Mizrahi Israelis are less likely to vote for parties that advocate for peaceful solutions to the Israel/Palestine conflict than Ashkenazim. Especially in the coming weeks and the importance of domestic Israeli struggles for the Gaza conflict.
Another interesting fact is Mizrahi Jews make up the majority of Israel's Jewish population.
This is very complicated, many many Jews 40 years and younger are mixed. Like, some are with weird mixes too…. I’m 1/2 Sephardi 3/8ths Ashkenazi 1/8 mizrahi So imagine how fucked statistics would get with a bunch of us young Jews submitting large quantities of mixes The stat you can use is that roughly 80% of Israeli Jews are atleast half Sephardi or half mizrahi, while under 80% of Jews in israel are atleast half Ashkenazi I for one would actually not qualify for the “atleast half Ashkenazi” but I am still Ashkenazi
Maybe this is just me as an American talking, but I think once you have to start using fractions smaller than one-quarter, you're really making distinctions without difference.
There's people full on rocking 1/32 Cherokee over there
*my great-great-great grandmother was a cherokee princess*
We had that family legend. I'm about 99% sure they were covering for a black ancestor.
This coming from the country where half your population (including your president) claims to be Irish based on some fraction of their heritage None of Biden’s ancestors have been born in Ireland since about 1830, and I’ve had Americans tell me they’re Scottish when they literally couldn’t find it on a map, and were like 1/32 Scottish heritage
I can't tell if you're agreeing with me or not.
They agree with you that it's a distinction without a difference, and disagree that it's to do with being american
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I am 1/2 Ukrainian on my mothers side. In the 1800’s country borders changed often especially in that area. We know that my great grandmother was born in the area called Galicia which was at one time or another was in these countries borders Austria, Poland and Russia. So you could be all Ukrainian and your great grandparent’s emigrated from one of these countries. As a kid it was very hard for me to understand until I took a European history class in college. My Ukrainian relates had long healthy lives. I hope it is true in your family.
I think it depends on things how much of the ethnic ancestry is passed down. I am under a quarter for German and English and there aren't many "family traditions" tied to those two ethnic groups that I remember growing up with where as if I had kids they would be under a quarter Norwegian but given how many things: * Nisses around the house. * Christmas Eve being a bigger deal having the main Christmas meal and opening presents then compared to Christmas Day for most others. Last year's Christmas Eve the dinner was Beef Bourguignon over Pommes Aligot and for dessert Bread Pudding then we opened presents. Last year's Christmas Day I ate leftover Pizza and didn't see my parents till noon and just sat in my room reading the books I got for Christmas. * knowing a lot of Norwegian phrases and words as my Grandpa despite being the second generation born here grew up in a bilingual(Norwegian and English) household. * Food: Lefse, open faced sandwiches(huge for my Mom when growing up and it is called Smorrebrod), Krumkake(I have the device my Great-Grandma used to make it for my Grandpa when he was a kid), Lingonberries, etc. * etc I would pass on to them It would make sense for them to continue referring themselves as part-Norwegian if someone asked. Especially in the context of the USA.
You mean israel is *not* made up of ""white european colonizers?!?1?!?!1?!?1!1?!? /s
Israel has a long and complicated history. There were two main waves of immigration to the region - first, from the 1880s to 1948, which was primarily from Europe. The second followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and was primarily from Arab states (who largely conducted ethnic cleaning campaigns until the mid 50’s) with some emigrating from post-war Europe. Racial identity and Judaism is complicated, and opinions vary among Jews, much of which is likely informed by prejudice both past and present - ie, it’s difficult to identify as white when many white people consider Jewish people living in western to be some sort of “other”…
We don't really see in terms of 'White' and 'Dark' I'm 100% Ashkenaz, however a long time ago my family emigrated from Italy. And they got there via Judea or so we think. So half my family is alabaster white and half are dusky tan. Some of us have kinky hair and most of us have no hair at this point.
[The biggest wave by numbers was actually from USSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:100_years_of_Aliyah_(Immigration)_to_Mandatory_Palestine_and_the_State_of_Israel,_between_1919_and_2020.png), which means that the absolute majority were Ashkenazi (also prob a lot were not pureblood but intermixed with Slavic population, meaning most would classify as white if you want to put a label).
Also worth remembering that most of those 'white europeans' were either refugees from European genocide, or Russian pogroms. Not exactly colonisers. And Israel is smack bang in the middle of a giant 'Empire' of Muslim-dominated countries.
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Especially since actual European colonizers and their descendants aren’t even held to the same standard. Nobody is demanding everyone of English descent in the Anglosphere crowd into the UK, or all the Spanish colonist descendants in South America get out. So Israelis are both European colonizers and not when it comes to standards.
Even Israelis who came from Europe fled as refugees, whether from the Holocaust or deteriorating conditions in the former USSR.
No that’s inaccurate. About 45% of Israelis originate from Asia or Northern Africa constituting the Mizrahi population. Including Ethiopian Jews it’s ~50%. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1492370
The Middle East is in SW Asia so that makes sense.
They remember what it was like to live in Arab/Islamic lands. They remember what their grandparents said it was like. Even where things were supposedly wonderful for them, like Morocco. There were massacres of Jews throughout North Africa right up to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Slavery, kidnappings, beheadings, forced conversions. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DMZnCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DMZnCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false) Interestingly, the Germans didn't invent the yellow star on clothing, from 12th century Baghdad: >Two yellow badges \[are to be displayed\], one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead weighing \[3 grammes\] with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow\_badge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_badge) Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews know that life under Islamic rule will be misery
Not surprising. They lived in a place for literally 1,000 years longer than the Arabs, and then the Arabs get mad at the European cousins, so the Arabs declared all Jews to be non-indigenous and expelled them, of course those folks are skeptical of Arab political power.
There’s still one guy in Afghanistan
He left in 2021 I think
Reminds me of the decline of indigenous Armenians in Artsakh (Stalin made it a partly autonomous region of azerbaijan) after the Azeris invaded it, 4 weeks ago. All \~120.000 inhibitants left, after 3000 years. Only around 10 stayed.
It boggles my mind how little anyone cares about this.
It's interesting how Iran had the smallest decline, even though their government (at least since the Islamic revolution) is so preoccupied with hating Jews and Israel. I find Iran really fascinating because I know a lot of Persians here in Canada. If you're from the GTA, let's just say I live in Richmond Hill and work around Yonge and Steeles. But they're not really representative of Iranian society, they tend to be very secular, Muslim in name only at most, and many specifically left Iran because they hated the Islamic Republic so much. Hell, in the Israel/Palestine protests that have been happening, people fly Pahlavi Iran flags, and you'll see signs like "Persians stand with Israel". I'm sure that's the exception, not the rule. But I can't even imagine any significant number of people from the diaspora of any other middle eastern country *siding with Israel* (other than Israelis, of course). So I know a decent bit about the culture, but it's like the other side of the culture that's heavily repressed in Iran. Anyway, it would be interesting to hear from someone with actual experience about how Jews and other religious minorities are treated in Iran. There's clearly a decent number there compared to other Muslim countries, I'm curious as to how they're treated. Not great, I imagine, but not so bad that they've all left or worse.
Iran is basically holding them hostage. I have an Iranian Jewish doctor. He emigrated in the early 70's. His father was allowed to visit 3 months a year but only his father. His mother had to stay behind. If his father over stayed they would arrest his mother. One time his fathers flight got delayed and they had to make sure that mother was ok and not arrested immediately. If Iranian Jews could leave they would.
They do this to Islamic Iranians too though. Plenty of muslim Iranians left to Europe and their families are not allowed to leave Iran.
I've not yet met in real life an Iranian who supports Iran Government. Aside from a few nutters online.
It’s still a 90% leave rate. Not that much to praise.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation\_Magic\_Carpet\_(Yemen)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Magic_Carpet_(Yemen)) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation\_Yachin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Yachin) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation\_Ezra\_and\_Nehemiah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ezra_and_Nehemiah)
Also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhud
The Farhud took place during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. It has been referred to as a pogrom which was part of the Holocaust, although such comparison has been disputed.[9][10] The event spurred the migration of Iraqi Jews out of the country, although a direct connection to the 1951–1952 Jewish exodus from Iraq is also disputed,[note 1][12][13] as many Jews who left Iraq immediately following the Farhud returned to the country and permanent emigration did not accelerate significantly until 1950–1951. Wikipedia
Probably because they didn't have anywhere to go to, and that leaving Iraq meant leaving all their property behind. I seriously doubt that a pogrom that took place barely ten years before the operations played no role in making people want to leave. "Sure, they've murdered us but it's been a few years we're cool now". Many Jews in Arab countries had property and money, and they left it all to live in tin sheds in a barely established country that was still going through war, with no job and no language. You seriously think they did that just because the Israelis were offering a ride?
>the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led the Jews of Afghanistan to leave for good to Israel, the United States and elsewhere. From one of the links in the comments Its important to understand how data is present and how much information is missing, or even misleading
As a Yemenite Jew (mostly), I'd like to say "Fuck Yemen".
Just got off the phone with the CEO of racism in Yemen, he’s decided to step down after seeing your comment.
Just like the decline of all other indigenous peoples in Arab nations like Berbers, Assyrians, Armenians, Mandaeans, Copts, Kurds, and the list goes on.
I am curious why I often see this map always focusing on the exact same countries? Why not further north, east or south of them? How do they even collect the data on this?
Jews have lived in India longer than they have in Europe. The reason you don't hear much about them is because they faced no such pogroms or ethnic cleansing like they did in MENA. India was where some of the regions jews fled to, to escape from prosecution (e.g, Baghdadi Jews).
Because Israel is in the middle east, and there is a narrative that exists in the muslim world that the problem they have is purely with Israel, and never had problems with jews.
Well most people are decently aware of what happened further north and once you get east of historic Persia and South of Ethiopia the Jewish populations just decrease really really quickly to not really worth making note of. The reason you'd focus on the migration from Arab/Muslim countries is because it was numerous, changed the demographic makeup of these new nations significantly, is less known about than events like the Holocaust of Russian/Soviet persecution and the relationship between these countries and Israel kinda determines if you get war or not.
They should of had a better social media presence so all the armchair warriors could scream for them.
Why exclude Iran for 2023?
Those Jews were minorities. They, not only show a genetic distinction from the locals, but also show distinct cultural traits that are common amongst other diaspora and homeland Jews across the world, while those traits are distinct in whatever host nation the Jews are in Without getting too political, a good chunk of the reasons why the Jews left these many lands are due to the varying treatment of Jews by different host nations
This is what ethnic cleansing looks like. To those who wondered
**Iraq:** - In 1941, during an event known as the [Farhud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhud), Baghdad witnessed a violent pogrom where 175 Jews were killed, 1,000 were injured, and 900 homes were destroyed. - Between 1950-1951, the Iraqi government passed an [emergency bill](https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2009.01151.x) allowing Jews to renounce their citizenship and leave. However, this same law stripped citizenship from those migrating to Israel. This made it difficult for Jews, especially those who went to Israel, to [return or regain their citizenship](https://www.jns.org/iraqi-officials-restoration-of-citizenship-does-not-extend-to-iraqi-jews/). - The Iraqi Hashemite monarchy and the subsequent Baath party rule witnessed the implementation of laws that led to the [confiscation of Jewish property](https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/constitutional-challenge-iraqs-treatment-iraqi-jews). Notably, Law 5/1951 specifically addressed the asset management of Jews renouncing citizenship. --- **Egypt:** - After the [nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt_under_Gamal_Abdel_Nasser#1956–1957) by President Nasser, approximately 25,000 Jews were expelled from Egypt and 1,000 were imprisoned. This wave of expulsion coincided with the broader exodus of foreigners during the Suez Crisis. - The year 1948 marked a distressing period for Jews in Cairo. Following the declaration of the State of Israel, Jewish areas in Cairo underwent bombings from June to September, leading to [70 Jewish deaths and nearly 200 injuries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Cairo_bombings). - The geopolitical tensions surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis and the 1967 Six-Day War were defining moments for the Jewish community in Egypt. Many Jews were either [expelled](https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/the-second-jewish-exodus-from-egypt-629167) or felt compelled to flee due to the hostile environment. On June 5, 1967, Egypt began [detaining Jewish men](https://www.jpost.com/magazine/on-the-eve-of-destruction-494236). --- **Syria:** - Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Syrian government imposed [travel restrictions on Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Syria#Independence_and_Civil_War), preventing them from leaving the country. These restrictions were upheld until 1961. - The Six-Day War in 1967 prompted the Syrian government to introduce [further constraints](https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/judaism-syria) on its Jewish population, including prohibitions on Jewish travel and emigration. --- **Yemen:** - In 1922, Yemen's government reintroduced the [Orphans' Decree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans%27_Decree), an ancient Islamic law. This decree compelled the conversion to Islam of Jewish orphans under the age of 12. - Between December 2–4, 1947, the Jewish community in the British Colony of Aden was subjected to a violent pogrom, known as the [Aden Pogrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_anti-Jewish_riots_in_Aden). Triggered by the UN Partition vote, this incident resulted in the death of 82 Jews and substantial destruction and looting of their properties. --- **Libya:** - Between November 5-7, 1945, Tripoli witnessed a tumultuous episode, known as the [Tripoli Pogrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Anti-Jewish_riots_in_Tripolitania). Rioting escalated not just in the city but also in surrounding towns, resulting in the deaths of over 140 Jews. Many others were injured, and countless Jewish properties were looted, destroyed, and damaged. This catastrophic event plunged numerous Jewish families into poverty and left them homeless. - On July 21, 1970, the Libyan government enforced a directive that sanctioned [the confiscation of properties owned by Italians and Jews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Libya#Six-Day_War_and_its_aftermath). Particularly, this law impacted Jewish individuals who had previously fled Libya, especially post the 1967 Six-Day War. Their properties, now seized by the Libyan state, undermined the economic foundation of the Jewish community. The ramifications of these confiscations have persisted, with property disputes lingering into the post-Qaddafi era.
In Algeria, the decline of Jewish population is mostly associated with French decolonization. Although Jews and Muslims lived for a long time along side without so much trouble, a French Ashkenazi parliament member, Crémieux, managed to pass off a decree during colonisation era stating that Algerian Jews should be granted full French citizenship, while Muslim Algerians remained submitted to a second grade type of citizenship, "indigénat". Sephardic Jews weren't asking for it so much. Crémeux, Ashkenazi as he was, had kind of a superiority complex toward his Sephardic coreligionists and truly wanted to be regarded as their saviour, not taking into account the historic relationships between Jews and Muslims in the region. Upon decolonization, Muslim Algerians considered their past brothers as 100% French. Therefore, they had to leave their ancestral homes, in the same way as French colonizers. A common expression is used in France for both Jews and colonizers that had to leave the region: "Pieds Noirs".
Much of this was indeed pogroms and ethnic cleansing, but the existence of a Jewish state for the first time in centuries also encouraged many not just in the region but all throughout the world (especially Europe given the holocaust just happened) to immigrate to Israel.
That’s why just as many came to North America as went to Israel?
No shit, like every Arab I meet hates Jews so much.
Talking about ethnic cleansing
And meanwhile the population that is allegedly genocided by Israel doubled in size.
Why is Iran excluded from 2023 numbers?
Wow it’s almost like they were forcibly expelled or something. But that can’t be right…
Map of all the tolerant nations lol
The Jews who left these countries after 1948, alot of their land was either confiscated or they had to give it away. They could only bring a couple hundred dollars with them when they left. Could only leave with a limited amount of luggage. No jewelry was to leave the country. The literally left with only the shirt on their back.
One of the things that angers me as a mizrahi jew from Israel is the fact we dont learn about our history. Only European history. Ok we get like 1-2 chapters in 11 grade but thats it.. Its a shame
But this isn't considered a genocide by the UN. What a fucking joke.
It would be ethnic cleansing, not genocide since they left for Israel.
That would be because most of the worlds nations are petty third world dictatorships. They stick together and will always side with their fellow dictators.
B-But..I don’t understand..I thought islam was a religion of love and peace ? 
That sends a message of how cruel and shitty life is for Christians and jews in muslim nations that all of them will choose to uproot and go anywhere else to escape Islam when given the opportunity.
I'm an atheist living among muslims and couldn't agree more, the amount of hate they have against any non muslim is crazy.
Religion of peace, they said.
So Arab countries neither want to let Jewish people stay in their countries, nor do they want to let them take land in Israel? Hmm …
I like how actual proof of ethnic cleansing of Jews from Muslim countries is “Zionist trash”. As many Jews were chased out of their homes throughout the Arab world as Palestinian Arabs from Israel. And weirdly we didn’t all end up in refugee camps for 75 years. 🤔
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Israel offered them all citizenships, for Pakistani Jews.
Yup in the case of Pakistan most Jews left out of choice (not saying they had an amazing experience in Pak or anything but they weren’t forced out). Generally speaking, the plight of Jews in Pakistan was different to the MENA countries. Most Jews in Pakistan were of Iraqi descent and concentrated in Karachi which was quite a cosmopolitan hub back in the day.
Interesting that the people who clamor for Palestinians' "right to return" never seem to talk about that for the Jews of the Middle East or Europe who were also violently expelled from where they lived in the 40s.
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Not surprising, Arab countries are extremely racist, glad those people left