Regional Hadassah event features Jews in Arab lands

“Forgotten and ignored: The History of Jews in Arab Lands” is the topic of a region-wide Zoom event hosted by Hadassah Rhode Island on Sunday, March 27, from 1-2:30 p.m.

Jewish communities that have thrived over millennia were erased within decades. Speakers for the program – Dr. Edy Cohen, historian and journalist; Janet Dallal, Middle East studies graduate, community leader and Knesset lobbyist; Dr. Benjamin Zalta, associate professor of clinical radiology and cantor; and Levana Zamir, lecturer, researcher and founder of the Heritage Center of Egyptian Jewry –were all Jewish refugees who for generations had lived in their native lands of Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, respectively. They now live in the United States and Israel.

These speakers and their families escaped persecution which occurred before and after the creation of the State of Israel, beginning with the Nazi-influenced Farhud Massacre in 1941 in Iraq – the first in a series of pogroms against Jews in Arab countries – and continued after the 1948 and 1967 wars throughout the Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Israel, with enormous stress on its then tiny economy, together with the almost one million new refugees, who were forced to leave behind their assets, made great strides in becoming a light for their people and for the world.

Hadassah hopes to bring awareness to this little-known chapter of modern Jewish history through this event.

For more information and to receive the Zoom link, send an email to chapri@hadassah.org

Submitted by Hadassah Rhode Island