History of the Jews in the Arabian Peninsula
s in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to Classical and Biblical times. The Arabian Peninsula is defined as including the present-day countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen politically and parts of Iraq and Jordan geographically.
Jewish communities have lived mainly in present-day Iraq and Yemen, but most have migrated to Israel and Palestine as a result of the Arab–Israeli conflict. Currently, some Jewish communities develop in Arabia as a result of expanding business and commerce as well as increased tolerance to Jews, such as in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
History of the Jews in Iraq
The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented over twenty-six centuries, from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 600 BCE, as noted in the Hebrew Bible and other historical evidence from the period, to modern Iraq. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities.In the 1930s, the situation of the Jews in Iraq deteriorated. Previously, the growing Iraqi Arab nationalist sentiment included Iraqi Jews as fellow Arabs, but these views changed with ongoing conflict in the Palestinian Mandate. Despite protestations of their loyalty to Iraq, Iraqi Jews were increasingly subject to discrimination and harsh laws. On August 27, 1934 many Jews were dismissed from public service, and quotas were set up in colleges and universities. Zionist activities were banned, as was the teaching of Jewish history and Hebrew in Jewish schools. Following Rashid Ali's pro-Axis coup, the Farhud pogrom of June 1 and 2, 1941, broke out in Baghdad in which approximately 200 Jews were murdered, and up to 2,000 injured—damages to property were estimated at $3 million. There was also looting in many other cities at around the same time. Afterwards, Zionist emissaries from Palestine were sent to teach Iraqi Jews self-defense, which they were eager to learn."
From 1950 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted 120,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. By 1968 only 2,000 Jews remained in Iraq.Immediately prior to the Gulf War, the U.S. State Department noted that there was no recent evidence of overt persecution of Jews, but travel, particularly to Israel, was restricted, as was contact with Jewish groups abroad. In 1997, the Jerusalem Post reported that in the previous five years, some 75 Jews had fled Iraq, of whom about 20 moved to Israel and the rest mostly went to the United Kingdom and Netherlands. In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Jewish Agency launched an effort to track down all of the remaining Iraqi Jews to present them with an opportunity to emigrate to Israel, and found a total of 34 Jews. Six chose to emigrate, among them Ezra Levy, the father of Emad Levy, Baghdad's last rabbi.
After the defeat of the Ba'ath regime, the process of establishing a new democratic government began. Among the subjects for debate over the Iraqi constitution was whether Jews should be considered a minority group, or left out of the constitution altogether.
In October 2006, Rabbi Emad Levy announced that he was leaving for Israel and compared his life to "living in a prison". He reported that most Iraqi Jews stay in their homes "out of fear of kidnapping or execution" due to sectarian violence.
Current estimates of the Jewish population in Baghdad are eight, seven five. or ten. In 2020 the Jewish Population of Iraq is four. In March 2021 one Jew died leaving only four alive.
History of the Jews in Jordan
In Biblical times, much of the territory of present-day Jordan was part of the Land of Israel or Palestine. According to the Hebrew Bible, three Israelite tribes lived on this territory: the Tribe of Reuben, the Tribe of Gad and the Tribe of Manasseh.Since its 1516 incorporation in the Ottoman Empire, this territory was part of the vilayet of Damascus-Syria until 1660, then part of the vilayet of Saida, briefly interrupted by the 7 March – July 1799 French occupation of Jaffa, Haifa, and Caesarea.
During the siege of Acre in 1799, Napoleon issued a proclamation to the Jews of Asia and Africa to help him conquer Jerusalem. On 10 May 1832 it was one of the Turkish provinces annexed by Md. Ali's shortly imperialistic Egypt, but in November 1840 direct Ottoman rule was restored.
The British Balfour Declaration promised both sides of the Jordan River to the Jewish people, but that was changed by the Churchill White Paper which split off Transjordan from the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine of 1947, Jordan was one of the Arab countries that attacked the new Jewish state of Israel. It gained some victories but it was eventually defeated during the Six-Day war when it attacked Israel again. Jordan eventually signed the Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace. Currently, there are no legal restrictions on Jews in Jordan, and they are permitted to own property and conduct business in the country, but in 2006 there were reported to be no Jewish citizens of Jordan, nor any synagogues or other Jewish institutions.
History of the Jews in Bahrain
's Jewish community is tiny; however, the history of the Jews in Bahrain goes back many centuries. Relations between Bahraini Jews and Bahraini Muslims are highly respectful, with Bahrain being the only state on the Arabian peninsula where there is a specific Jewish community. Bahrain is the only Gulf state with two synagogues and two cemeteries next to each other. One member of the community, Rouben Rouben, who sells TV sets, DVD players, copiers, fax machines and kitchen appliances from his downtown showroom, said "95 percent of my customers are Bahrainis, and the government is our No. 1 corporate customer. I've never felt any kind of discrimination."Members play a prominent role in civil society: Ebrahim Nono was appointed in 2002 a member of Bahrain's upper house of parliament, the Consultative Council, while a Jewish woman heads a human rights group, the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society. According to the JTA news agency, the active Jewish community is "a source of pride for Bahraini officials". Bahraini Jews constitute one of the world's smallest Jewish communities. There was a Jewish presence in Bahrain for many centuries, now mostly the descendants of immigrants who entered the country in the early 1900s from Iraq, Iran and India, numbered 600 families in 1948. Over the next few decades, most left for other countries, especially England, some 36 families remain as of 2006 with the total of over then 100 members. Today the community has a synagogue, which though disused is the only one in an Arab Persian Gulf state, and a small Jewish cemetery. Various sources number Bahrain's Jewish community as being from 36 to 50 people. Nancy Khedouri stated that there were 36 Jews in Bahrain. Larry Luxner states that in 2006 there were 36 Jews in Bahrain., 37 Jews were believed to be in the country. According to a 2017 article on Bahrain the number of Jews in Bahrain is about 30. Prior to the Abraham Accords, Bahraini Jews were not allowed to visit Israel. Bahrain officially agreed to cease adherence to the economic boycott of Israel in exchange for a free-trade agreement with the United States in 2004. At present, there have been no acts of physical violence or harassment of Jews or vandalism of Jewish community institutions, such as schools, cemeteries, or the synagogue. Although the Government has not enacted any laws protecting the right of Jews to religious freedom, Jews practice their faith privately without governmental interference. Nevertheless, the Government has made no specific effort to promote antibias and tolerance education. Some anti-Semitic political commentary and editorial cartoons continue to appear, usually linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
History of the Jews in Kuwait
The history of the Jews in Kuwait is connected to the history of the Jews in Iraq. In 1776 Sadeq Khan captured Basra, many of the inhabitants left the country and among them were Jews who went to Kuwait. With the Jews' efforts, the country flourished with its buildings and trades. Around 1860, their number increased and their trade flourished. They were mostly wholesalers and worked with India—Baghdad and Aleppo. They even exported to Europe and China. There were about 80 Jewish families in Kuwait living in one district where the Bank of Trade. They had their own synagogue with their Sefer Torah. In the synagogue, they had separate place for the women. Saturday is a sacred day. Jews didn't work that day. They also had their own cemetery which shows that they lived there for a long time. Kuwait's population is now thirty five thousand and most of them are Arabs. Before 1914 there were about 200 Jews. Most of them went back to Baghdad and few went to India. There were two wealthy Jews in Kuwait but the rest were middle class, being Jewellers or material traders. The government of Kuwait had approved on building a new city called Madinat al-Hareer. A super mega-project that will host 1001 m high skyscraper. The tower will include a mosque, a synagogue and a church under a single roof. There are no Jewish citizens in Kuwait, though there are a dozen foreign Jews.History of the Jews in Oman
The history of the Jews in Oman goes back many centuries; however, the Jewish community in Oman is no longer extant. The Tomb of Job is located 45 miles from the port city of Salalah. The documented Omani Jewish community was made famous by Ishaq bin Yahuda, a merchant who lived in the 9th century. Bin Yahuda lived in Sohar, and sailed for China between the years of 882 and 912 after an argument with a Jewish colleague, where he made a great fortune. He returned to Shoar and sailed for China again, but his ship was seized and bin Yahuda was murdered at the port of Sumatra.In the mid 19th century, the British Lieutenant James Raymond Wellsted documented the Jews of Muscat in his memoirs Travels in Arabia, vol. 1. He mentions that there are "a few Jews in Muskat, who mostly arrived there in 1828, being driven from Baghdad...by the cruelties and extortions of the Pacha Daud." He also notes that Jews were not discriminated against at all in Oman, which was not the case in other Arab countries. Despite the lack of persecution in Oman, the community is believed to have disappeared before 1900.
During World War II, a Jewish American Army enlisted man, Emanuel Glick, encountered a small community of Omani Jews in Muscat, but this community consisted mostly of recent migrants from Yemen. Today the community no longer exists.