Jewish refugees from Arab lands, the Sephardi-Mizrahi, comprise nearly 10% of the half-million-plus Jews living in South Florida. And yet, for the most part, their story is off the radar. So much has been written and studied about the Holocaust, but many people know comparatively little about Jewish non-Holocaust refugees following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This week, South Floridians have the chance to learn more.
In the decades following Israel’s Independence War, nearly one million Jews, many hailing from Middle Eastern communities that are among the world’s oldest, were ripped from home and hearth. Across an expanse stretching from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, post-colonial Arab countries targeted these Jews as internal enemies. State-sanctioned discrimination, violence and political unrest brought an abrupt end to once-vibrant communities.
Some had seen the writing on the wall earlier with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and sought refuge in the Americas, especially in Cuba and Venezuela. The Arab-Jewish communities that stayed suffered under the fascism of the Nazis and their collaborators. In Iraq, during the 1941 pogrom known as the Farhud, hundreds were killed, thousands injured. In Libya, under the Italians, thousands were sent to camps in Europe.
The new Arab states that emerged after World War II across the Middle East and North Africa advocated Arab nationalism and anti-Jewish sentiment. Iraq, for example, passed a series of exclusionary nationality laws modeled on the Third Reich. Property was confiscated and Jews were denationalized. By 1952, the overwhelming majority of the 150,000 Iraqi Jews had left without their assets. Even today, the constitution of Iraq prevents these exiles and their descendants from claiming citizenship or restitution.
While some with more economic means or holding citizenship from a western country found refuge elsewhere — Algerian Jews, for example, were citizens of France — for many of those displaced from Arab lands, Israel and Zionism offered hope.
Today, the majority of Israelis are Sephardi-Mizrahi. In 1948, they comprised less than 15% of the country. France, the home to only a handful of Jews in 1948, is the second largest Jewish diaspora in the world, 80% displaced from North Africa. Within one generation (1948-1973), Jews from Arab lands were ethnically cleansed. Today, less than 5,000 can be counted. Libya, once home to 38,000 Jews, no longer has a single Jewish resident. They are a forgotten exodus, their human rights story ignored.
Advocating for the rights for Jewish refugees from Arab lands does not negate the suffering and continual plight of Palestinian refugees. Two populations were uprooted in the wake of World War II and decolonialization. Both need to be addressed.
The Knesset of Israel in 2014, with the leadership of Israel’s Foreign Deputy Minister Danny Ayalon and the aid of Sephardi organizations in Isreal and the Diaspora, created an annual memorial day to mark Nov. 30 as Yom Plitim (Sephardi-Mizrahi Refugee Day), recognizing the plight of Jews from Arab lands and celebrating their heritage.
For those of us in South Florida, these voices touch deeply our multicultural, intersectional communities. Many of these refugees did not suffer only one trauma, but a second trauma, having to leave their new American homes because of political unrest. They identify both as an Arab Jew and also as a Cuban or a Venezuelan. Their language is Spanish and Arabic. Their cuisine is not only asado but also couscous and masgouf.
On Sunday, Nov. 17, Broward County will commemorate for the first time Yom Plitim and the rich history of Jews from Arab lands. The event, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, Sephardi Voices, the Posnack Jewish Community Center and the Broward County Jewish Federation, will feature speakers and videos of those who were part of this exodus and found refuge in South Florida. Their stories, like so many of our immigrant populations in South Florida, are not only about persecution and loss but also about survival and gratitude. Broward County Mayor Nan Rich, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Israeli Deputy Consul Ayellet Black will also be speaking. The event will be held at the Posnack JCC in Davie at 4 p.m.
Henry A. Green is a professor of religious studies at the University of Miami and the executive director of Sephardi Voices, an audiovisual digital archive documenting Jews displaced from Arab lands, hosted by national libraries.
