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I.A.J.E. Newsletter 2003 vol 5 n°1
L'EXODE OUBLIE, Juifs des Pays Arabes
Moïse Rahmani
2003-07-10 Paris : éditions Raphaël $22.00
Rue des Coutures St. Gervais - 75003, Paris
Reviewed by Prof. Victor D. Sanua
Moïse Rahmani, Editor of Los Muestros, starts his book with the following poignant statement, "I am also a refugee. The world talks about Palestinian refugees and feels sorry for them. They are often confined to camps, and are subject to anger and vexation in their host countries, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan." The book has been published at an opportune time when the major stumbling block to peace between Israel and the Palestinians is the status of refugees, where there is an insistence on their right to return to their towns and villages now in Israel.
"Prison Camps"
After giving a general historical overview of the riots, expropriations and killings which led to the forced or voluntary departure of Jews from Arab countries, Rahmani provides some details of the physical and psychological pain, with sadistic features, incurred by Jews from Egypt in such internment camp and imprisonments in places such as El Tor, the Barrages, Tourah, Abou Zaabal, Huckstep, etc. and particularly following the Sinai Campaign of 1956.
"Jews of Iraq and other Countries"
Besides the chapter on Egypt, he includes shorter reports on the Exodus of Jews from Algeria, Aden, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen. The situation of Jews in Iraq was worse than other Arab countries. Hundreds were killed followed by looting of Jewish assets.
On January 27, 1969, fourteen persons, who included 9 Jews, were hanged in public places in Baghdad. The reason given for their execution was that they were spies. Jewish organizations in the US, like the American Jewish Committee, have plenty of information in their archives. Rahmani has included short statements of Jews of Egypt where they recount their ill treatment. He included published material on the statement made by Arab authorities to justify their attack on Jews. Rahmani provides an estimate of Jews living in Arab countries in 1948, about 940.800 but that in 2002, it declined to 4.260. Morocco and Tunisia are the only countries that still have sizeable Jewish communities. The other Arab countries have a combined number of approximately 300 aged Jews.
In spite of the numerous vicissitudes encountered there is no expression of anger or hatred on the part of many victims. What they seem to regret is the fact that some were not able to take their pictures and stamp collections out. (The editor was able to get both of them out) Rahmani ends up his book with a dream in which he sees Israel and Arab countries closely associated with the ability to go from Morocco to Teheran, when it would be possible to invite Arab youth to dance the Hora with Jewish youth. However he wakes up from his dream and hears from the media about the continuous violence. He hopes that some day, the realization of such a dream would be possible.
Inch'Allah.
One of the limitations of the book is that it was written in French, which limits its readership. We hope that the book will be translated into English and thus make the information available around the world. Academic historians have published books on the dispersion of Jews from Egypt around the world, but the great value of the book is that it was written by Rahmani, himself a Jew from Egypt, who was forced to leaved with his family in 1956.
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