David Shuker, known as the “last Jew from Saudi Arabia,” has passed away aged 82.
Resident in Israel, he died without ever being allowed to return to the land where he was born.
Shuker ‘s last wish was to be allowed to re-enter Saudi Arabia, but he was debarred from doing so.
Shuker was born in Najran, which came under Saudi rule for just 14 years until its Jews were airlifted to Israel. He wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal asking to be allowed to return before he died.
By 1860, most Jews in Iraq, not only property owners, used surnames. The main source for genealogists is the Baghdad Register (528 pages). Other sources include lists of young men exempted from military service, a Baghdad burials ledger (1949- 2001) and recently-discovered issues of Ha-Dover, a Hebrew language newspaper published in Baghdad (1863-1871). A new tool called Transkribus reads handwritten text and converts it into printed text. Geneaologist Jacob Rosen- Koeningsbuch explains what collecting surnames can tell us about trends in migration in the journal Jewish Genealogy:
What are the most important benefits of indexing the surnames of Baghdadi Jews? Perhaps most important, such an index provides a tool that can reveal the places of origin of some Baghdadi Jews. For example, plagues in 1741 and 1761 devastated Baghdad’s population and triggered mass emigration.
After a while, when the situation stabilized, the composition of the Jewish community began to change with the arrival of newcomers from surrounding regions. Thus, one finds in Baghdad in the last quarter of the 19th century surnames such as Laniado and Sethon (from Aleppo), Barazani (from Kurdistan), Bumbaili (form Bombay), Maslawi (from Mosul),Karkukli from (Kirkuk) Ajami, Dasht/Dashti, Shirazi, Mashadi, Rashti/Rishti, and Mizrahi (from Iran), and Shami (from Damascus).
When combined with similar surname indexes of Aleppo and Damascus the index is a useful tool to analyze the composition of the Jewish populations of Cairo and Alexandria in the 20th century. At the turn of the 20th century, both cities had about 10,000 Jews each. Following the “Young Turks Reform” in 1908, exemptions from military service in the Ottoman Army were nullified which meant that Jewish males were forced to be drafted into the army.The loss of military exemption privilege led many Jewish families to emigrate to Egypt, which was practically under British control and where Jews were not drafted. Then came World War 1 and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In less than 30 years the Jewish population almost quadrupled both in Cairo and Alexandria. Equipped with the indexes described above one can identify the Baghdadi, Aleppian and Damascene Jews there. The same is true for Beirut, Port Said, and even Kobe, Japan where there were many Jews from Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus.
Thus far, any list that was surveyed and researched has revealed new surnames. As the generation of Baghdadi born Jews is withering, as in other Levant communities, these indexes constitute an alternative genealogical source until the archives open, if ever.
If you want to know more about the Jews who lived in the Berber (Amazigh) regions of Morocco you can do worse that read this academic study in Eurasian Review by the scholar Mohamed Chtatou. It ranges widely over music, language, and pilgrimages to ‘saints’ tombs. The need to document their culture and history is all the more urgent now that these communities have disappeared. (With thanks: Boruch)
The Jewish presence in North Africa constitutes one of the longest continuous diasporic experiences in Jewish history, with communities potentially predating both Christianity and Islam in the region (Hirschberg, 1963; Stillman, 1979). While scholarly attention has focused primarily on urban Judeo-Arabic speaking populations and their interactions with Arab-Islamic civilization, the extensive integration between Jewish communities and Amazigh (Berber) populations—particularly in rural, mountainous, and desert regions—has received comparatively limited systematic analysis (Chtatou, 2020, August 9 ; Schroeter, 2008). This gap persists despite evidence suggesting that substantial Jewish populations spoke Berber languages as their primary vernacular and participated deeply in Amazigh cultural systems (Camps, 2002; Chetrit, 2007).
The near-total emigration of North African Jewish communities following the establishment of Israel (1948-1967) and regional political instabilities resulted in the dissolution of these integrated societies and the dispersal of populations whose cultural practices embodied centuries of synthesis (Laskier, 1994). This demographic transformation simultaneously created urgent imperatives for documentation and preservation while generating new diasporic contexts in which Judeo-Amazigh cultural elements could be maintained, transformed, or abandoned (Ben-Ami, 1998).
A recent move by Israel to reform land registration in Area C of the West Bank has been slammed by the media as ‘annexation’. It was to correct a discriminatory legal anomaly, argues Honest Reporting, and does not mean that Israel is extending sovereignty over the area:
As detailed in a recent legal analysis, between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan controlled the area, it halted land registration and imposed restrictions that prevented non-Arabs from registering land ownership in the territory. The freeze left vast areas in legal limbo, without clear, updated ownership records.
When Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, it did not complete a comprehensive land settlement process. For decades, registration remained partial or frozen, creating uncertainty for both Palestinian and Israeli residents. That uncertainty has fueled disputes, litigation, and political accusations from all sides.
The Jordanian regulations barring Jews from legally registering land ownership in the territory were based on nationality and identity. In other words, Jews were categorically excluded because they were Jews.
By contrast, inside Israel proper, Arab citizens can and do register land in their names. Property registration is not restricted based on ethnicity or religion. And that’s how it should be.
Critics who describe Israel’s move as inherently racist rarely acknowledge that the pre-existing framework effectively codified discrimination against Jews.
So the cabinet decision that seeks to resume and systematize land registration under Israeli administration is correcting a historic discriminatory flaw. Resuming land registration does not, in itself, transfer sovereignty. It creates formal records of ownership in an area whose final status remains subject to negotiation.
There has been no public condemnation from local authorities to an antisemitic public installation in Antalya, Turkey. The absence of a clear response seems to indicate that antisemitic rhetoric is moving into the public space. Report in the Jerusalem Post:
A graphic public installation erected on Tuesday outside a school and educational center in Antalya, Turkey, has drawn sharp condemnation for reviving one of history’s oldest and most dangerous antisemitic myths.
Images circulating on social media show a staged scene. Prominent Israeli and international figures appeared seated around a table, consuming the organs of Palestinian children. The display included representations of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and late pop icon Michael Jackson.
The installation reportedly featured bloodied childlike figures placed on the table. Dollar bills were scattered across the scene. An Israeli flag hung above the display.
The imagery unmistakably echoed the medieval blood libel — the false accusation that Jews murdered children for ritual purposes or consumed their blood. That myth has historically fueled violence against Jewish communities.
Morocco is trying to block access to its former king’s medical records in a legal battle over claims he fathered a secret love child, according to The Telegraph.The child in question, a former Israeli now suffering from cancer in Belgium, has limited time left to prove her claim. This is the latest instalment in a saga first publicised by Point of No Return in 2011.
Jane Benzaquen, who says she is the biological daughter of the late King Hassan II, has applied to three American medical institutions in a bid to prove her royal ancestry.
The 72-year-old’s lawyers believe Hassan’s DNA is held at two hospitals in New York and a medical research foundation in Minnesota. In 1995, He was treated at all three before his death from cancer in 1999.
Ms Benzaquen, a retired hotel receptionist, claims the data may assist her in the paternity suit she filed in Belgium, where she now lives.
The case could result in embarrassing royal family secrets being aired in court for the first time.
“I’m doing it for my children and grandchildren,” Ms Benzaquen told The Telegraph. “They have a right to know where they’re from. Being unwanted as a child pursues you your whole life.”
“These applications in the USA seek to obtain materials or information Ms Benzaquen has been unable to establish or substantiate before the Belgian courts,” Stanislas Eskenazi, the kingdom’s lawyer, told The Telegraph.
“The US proceedings do not follow the Belgian [legal] process. They attempt to bypass it,” he added.
Ms Benzaquen’s lawyer disputed this, saying: “If the royal family were confident no biological relationship exists, such evidence would only support their position.”
The legal fight is the latest in a years-long battle for Ms Benzaquen to prove her royal ancestry.
She was recently diagnosed with cancer and has been unable to answer doctors’ questions about her family’s medical history.
“This information is important both for an accurate diagnosis and to determine the correct course of medical treatment”, her son Eldad said.
If proven, Ms Benzaquen, who is half-Jewish, would become a half-sister to Mohammed VI, the current king of Morocco.
One could hardly call the swarthy Tal Oran, an Israeli whose family was expelled from Iraq, a ‘white supremacist’. Oran has an Instagram and Youtube channel, The Traveling Clatt, devoted to exploding myths and lies. One myth is the origin of the keffiyeh, the head covering closely associated with Palestinian nationalism. Now Oran has found proof, at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center near Tel Aviv, that Jews departing Iraq wore the traditional keffiyeh. (With thanks: Edna)
Here on CBS News Oran explains the origins of the keffiyeh, which was worn by all sects and religions in Iraq. It recalls the fishing nets of the marsh Arabs and the two rivers of Mesopotamia, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Yasser Arafat made the keffiyeh the symbol of the Palestinian cause. In fact the Palestinians and their supporters are guilty of cultural appropriation.
The Middle East was a rich tapestry of sects and religions until ‘Arab supremacists’ expelled minorities. The ‘Mizrahi story’ of ethnic cleansing was central to understanding the conflict, says Oran, but the most important message he wishes to impart is aimed at US Christians: ‘They are coming for you next.’
The Palestinians have published their 1926 draft Constitution: in contradiction to international treaties it has signed but never published, it imposes Sharia (Islamic) law on women and minorities. It only mentions Christians and omits Jews altogether. Elder of Ziyon has this analysis:
Under the personal status laws that govern Muslim Palestinians, inheritance follows Sharia rules: women receive half the share of male relatives. Polygamy is permitted for Muslim men. Marital rape is not a crime — the 1960 Penal Code that applies in the West Bank defines rape as applying only to a woman who is not the perpetrator’s wife. The Family Protection Bill, which would have addressed domestic violence, was blocked on the grounds that it conflicted with Sharia. None of this has been amended.
Non-Muslim citizens exist within a legal framework whose primary source is explicitly not their faith. Article 37 guarantees freedom of religious practice for “followers of monotheistic religions” — but the legislation their rights depend on is shaped by Sharia. The constitution provides no mechanism by which this changes.
And for anyone who might leave Islam: the ICCPR — the treaty the PA signed and never published — guarantees the right to change one’s religion. Under classical Sharia jurisprudence, apostasy is a capital offense. The PA has not published the ICCPR. It has not abolished the death penalty. The Second Optional Protocol committing it to do so was also never published.
Setting off into the 34 degree heat, past stalls with Palestinian flags near the main square; all of a sudden I saw a Star of David on the wall. But it was crossed out. Indeed, I saw a few like this. Now, I’m no detective but I suspect these were linked to the war in Gaza, yet it’s no less unsettling for an actual Jewish person to walk past.
I visited the House of Photography of Marrakech museum, where there was a whole section showcasing hundred-year-old photographs of Marrakechi Jews, and Berber Jews, from the nearby mountains. Unfortunately, the poster explaining it was mistranslated: ‘The Jew [singular] of Marrakech’.
While this was a typo, it left me wondering how many were actually left? The museum certainly didn’t explain where all the Jews went, and why, and how many remained. Intrigued at how this once-thriving community lived, I headed to the Mellah.
I stopped at a cafe ironically called Mazel. There’s no discernible acknowledgement of what that word means, or a nod to its Jewish links, or even where it is.
Syrians are taking friendlier attitudes toward Israel under the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, a new YouGov survey suggests. JNS reports:
The survey, which the Council for a Secure America commissioned, found that 59% of Syrians think that peace with Israel is likely, compared to 14% that believes it’s unlikely.
Almost two-thirds of respondents support a security arrangement with Israel, and less than 10% disapproved. Nearly half want normalization with Israel after a resolution with the Palestinians, and 40% are undecided on that issue, per the poll.
Respondents expressed disdain for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group that long controlled Southern Lebanon and was aligned with longtime Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was deposed in December 2024.
This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, of the Middle East and North Africa, documenting the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution.
Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries
One-stop blog on the Middle East's
forgotten Jewish refugees - updated daily.