2021: The Year in Review
As has become our end-of-the-year custom, we bring you the Point of No Return review of 2021.
This year was still in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, there was no shortage of news.
Good news:
Much the best news of the year was the consolidation of the Abraham Accords. Israel and Morocco signed a defence agreement. A Jewish wedding was celebrated in Bahrain, and the UAE continued to build on its new alliance with Israel. Israel and the UAE and Bahrain opened embassies.
The two last Jews of Afghanistan, Tova Muradi and Zevulun Simentov, managed to escape the country’s takeover by the Taliban.
Two Jewish families escaped war-torn Yemen.
It was a good year for Algerian-Jewish Eric Zemmour, who has now declared his candidacy in the French presidential elections.
Niran Bassoon-Timan was voted one of the top 100 influencers in Iraq by a magazine.
Bad news:
Levi Salem Marhabi still languishes in jail in Yemen despite efforts to have him released. Only six Jews remain in the country, after a group of 13 , led by Rabbi Yahya Youssef, left for Egypt.
After the death of Thafer Eliyahu, Jewish property in Iraq has fallen prey to racketeers.
Moroccan survivors of wartime camps have failed in their bid to be considered Holocaust survivors.
The new chairman of Yad Vashem, Dani Dayan, has refused to re-instate a photo of the Mufti of Jerusalem meeting Adolph Hitler.
Obituaries: 2021 saw the passing of Shlomo Hillel, Naim Kattan, Ruth Rejwan Pearl and two members of the Egyptian-Jewish community.
Mixed news:
A conference of 200 Iraqis demanded normalisation with Israel. But the government issued arrest warrants for the main participants.
While relations have improved in Arab countries and more was done to raise awareness of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, more still can be done in schools. In the West, a worrying trend to minimise and deny the exodus is sweeping over academia.
Must-read articles of the year:
‘Arab Jew’ invention erases Mizrahi history and identity (Adiel Cohen )
Nostalgia for vanishing Jews masks their ethnic cleansing (Dara Horn)
Loyalty of last Jews of Yemen repaid with expulsion (Lyn Julius)
How Tunisia got rid of their Jews by stealth (André Nahum)
Anniversaries
70 years since the great ‘aliya’ from Iraq
Remembering the Second Exodus on 30 November
How Jews escaped Bizerte, one dark and stormy night
BBC Radio breaks its silence on the Farhud
Reviews of Past Years
WISHING ALL BLOG READERS A VERY HAPPY and HEALTHY NEW YEAR!
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