"I Was a Refugee" : The Expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands and Iran

Persona Grata: A Podcast on Israeli Diplomacy

In November of 1948, as Jews in Israel and the western world celebrated the establishment of the State of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Jews throughout the Middle East began packing their bags, preparing for a dark period in which more than two millennia of Jewish life in Arab lands and Iran would come to an abrupt end. This week as we commemorate the expulsion of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran on November 30th, we'll hear from Linda Menuhin, a Jewish refugee from Bagdad who was forced to flee Iraq in 1969. Today, Linda who lives in Israel, is pioneering Israel's diplomacy efforts in Arabic on social media, building bridges between millions of Arabic speakers around the world and the Jewish State. Between 1948-1979, more than 850,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes, possessions and loved ones behind, as a wave of unprecedented violence and bloodshed targeted Jewish communities across the Middle East. This would eventually lead to the culmination of Jewish life in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, and Egypt. Many of these Jews (close to 600,000), found a new home and purpose in the State of Israel, where they rebuilt their lives and heavily shaped the young Jewish State. To learn more about the expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands and Iran visit: mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/I…-November-2016.aspx