What happened to the 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled from Arab lands and Iran in the late 1940s and early 1950s? In retaliation for the creation of the state of Israel, they were forced by governments and mobs to leave their ancestral homes in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and other countries in the Middle East.

Congregation Bet Haverim, 1715 Anderson Road, will present the story of these Jewish refugees at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, in its Social Hall.

The program will feature Daniel Khazzoom, a current resident of Sacramento and board member of JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa). He will describe the modern-day exodus and its consequences through a 40-minute film and comments.

Khazzoom will draw on his experiences as a native of Baghdad who left Iraq in 1951, moving to Israel and then later to the United States. As the first Israeli accepted to Harvard, he earned a Ph.D. in economics from that institution and went on to teach at UC Berkeley, NYU, San Jose State and other universities. He is well-known as an economist for his work on the efficiency of energy consumption.

KhazzoomÕs published memoir, ÒNo Way Back: The Journey of a Jew from Baghdad,Ó highlights the theme of religious intolerance and discrimination and depicts the violence of Iraqi society during his childhood and in later years.

His book illustrates the broader story of how Jews were expelled from the Arab nations, eliminating communities that had existed in the region for many centuries Ñ some before the birth of Islam. Jewish residents of these nations, as punishment for the creation of Israel, became the victims of discriminatory legislation and mob violence, including hangings, were deprived of voting rights, and lost employment and educational opportunities. Almost all eventually were ÒallowedÓ to leave their native lands on condition they signed agreements never to return and to leave their property behind.

Most of the Jewish refugees Ñ called ÒMizrachi,Ó or Jews of the East Ñ were quickly absorbed by Israel. Others migrated to Western Europe and the United States.

Today, with the exception of small communal pockets in Morocco, the Arab world is effectively devoid of Jews. Egypt, which once had 180,000 Jews, now has a handful of mostly aged remnants living in Cairo and Alexandria; Iraq, which had 160,000 Jews, now has fewer than 100; Libya and most other Arab states have none.

The Nov. 14 program is sponsored by the Israel Matters Committee of Congregation Bet Haverim.

For more information, contact Al Sokolow at (530) 758-3246 or [email protected]

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