We received bittersweet news this week of a top-secret daring rescue of Syrian Jews from the ravages of civil war in Syria, amidst our daily news of Palestinian attacks on Jews in Israel. Bittersweet because although the secret evacuation of the last Syrian Jews was successful, it meant the end of a nearly 3,000-year old history of the ancient Jewish community living there. The smuggling operation necessitated traveling through enemy territory, hiding from and trying to avoid the ongoing devastating battles between the rebels and Syrian army, finding shelter from the Russian bombings. There was a mass exodus of Syrian Jews at the end of the 20th century, and according to 2014 statistics, fewer than 20 Syrian Jews remained. Now none.
In Yemen, there is also a threat of extinction of the Jews living there. Allegedly the Yemen authorities have given the surviving 200 Yemenite Jews a dire choice: Convert to Islam or leave Yemen. The Jewish community in Yemen is thousands of years old. When Israel became a state, the majority of Jews from Yemen – 50,000 — immigrated to Israel. Jews who remained have faced daily danger since rebels took over last year. A Shi’ite Muslim militia has taken over the capital. Jews had taken refuge in a walled community near the now-abandoned American Embassy. Over the years, Israel has assisted in aiding Yemenite Jews in leaving the country. Although the remaining do not want to leave, they fear for their lives if they do not do so soon.
One of the oldest Diasporas was in Iraq. A Diaspora is the scattering of Jews to countries outside the land of Israel. The Greek term “Diaspora” entered the English language in the late 19th century to describe the dispersion of Jews after their captivity in Babylonia in the fifth century B.C.E. However, the term now refers to Jews living outside of Israel. After the Babylonian captivity, many Jews remained in Iraq (Babylon) for centuries. Some returned to the land of Israel. Over the years the Iraqi Jewish community left for Syria, Egypt, Burma, Great Britain and the United States. After Israel became a state, the majority of remaining Iraqi Jews immigrated to Israel. Only 5 percent stayed behind. During Saddam Hussein’s regime, life for Jews was dangerous. Murders, hangings, persecutions, arrests. Most Iraqi Jews fled without belongings or money, just to get out alive. The Jewish community in Iraq no longer exists.
In Egypt, there was a population of 80,000 Jews in the early 20th century, but allegedly there are fewer than 50 today. Once a richly religious and active community, Egyptian Jews were forced to flee in the middle of the night leaving their homes, businesses, and money behind after Gamal Nasser came to power in the 1950s.
Many people speak of Arab refugees, but what of the Jewish refugees who had to flee Arab countries? When Israel became a state, it was willing to absorb all the Arabs living in the land, but many fled on the advice of their leaders. Those who fled now call themselves “Palestinians.” Yet the only people prior to the time of Arafat called “Palestinians” were Jews! That was only until they became known as Israelis when the state of Israel was born. In many Arab countries, the number of remaining Jews is less than a handful. Afghanistan, for example, whose Jewish population lived there for 2,000 years, has only one Jew. Eritrea also allegedly has only one Jew.
In 2014, the Jewish population of the world was estimated at 14.2 million people, 2/10 of 1 percent of the world population. Yet in 1939 there were 17 million Jews in the world, just under 1 percent of the world population. By the end of the Holocaust in 1945, the number was reduced to 11 million and grew to 13 million by the 1970s. Since then, between assimilation and low fertility rates, there has been almost zero growth except in Orthodox Jewish communities.
Country-wise, Israel has the highest Jewish population, followed closely by the United States, making up 13 million Jews between them, 80 percent of the world’s Jewish population. France is third with between 500,000 and 600,000. That number is dwindling because of anti-Semitism and the recent dangerous situation for Jews in France caused by Muslim terrorists. Many French Jews are now immigrating to Israel and the United States. I wonder how many other Jewish communities in the world will have to be rescued by Israel from forced conversions, terrorism, and exile.
Although the news of the secret operation to save Syrian Jews may appear bittersweet, perhaps it is not so sad after all. Perhaps it is just another sign of the ingathering of Jews to Israel. As it says in Isaiah 11:12, “And He (G-d) will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
L’hitraot. Shachar
