By Morris Malakoff, JTNews Correspondent
The stories of anti-Semitic purges from the pogroms of 19th-century Russia through the Nazi death camps are well-known in the Jewish community.
But one woman believes an important piece of history of Jews being “ethnically cleansed” from their societies is being forgotten. And she believes it is a story that goes far in explaining the current issues that face Israelis and Palestinians.
Gina Waldman, co-founder and chair of JIMENA — Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa — visited the Puget Sound region on Feb. 18 to show a documentary, The Forgotten Refugees, about the exodus of Jews from the Arab countries and Iran, generally after the Second World War. She made appearances at Tacoma’s Foss High School and at Hillel at the University of Washington.
Waldman, who was born and raised in Libya, said that Arab regimes which were often pro-Nazi in the ‘30s and ‘40s carried on a systematic annihilation of their indigenous Jewish populations, making their lives unbearable with public humiliations, pogroms and general discrimination that boiled over in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967.
“We had no idea that Israel had won,” said Waldman. “The radio signals were jammed to keep the news out.”
One day, as a teenage student, she came home to find people attempting to burn down her family’s home. Shortly afterward, her family made a harrowing escape to Italy, being allowed to take one suitcase and the equivalent of $20.
“I eventually made my way to the United States in 1969 as a 19-year old refugee,” she said.
Since then, she has taken up humanitarian causes. She is not one to shy away from authority. She has been arrested three times and spent time in an interrogation cell at the hands of the KGB.
Her efforts extend well beyond the Jewish community. She also worked to help integrate Muslims into Serbian society in Bosnia.
But these days, she is focused on getting out the story of the “Mizrahi,” the Jews who lived in the nine Arab states and Iran. At one time, there were nearly 1 million of them. Today, they are practically non-existent. More than half went to Israel and the remainder have joined the Diaspora.
Waldman said that the intolerance of the Arab states has made for two sets of refugees in the Middle East.
“They expelled the Jews and they will not integrate the Palestinians,” she said. “They have refused to endorse the ‘two-state’ solution. They have left hundreds of thousands of people as refugees.”
Waldman said that while Israel and other countries have integrated the Mizrahi, the recalcitrant approach to the Palestinians by their Arab brethren fuels ongoing hatred that means that conflicts such as the one in Gaza that ended last month will continue.
“These people speak the same language, practice the same religion and have the same culture as other Arabs,” she said. “But these are people who are still seething towards Israel because they have been left without a permanent home.
“The refugee camps are the essence of hatred towards Israel. It is something that Arab states can fix but won’t. The Palestinians are victims of their own leadership.”
Waldman said that now that Jews have been expunged from the Arab world and Iran, Christians are liable to be next.
“Copts, Mennonites and others are very scared,” she said. “The intolerance of the Arab communities has them living in fear. Girls in Egypt are disappearing from the streets, never to be seen again.”
For Waldman, her message is a wakeup call.
“For too long, there has been a myth that Jews in Arab countries lived in harmony with the rest of the population. That is just not true,” she said. “But what is important is that all Jews recognize that the Mizrahi need to be a part of the discussion of how we eventually settle issues in the Middle East. We are a part of that story.”