Mizrahi Heritage Month
While Chanukah commemorates the destruction and renewal of the Temple, we have another important memory each November. This is traditionally when we remember the mass exile and destruction of Jewish life in Arab countries from 1947-67.
November 30th is the date adopted by the Government of Israel in 2014 to remember the almost 1,000,000 Jewish refugees who were ethnically cleansedfrom Arab-Muslim countries during the 20th century. We must acknowledge Chanukah is not just about a miracle in oil but a commemoration of the strength, resilience, courage and determination of the Maccabees, who stood up for the Jewish people, cleansed and restored the Temple.
The law, which is the culmination of several years of hard work and dedication by an international team of Mizrahi Justice Advocates, entails commemoration events and the inclusion of Mizrahi history into schools’ curriculum.
At the forefront of the North American movement to uphold the Day of Commemoration is the San Francisco-based organization JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, a nonprofit that seeks universal recognition of the Mizrahi refugee experience and heritage.
The world has not officially recognized these Jewish refugees, who significantly outnumber the Arab refugees created in the founding of Modern Israel, and who continue to exploit world sympathy and masses of funding from Western donor countries. These so-called “Palestinian Arab” refugees are called such under no recognizable definition of “refugee.” They are pawns and puppets of the anti-Zionist Jew hating propaganda of the governing Palestinian Arab terrorists in Gaza and the disputed territories.
Read more about Jewish refugees from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.
Consider these facts from the Jewish Virtual Library:
*The contrast between the Jewish refugees and the Palestinian refugees grows even starker considering the difference in cultural and geographic dislocation - most of the Jewish refugees traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to a tiny country whose inhabitants spoke a different language and lived with a vastly different culture. Most Palestinian refugees traveled but a few miles to the other side of the 1949 armistice lines while remaining inside a linguistically, culturally and ethnically similar society.
*The value of Jewish property left behind and confiscated by the Arab governments is estimated to be at least 50 percent higher than the total value of assets lost by the Palestinian refugees
*More than 100 UN resolutions have been passed referring explicitly to the fate of the Palestinian refugees. Not one has specifically addressed Jewish refugees.
Sephardic Chanukah Traditions article from Dec 2014 by Adam Eilath
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson’s Chanukah Greetings
As Chanukah marks another year of increased antisemitism, riots in Israel against the Jewish state and growing anxiety for Jews in many countries with antiZionist elements in media, government, faith communities and street gangs, this UK leader offers some meaningful words of greetings: “Jews are not alone, Jews must be proud, Jews must be strong, Jews belong in the UK, and the UK stands with the Jews.”
Message from Dumasani Washington Founder of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel
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