Ten years ago, the Israeli Parliament set November 30 as a day to commemorate the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries and Iran. Between 1948 and 1970, 800,000 Jews were forced to leave their ancestral homes in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf region\u2013communities that had existed for centuries, and in some cases millennia \u2013 due to persecution and anti-Jewish pogroms. Thousands more fled Iran between 1979 and 1980 after the rise of the Ayatollah regime.
\nThe memory of that “dramatic exodus, which forced thousands of families to leave their homes, synagogues, and possessions, severing a deep bond of belonging that had connected them to their homeland for centuries,” was the focus of a conference in Rome. The event was organized by senator Giulio Terzi di Sant\u2019Agata, former Foreign Minister and Italian Ambassador to Israel, and featured speakers including Israeli Ambassador to Italy Jonathan Peled.
\nPsychoanalyst David Gerbi, who fled Tripoli at the age of twelve and now represents the World Organization of Libyan Jews, said, “This mass exodus is a fundamental part of modern history.” Yet, inexplicably, “it remains little known and is rarely mentioned in discussions about Middle Eastern conflicts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"