Farhud: decisive turning point for the Jews of Iraq

'Satan at the door' - a scene from the Farhud by artist Nissim Zalayette

Nothing convinced the ancient Jewish community of Iraq to emigrate en masse to Israel more than the terrible events of 1 - 2 June 1941 known as The Farhud. Philip Mendes wrote this review of Al-Farhud: The 1941 Pogrom in Iraq* edited by Shmuel Moreh and Zvi Yehuda for the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies ( Vol.24, 2010, pp.176-179):



To date, international concern with Middle East refugees has focused primarily on the approximately 700,000 Palestinian Arabs who left Israel during the 1947-48 war. Far less attention has been paid to the nearly one million Jews – known as Mizrahim - who left Arab countries in the decade or so following that war. Most moved to the newly-created Jewish State of Israel where today they constitute the majority of the Jewish population, and often lean towards the hawkish side of the political spectrum.

Read the rest of the article on:  Point of no return