Half a year after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established diplomatic relations with Israel, hidden Jewish communities in the Gulf Arab states that once lived under the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict are embracing a more public image. .
Kosher food is now available. Jewish holidays are openly celebrated. There is even a new religious court to settle matters such as marriages and divorces.
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Menorah was used during the Hanukkah Jewish holiday, when an Israeli delegation visited the Bahrain Jewish Community synagogue.
(Photo: AP)
“Slowly, slowly, it’s getting better,” said Ebrahim Nonoo, Bahrain’s Jewish community leader, who recently hosted an online reception of the Purim holiday for explorations in the Gulf Arab region.
Nonoo is one of the founders of the Gulf Association of Jewish Communities, a new silhouette group for the small Jewish population in the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Their goal is to increase acceptance of Jewish life in the region.
“It’s just going to take a while to get through before we see a Jewish restaurant or a kosher restaurant somewhere,” said Nonoo, a former member of Bahrain’s parliament.
Even a small online gathering as a Purim celebration would have been unbelievable a few years ago, when relations with Israel were taboo and suspected of keeping their identity out of public view for fear of offending him. their Muslim guests.
That changed with last year’s treaties between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain that brought thousands of Israeli tourists and businessmen to the region and led to a new business of Jewish weddings and other celebrations aimed at Israeli visitors.
Emirati and Bahraini authorities have launched a public relations blitz to cultivate their image as Muslim places of inclusion and tolerance for claims, in stark contrast to Saudi Arabia and Iran’s regional rivals.
“A door has opened,” said Elie Abadie, the new chief rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates. “I think there is more openness and more welcome and commitment for a Jewish community or people or a Jewish tradition and culture to attend. “
The Lebanese-born Abadie, a member of the Gulf Association of Jewish Communities, said he is confident the move is happening across the Gulf, not just in the UAE.
The association aims to provide support and services to the small Jewish groups in Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. These could include kosher testimonials for hotels, restaurants and food products, a rabid court and pastoral guidance for religious events such as bar mitzvahs, circumcisions and funerals.
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A Rabbi attends a wedding under a canopy during a wedding reception in Dubai
(Photo: AP)
Their small numbers of Jews are almost entirely made up of foreign nationals who came to the area for business. Only Bahrain has a rooted Jewish community. The 80 or so descendants of the Iraqi people who arrived in the late 19th century are seeking an opportunity for trade.
It is the largest Jewish community in the UAE, with an estimated 1,000 members. He’s also one of the newest, and Abadie said he needs to “start things from scratch.”
Only about 200 are active members of the community. The rest, like most Gulf Arab states, maintains a low profile. With the growing enthusiasm for Jewish life in the UAE, Abadie said he expects “more of them to come to light. “
Jewish communities had flourished for centuries throughout the Islamic world. For a long time, they had a status of protection, and from time to time, as in medieval Muslim Andalusia, they thrived in a golden age of stability. Most of these communities became extinct after the founding of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of people were displaced or fled.
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Alex Peterfreund, co-founder of Dubai’s Jewish community and its singer, prepares to read from the Torah in Dubai
(Photo: AP)
With the large numbers of Palestinians, Lebanese, Egyptians and Pakistanis living in the Gulf Arab countries, some have been uncomfortable in recent years in sharing their identity. religious in public. Residence permits in the UAE, for example, require applicants to state their religion, and “Jewish” is not an option.
Most Arab states have been normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel as they ended the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Israeli ownership of land that is Palestinians seek independent state.
But recently, these views have eroded among some Arab leaders, even as Israel’s hostility – partly due to its policies toward Palestinians – has continued to resonate among their people. .
Gulf Arab monarchs have a few scattered remnants of past Jewish communities, said Jason Guberman, executive director of the American Sephardi Federation.
Saudi Arabia is home to pre-Islamic sites in the 7th century, and Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman have ancient Jewish cemeteries. The UAE emirate Ras al-Khaimah is home to a lone Jewish headstone, possibly from a traveling merchant – like most arrived in Dubai today.
“I’ve been in the Gulf for a long time, and now it’s kind of a return to this historical pattern of people coming in for trade,” Guberman said, adding that it was “Very interesting to see some of this return from the plural.” Beyond the Middle East. “
Jean Candiotte, a New York-based TV director who has been in Dubai for seven years, said the new feeling is liberating.
“We used to be like this small, tiny family of Jews. We found each other in secret ways and everyone thought they were the same, ”she said. “We were aware that we were in a Muslim country and we didn’t know if everyone was ready for us.”
“Now it feels completely different,” she said. “I really feel like I can be alone here, attending more open Jewish ceremonies and celebrations. Jewish life here is becoming more like Jewish life than anywhere else. “
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The Israeli delegation will visit the synagogue of the Jewish Community of Bahrain, October 2020
(Photo: AP)
However, this new reality remains precarious. Some countries have been slower to adapt. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have long been criticized for inciting anti-Semitic ideas in textbooks.
Security remains a concern, as evidenced by the recent attack on an Israeli-owned boat in the Persian Gulf. Israel has blamed Iran’s archenemy, and officials fear that targets for Jews and other Israelis could be vulnerable. Many critics in the area keep their religious identity a secret.
A Jewish businessman who has lived and worked in Oman for the past several decades said he is one of perhaps 20 survivors of the sultanate.
He said the country has a more tolerant approach to religious diversity than its neighbors, but asked to remain anonymous as he was concerned about results from local officials.
During the coronavirus pandemic, he said Zoom Sabbath services hosted by the Jewish Community of the Emirates on Friday afternoon have been a way of life for him. He said he hopes the new Gulf general body will “generate a sense of a little security coming out of the closet, so to speak.”