The history of the Jews in Kuwait is closely connected to the history of the Jews in Iraq.
The history of the Jews in Kuwait is closely connected to the history of the Jews in Iraq.
The noted British businessman Naim Dangoor was an Iraqi Jewish exile whose grandfather was the chief rabbi in Baghdad. He came to Britain in the 1930s to study engineering at Queen Mary College in London and returned to Iraq to join the army and then set up his business empire. He spent the 1950s running the Coca-Cola franchise in Iraq with a beloved Muslim business partner. [1] He states that:
Professor Faisal Abdulla Alkanderi of Kuwait corroborates the above in his essay in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 2006, as summarized:
Today, the Avraham Society claims to represent all Kuwaiti Jews, stating on their website that they are a "modern Humanistic and Cultural initiative that is based on and representing the Jewish Community of Kuwait in all its denominations." [4]
There have also been some Kuwaitis converting to Judaism, such as Yousef Al-Mhanna (Hebrew name: Naftali Benya), [6] Ibtisam Hamid (Hebrew name: Basma Al-Kuwaiti) [7] and Mark Halawa. [8]
Religious ties between Muslims and the Jewish people have existed since the founding of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century; Muhammad's views on Jews were shaped by his extensive contact with the Jewish tribes of Arabia during his lifetime. Islam shares similar values, guidelines, and principles with the Jewish religion, and also incorporates Jewish history as a part of its own. Muslims regard the Israelites, to whom Jews and Samaritans trace their ethnic ancestry, as an important religious concept; they are referenced around 43 times in the Quran, excluding individual prophets, and in many accounts of hadith. Similarly, Moses, the most important Jewish prophet, is also regarded by Muslims as an Islamic prophet and messenger ; his name is mentioned in the Quran 136 times—more than any other individual—and his life is narrated and recounted more than that of any other prophet. The Torah, which is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, is also held by Muslims as an Islamic holy book that was revealed by God through various Israelite prophets and messengers. Later rabbinic authorities and Jewish scholars, such as Maimonides, engaged in discussions concerning the relationship between Islam and Jewish religious law. Maimonides himself, it has been argued, was influenced by Islamic legal thought while living in the caliphates of his time.
Religious antisemitism is aversion to or discrimination against Jews as a whole based on religious doctrines of supersession, which expect or demand the disappearance of Judaism and the conversion of Jews to other faiths. This form of antisemitism has frequently served as the basis for false claims and religious antisemitic tropes against Judaism. Sometimes, it is called theological antisemitism.
Farhud was the pogrom or the "violent dispossession" that was carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on 1–2 June 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a power vacuum that followed the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani while the city was in a state of instability. The violence came immediately after the rapid defeat of Rashid Ali by British forces, whose earlier coup had generated a short period of national euphoria, and was fueled by allegations that Iraqi Jews had aided the British. More than 180 Jews were killed and 1,000 injured, although some non-Jewish rioters were also killed in the attempt to quell the violence. Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed.
The persecution of Jews has been a major event in Jewish history prompting shifting waves of refugees and the formation of diaspora communities. As early as 605 BCE, Jews who lived in the Neo-Babylonian Empire were persecuted and deported. Antisemitism was also practiced by the governments of many different empires and the adherents of many different religions (Christianity), and it was also widespread in many different regions of the world.
Jewish communities have existed across the Middle East and North Africa since classical antiquity. By the time of the early Muslim conquests in the seventh century, these ancient communities had been ruled by various empires and included the Babylonian, Persian, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Yemenite Jews.
Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews are historic terms for the former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities.
Saleh (1908–1986) and Daud (1910–1976) Al-Kuwaity were Kuwait-born Israeli musicians of Iraqi-Iranian ancestry who rose to prominence in the Arab world in the early twentieth century. The brothers had a pioneering role in the modern classical music of Iraq and Kuwait, especially the Iraqi maqam and Kuwaiti sawt genres. In 1951, the brothers immigrated from Iraq to Israel.
Adeni Jews, or Adenite Jews are the historical Jewish community which resided in the port city of Aden. Adenite culture became distinct from other Yemenite Jewish culture due to British control of the city and Indo-Iraqi Jewish influence as well as recent arrivals from Persia and Egypt. Although they were separated, Adeni Jews depended on the greater Yemenite community for spiritual guidance, receiving their authorizations from Yemeni rabbis. Virtually the entire population emigrated from Aden between June 1947 and September 1967. As of 2004, there were 6,000 Adenites in Israel, and 1,500 in London.
In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were often the outgrowths of segregated ghettos instituted by the surrounding Christian or Muslim authorities. A Yiddish term for a Jewish quarter or neighborhood is "Di yiddishe gas", or "The Jewish quarter." While in Ladino, they are known as maalé yahudí, meaning "The Jewish quarter".
The history of the Jews in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to Biblical times. The Arabian Peninsula is defined as including the present-day countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen politically and parts of Iraq and Jordan geographically.
Ezekiel's Tomb is revered by Jews as the resting place of Ezekiel, an Israelite prophet who was deported from the Kingdom of Judah during the Babylonian captivity and serves as the eponymous protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. Historically the oldest and most important Jewish site in Mesopotamia, it is now the location of the Al-Nukhailah Mosque, which was built on top of the original site and holds separate significance for Shia Muslims. The Jewish presence at Ezekiel's Tomb has greatly diminished since the Jewish exodus from Iraq in the 1950s, shortly after the beginning of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The larger complex has been extensively redeveloped since the 2003 invasion of Iraq; it is widely regarded by Muslims to be the resting place of Dhul-Kifl, an unknown Islamic prophet who is often identified with Ezekiel, and work was reportedly underway to convert the site's disused synagogue into a mosque.
The 1950–1951 Baghdad bombings were a series of bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad, Iraq, between April 1950 and June 1951.
Iraqi Jews in Israel, also known as the Bavlim, are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Iraqi Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number around 450,000.
David Joseph Ezra was a leading merchant, property developer and communal leader of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Kolkata, India. He was one of the key developers behind nineteenth century Kolkata, and was responsible for many of its most celebrated Victorian buildings and synagogues.
The Tunisian city of Kairouan, also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan was a world center of Talmudic and Halakhic scholarship for at least three generations.
Sadqa Hussein was a Sephardi dayan, mohel, and spiritual leader to the Iraqi Jewish community in Iraq and Israel. He taught thousands of students in Baghdad, and led the Iraqi expatriate community in Jerusalem. He was the founder and rosh mesivta of the Shemesh Sedaqah Synagogue in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem.
MirS.Baṣrī was an Iraqi writer, economist, journalist, and poet. Among many public positions he held, Basri served as the head and central leader of Iraqi and Baghdad's Jewish community.
al–Bataween is a neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. It is located in eastern region of Baghdad, on the riverside of the Tigris and is part of Rusafa district. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was the main Jewish quarter of Baghdad. Today, the neighborhood is mainly inhabited by Muslims, Christians and remaining Jews.
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