Although Westerners often perceive the formation of State of Israel as a European phenomenon, immigration to Israel and the Yishuv was instrumental in the founding of the state. By 1961, Jews from Arab lands made up 45 percent of the population of Israel¹ (and would later become a majority of the state) even though the European reservoir of Jews from which the new state could draw was larger than that of the Arab countries. Jews from Arab lands flocked to Palestine both before the first Arab-Israeli war and as a result of it.

This migration was a result of both "push" factors from within the various countries and from "pull" factors emanating from Israel. The Jews in European countries and in the Soviet Union felt they had been discriminated against and even persecuted, and the same is true for Arab countries. It is this mistreatment of a minority or "other" tended to push Jews out of Arab countries as it had in European countries. On the other hand, some Jews in Arab countries (and undoubtedly also in European ones) did not need a reason to join the Jewish state. They wanted to join the state to be with their coreligionists, and nothing more was needed to uproot them and send them migrating to Israel.²

The 1948 war itself was a major catalyst for migration. In several countries, the various Muslim majorities became easily angered at the local Jewish communities, who were often automatically seen as Zionists, or at least imperialist conspirators, whether or not they favored the establishment of Israel or not.³ Jews who had been tolerated for centuries by the local Arab populations quickly became victimized by pogroms and were forced to leave their home counties, often for the burgeoning Jewish state. Like oil separating from water, Jews who had lived dispersed throughout Arab lands for centuries in the 1940s and 1950s became clumped together in one area, while at the same time, this ingathering was counterbalanced by Arabs who had lived in the newly-Judaized lands of Palestine but fled once the war began. We witness the transformation of two areas from partially Jewish and partially Arab to one being predominantly Jewish and the others even more Muslim than they had been.

In all the literature about the phenomenon several books stand out as vital sources, I will now look at these works. The books will be evaluated as to how well they answer the question: "Why did the Jews leave Arab countries in the 1940s and 1950s?" While not easily available to the casual consumer, once obtained, these scholarly volumes provide a wealth of information to those who take the time and make the effort to find them.

The most comprehensive study of the question is The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times by Norman A. Stillman. The book is published by an outfit called the Jewish Publication Society based in Philadelphia. This fact may worry some readers, but the book is not biased against Arabs or Muslims in any significant way. The work is an extension of another tome similarly titled The Jews of Arab Lands, professor Stillman's first project, which dealt with the years from the rise of Islam to the approximate rise of Zionism, and should not be confused with his more recent text. This book identifies each country that had a significant Jewish population at the turn of the century and looks at the Jewish communities and their migrations in each, though not particularly thoroughly. Professor Stillman provides a readable primer for the countries of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia, noticeably, though he discusses Yemenite Jewry in other sections of the book, he does not address reasons for their migration to the state of Israel in the famous Operation Magic Carpet. Someone interested in studying the region as a whole could not find a better guide than this one. Of course, when one writes history with broad brush strokes the details (of each country) are left out, but that is where the books below come in. For information on specific countries, there are several find books that look at more limited geographical areas, and it is to these books that I now turn.

The first of these country-studies is The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970, by Michael M. Laskier. As the title implies, this volume looks at the Jewish community of Egypt -- Israel's neighboring enemy and the largest and most powerful Arab nation; Egypt is a logical country to study for precisely those reasons. While the sheer number of Arab countries makes choosing one to study difficult, Egypt is too important to be overlooked.

Laskier emphasizes the role of Zionist emissaries from Israel in encouraging migration (to use our analogy, "pulling" them to Israel). Professor Laskier fairly discusses why Israel needed to recruit Jews from its neighbor and how important it was in forming a movement of migration to Israel, especially before 1948 (for example, "[T]he Jewish communities of Egypt were targeted by the Yishuv's leadership as a potential source of funds"⁴). He notes that before 1948 the plight of the Egyptian Jews was not nearly as dire as that of their coreligionists in Iraq, Syria, and the Maghreb.⁵ Laskier does not forget the role of local Zionists in helping to get Jews to Israel, and their collaboration with the Yishuv's emissaries. He also examines the internal strife among differing Jewish factions working in Egypt, from the Labor Left to the Revisionist Right.

The only drawback about Laskier's work is that he spends a lot of time looking at how the migrations occurred, spending much ink on process, which invariably takes space away from questions of why events were forced to unfold as they did. Admittedly, if the time Laskier spends on describing how the emigrations out of Egypt worked is not completely germane to discovering why, these anecdotal sections are nonetheless quite interesting; if someone were to make these parts into a screenplay she or he would undoubtedly make a good deal of money. He spends a great deal of time describing the three waves of migration to the Yishuv: over the water, through the desert, and a "semi-legal" wave through official channels.

One cannot mention the above book without also discussing The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914-1952 by Gudrun Krämer. While this book is dry compared to Laskier's, it is also helpful for the student of Egypt's Jewry. Like Laskier, Krämer notes that Egyptian Jews had it better than their Arab brethren in other countries, at least before 1948.⁶ The most useful chapter in this book is Chapter 5: The Beginning of the End. The rest of the book addresses the history of the Jews in Egypt and does not deal directly with the exodus to the Yishuv and Israel.

What is good about Krämer's work is his acumen in identifying reasons for the persecution: "As was to be expected, Egyptian Jewry suffered from the repercussions of the Arab-Israeli war. They had seen the destruction of homes, shops, department stores, and cinema houses, and even random assaults on individuals. But there had been no organized persecution, let alone persecution ordered by the government."⁷ Though, he subsequently notes, the government did nothing to stop anti-Jewish violence, and most of those arrested to "keep the peace" were Jews. He emphasizes the laissez-faire attitude of the government toward the Jewish subjects. Not only did it not stop the Jews from being attacked, it in practice did not stop them from leaving either. He sometimes drifts into sarcasm, as evidenced by this telling quote: "The Egyptian government could not but have noticed the sudden, but very marked desire of local Jews, who had previously not been able to afford Alexandria, to spend their holidays in Mediterranean seaports. Yet it did nothing to prevent their departure." Krämer looks more at the why than the how of Jewish emigration from Egypt than Laskier. His book is very fair, if slightly pro-Jewish at times, and its only drawback for us is that it does not spend enough time on the emigration question, but looks at a broader spectrum of topics regarding Egypt's Jewish community.

It is not enough to study one country and use it as a model for the other Arab countries, because the situations in the various countries were very different from one another. Thus one needs to study several different countries to get a sampling of the different types of migrations. Of the remaining studies, by far the best was The Lure of Zion by Abbas Shiblak. This little book is a gem; it is quick and easy to read. Well structured and plainly written, Shiblak's primer lucidly describes the exigencies of the Iraqi Jews' migration to Israel. Unlike Egypt, and as I shall illustrate, Morocco, Iraqi Jews were pulled more than they were pushed to Israel. Also, the Jews were affected by "something approaching mass hysteria"⁹ in that the vast majority of them left in a single two-year period, when no real threat existed, Shiblak explains.

Supremely interesting of all that Shiblak reveals is the fact that it was Zionists who, through two methods, one out in the open, the other well hidden, managed to convince the Iraqi Jewish population (the oldest and wealthiest and most respected in all of the Islamic countries) to flee their homeland. The first method, the one everyone knew about, was an arrangement between Israeli Shlomo Hillel and the Prime Minister of Iraq, to airlift the Jews to Israel. The very knowledge among the Jewish population that this plan existed planted a seed in their collective unconscious that maybe there was a reason to leave, or a number of their coreligionists were about to leave and they should too. Even more ominous, though, were the events that caused this seed to germinate: Zionist agents began a series of bombings from April 8, 1950 to May 6, 1951 targeting Jewish synagogues, living and recreational quarters. These bombs, combined with Zionist rhetoric, convinced the vast majority of Jews that they were no longer welcome in Iraq. Shiblak cites ample sources, including magazine articles and even an admission from Ben-Gurion himself that this occurred. (He does note, also, that the Iraqi government did nothing substantial to find the perpetrators of the bombing, implying it did not mind it too much.) The shock to the annual emigration statistics clearly backs up his claim that these bombings were the trigger that sparked the exodus out of Iraq. Shiblak also spends a great deal of time discussing the Iraqi Denaturalization Law (Law I/1950) that allowed Jews to freely leave and go to any country they choose; he describes senatorial debate (as does Stillman) on the subject, and provides insight into the characters who played a role in shaping public opinion, like Rabbi Sassoon Khadduri, who was against the exodus.⁹ This certainly helped make up the minds of those fence-sitters who could not make up their minds. In addition, Shiblak is the scholar who clearly defines the difference between the "push" and "pull" factors, in both general study and in the case of Zionist migration.¹⁰

Moving from Iraq to the other end of the Arab lands, North Africa, we have a book that purports to study all North African Jews, North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century, also by Michael M. Laskier. This book is really only about Moroccan Jewry, as it only deals with Algeria in the final chapter, and Tunisia in the penultimate two (chapters 8 and 9). Tunisia is constantly compared to Morocco when it is studied. Here Laskier spends too much time asking and answering other questions that are related to migration, but does not have a single chapter devoted entirely to why Jews left North Africa. Rather, little snippets of why are thrown in throughout several chapters dealing with emigration. The book was poorly organized. While the other books about Arab Jewry were essentially chronologically based, ending with one or two chapters on the emigration to Palestine, Laskier deals with the whole history of North African Jewry in the first two chapters, then tangentially deals with the minutiae of emigration in chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8.

As for why the Jews left north African countries, Laskier puts the most emphasis on the fact that the Gentiles in these countries were wary of the Jews as imperialist conspirators (i.e., helpers of the French, also a fact noted by Shiblak). He also points out that economically, it made sense for poorer Jews to emigrate to Israel. As others also noted regarding other countries, rich Jews emigrated last, and when they did more often went to the United States or European countries. Laskier spends a great deal of time studying the direct catalyst for emigration: a series of pogroms and anti-Jewish riots in the Jewish quarters of some major downs such as Oudjda. He is wise to note: "This report does not suggest that the pogroms and other forms of violence were preplanned. It does indicate, however, that tensions over Zionism and the Palestine war served as catalysts to the pogrom."¹¹ He also notes that many of the Jews who emigrated to Israel ended up coming back because of the discriminatory practices they faced in Israel did not match up to their expectations of the Promised Land,¹² an illustrative point, telling us that Morocco's pogroms could not have been all that bad.

A final subject he looks into in depth is the reasons for restrictions on emigration. After all, why would the local populations want their internal enemy to stick around?¹³ "[T]he only reason for the severe restrictions on emigration was the opposition manifested by the local Muslims who saw in the Jews an important source of profits and taxes."¹⁴ He then notes how this is seen as an invalid claim because only the poor Jews were leaving at that point.

The final book I look at is The Road to Redemption by Tudor Parfitt, a volume about the history of Yemeni Jews. The book studies the community from 1900 to 1950. Because virtually the entire Jewish community of Yemen had left by 1950 it is no problem that the book stops after that year. The book is a rich source of information about the process of what the press Operation Magic Carpet (the name preferred by the Yemenis was Operation On Wings of Eagles from Exodus 19:4) Parfitt also discusses the shock of the Yemeni's, when they came to Israel, at their differences from the other Jews, their relative penury, and the discrimination they faced in the new country.

As far as why the Jews left Yemen in mass between 1948 and 1950, Parfitt describes the Palestinian refugees as playing an integral role. When the Palestinians arrived in Yemen they wanted to get the Jews out of there, because they had seen Israel's military might and "There was always the fear . . . that sooner or later the State of Israel would exact terrible retribution if they [Yemeni Jews] were not allowed to go."¹⁵ It was seen as a now-or-never situation, like that of several other Arab countries, including Iraq and Morocco. So, the Palestinians spread the word throughout Yemen that Israel was a powerful country and described their victories, Parfitt says, probably because they were hoping to "profit from [the Jews'] departure."¹⁶ Israeli emissaries were keen on dislodging the ancient Yemeni community or "liquidating the Yemeni exile" as they called it.¹⁷

While after 1948 the Jews of Europe were mainly "pulled" to Israel by their own desire to live in the Promised Land with their coreligionists, the Jews of Arab lands were "pushed" as much as they were "pulled" because they were living behind enemy lines, as it were. But within Arab countries, the circumstances regarding each country were actually quite different. While the Jews of North Africa were seen as the enemy within, automatically Zionist sympathizers, and were pushed out for that reason, the Jews of Iraq were pulled into Israel by Zionists bent on getting their support in the fledgling country, Yemeni Jews who were mostly lured to Zion by Palestinians and Israelis, and Egyptians who were both (at first mildly) discriminated against and pulled in by Zionist emissaries. All of the authors discussed above do a fine job of describing the process by which this occurred and giving reasons for it, but some of them are better than others. The best book to read is Stillman's, followed by the area study of Iraq by Shiblak. After those two books are read and digested, for further information, Laskier's book on Egypt is another logical place to continue, followed by Parfitt's Yemen work, Laskier's North African's volume and finally with Krämer's look at Egypt. While all the authors seem to be pretty unbiased in their research, and use similar methodology (scholarly research into primary and secondary sources, and occasional personal interviews), to fully understand why the Jews left Arab lands, one needs to read a sampling of books to compare the different circumstances of Jews in the various countries, in that respect all the authors supplement each other in regards to the study of all Arab countries.

¹Howard Sachar, A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time, 2nd ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996) 403.

²This behavior is noted well by Norman A. Stillman, in his book to be discussed below, The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times: "This initial North African aliya was not the result of any urgent sense of fear for physical security or of outright political oppression, but rather it was the genuine expression of a quasi-messianic enthusiasm that swept over Maghrebi Jewry in the wake of Israel's victory in the [first] Arab-Israeli war" (p. 166).

³Gudrun Krämer, The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914-1952 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989), 216.

⁴Michael M. Laskier, The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970 (New York: New York University Press, 1992) 103.

⁵Laskier, Egypt 106.

⁶Krämer 208.

⁷Krämer 216.

⁸Abbas Shiblak, The Lure of Zion (London: Al Saqi Books, 1986) 115.

⁹Shiblak 197.

¹⁰Shiblak 103.

¹¹Michael M. Laskier, North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century (New York: New York University Press, 1994) 94.

¹²Laskier, North Africa 124.

¹³As Laskier himself notes on page 105 (of North Africa): "The Muslims are . . . happy to repeat that the departure of the Jews from Morocco will not contribute to the Jewish state, and quite to the contrary, Morocco would be rid of quantities of undesirables."

¹⁴Laskier, North Africa 135.

¹⁵Tudor Parfitt, The Road to Redemption: The Jews of Yemen 1900-1950 (New York: E.J. Brill, 1996) 205.

¹⁶Parfitt 205.

¹⁷Parfitt, quoting Yosef Zadok, a Yemeni Israeli, page 205.

Kramer, Gudrun. The Jews in Modern Egypt: 1914-1952. Seattle: U. of Washington P., 1989.

Laskier, Michael M. The Jews of Egypt, 1920-1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East Conflict. New York: New York University Press, 1992.

Laskier, Michale M. North African Jewry.

Perfitt, Tudor. The Road to Redemption: The Jews of the Yemen, 1900-1950. Leiden, N.Y.: E.J. Brill, 1996.

Radwan, Nissim. The Jews of Iraq and Iran.

Sachar, Howard. A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time. 2nd ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Shablak, Abbas. The Lure of Zion.

Stillman, Norman A. The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America.