From narratives to history: new perspectives on mass emigration of Jews from Islamic countries in the early 1950s

Contested narratives of the mass Jewish immigration from Arab countries to the young state of Israel emphasize Israel’s central role in this episode, positively and negatively. However, new studies reveal that Israel was only one actor in the Jewish exodus, with other key roles filled by Arab states, the British Empire in the Middle East, the French Empire in North Africa, the United States, and international Jewish organizations, particularly the Jewish-American Joint Distribution Committee. This complexity is particularly evident in the case of three countries from which nearly the entire Jewish population emigrated to Israel during its early statehood: Yemen, Iraq, and Libya. This article proposes a comprehensive synthesis of research perspectives on the phenomenon of Jewish migration, with a focus on the cases of Libya, Yemen, and Iraq. I address what is common and what is unique to the migrations of these three communities, examine the entities involved in organizing their departure and those involved in their transit, and, drawing on this unique story, I propose a new historiographic interpretation of the phenomenon as a whole.