Jewish Exodus From Arab and Muslim Countries - Films About The Exodus

Films About The Exodus

• I Miss The Sun (1984), USA, produced and directed by Mary Hilawani. Filmmaker Mary Halawani profiles her grandmother, Rosette Hakim, in this illuminating documentary short. A prominent Egyptian-Jewish family, the Halawanis fled their homeland in 1959 when anti-Zionist sentiments were on the rise and hundreds of Jews were interned in detention camps for alleged pro-Communist activities. Rosette, the family matriarch, chose to remain in Egypt until every member of the large family was free to leave.

• The Dhimmis: To Be a Jew in Arab Lands (1987), director Baruch Gitlis and David Goldstein a producer. This comprehensive documentary details the centuries of persecution endured by Jews living in Arab lands. Using rare film footage, photographs, maps and interviews, we are presented with a country by country recounting of Jewish life that flourished in the midst of ongoing conflict.

• The Forgotten Refugees (2005) is a documentary film by The David Project, describing the events of collapse of Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa, following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

• The Silent Exodus (2004) by Pierre Rehov. In 1948 nearly one million Jews lived in Arab countries. But In barely twenty years, they have become forgotten fugitives, expelled from their native lands, forgotten by history and where the victims themselves have hidden their fate under a cloak of silence. Silent Exodus was selected at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris (2004) and presented at the UN Geneva Human Rights Annual Convention (2004).

• The Last Jews of Libya (2007). At the end of World War II, 36,000 Jews lived in Libya. Today, there are none. Filmmaker Vivienne Roumani-Denn tells how European colonialism, Italian fascism and the rise of Arab nationalism contributed to the disappearance of Libya's once vibrant Sephardic Jewish community.

• The Farhud (2008) is a documentary by Itzhak Halutzi, describing the bloody events of the Farhud in Iraq of 1941. The Farhud has become one of the major acts of Anti-Jewish violent explosions in the Middle East, which led to massive departure of Jews from Iraq in the following years.