Program includes a screening of the documentary "Forgotten Refugees," which describes the mass exodus of up to one million Jews from Arab countries. Excecutive Producer, Ralph Avi Goldwasser will join us remotely from New York.
About the Documentary
"Forgotten Refugees" explores the history and destruction of Middle Eastern Jewish communities, some of which had existed for over 2,500 years. In 1945, up to one million Jews lived in the Middle East outside of the Palestine Mandate and in North Africa. Within a few years, only a few thousand remained.
This is the story of the thousands who fled their homes, who endured in refugee camps, and who today quietly carry the memory of a destroyed civilization.
Featuring testimony from Jews who fled Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Yemen, these personal stories of refugees are interspersed with dramatic archival footage, including rescue missions of Yemenite and Iraqi Jews.
"The Forgotten Refugees" won the Award for Best Documentary Film at Marbella Film Festival in 2007.
About Maurice Shohet
Maurice Shohet was born in Iraq. On September 2, 1970 Maurice left Baghdad seeking freedom from a country that had over the past few decades made life for the Jews living there difficult and frightening. He traveled with a group of 13 other Jews to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. With the help of some Kurdish smugglers, Maurice and the others he was traveling with escaped to Iran by foot. After staying in the Iranian capital of Tehran for three weeks, Maurice was finally able to immigrate to Israel.
In 2005, Maurice participated in Iraq's Out-of-Country Voting Program, which was organized and conducted by the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly Election for Iraqis living abroad. On March 29th, 2005 Maurice and eight other Iraqis living in the United States met with President Bush to share their experiences. As the only Jewish person in the group, Maurice told anecdotes of what life was like for Iraq's Jewish community when the Ba'thist regime came to power. Maurice also expressed his concern for the minorities remaining in Iraq. Maurice received the ASF, American Sephardi Federation leadership award in 2006. Today he is the President of the World Organization of Jews from Iraq (WOJI.)