Gemma R. Birnbaum

Executive director of American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS)

This presentation will focus on clandestine immigration immediately before, during, and after World War II, as persecuted Jews in Europe tried to make their way into the British Mandate of Palestine, often deemed illegally by the British authorities who controlled the region. This journey was dangerous and failed more often than it succeeded. These immigration restrictions, many of which were laid out in 1939’s British White Paper, became the subject of international debate after images of Jewish refugees being forced off ships at gunpoint and incarcerated in camps in Cyprus emerged in the media. Conspiracy theories around whether the Jews were truly refugees began to emerge, and Jewish leaders around the globe, members of the United Nations, and the Truman administration found themselves embroiled in a fight to have these restrictions lifted and the prisoners in Cyprus released. By 1948, increased Jewish immigration to Palestine increased regional tensions, and as the state of Israel was established, the situation exploded into a continued refugee crisis and all-out war.

Lyn Julius

Founder of Harif, UK Associationof Jews from Middle east and North Africa

Lyn Julius is a journalist, blogger, and speaker. The British-born daughter of Iraqi – Jewish refugees, her work has appeared in JNS News, Times of Israel, Jewish Chronicle, Haaretz, Fathom, The Guardian, etc. Her book Uprooted: How 3,000 years of Jewish civilisation in the Arab world vanished overnight (Vallentine Mitchell, 2018) has been translated to Norwegian, Portuguese and Arabic.

Aliya Bet was the illegal immigration of Jewish refugees during WWII, desperate to run the British shipping blockade in order to reach Palestine. Jewish communities in Egypt and Iran played their part in helping refugees escape. At the time, the overwhelming majority of immigrants to Eretz Israel were Ashkenazim from Europe, but a trickle of Jews entered Palestine from Arab countries, either as individuals or in small groups. The great aliyot of entire communities, such as those of Yemen and Iraq, were not to take place until after 1948 when Israel flung its gates open. But clandestine immigration continued, for example from Morocco: the problem was no longer the British refusing to let Jews in, but Arab countries refusing to let them out.

Professor Henry A Green

Founder of Sephardi Voices, Moderator      

Henry Alan Green is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami and has taught there since 1984. After completing postgraduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Oxford, and the Sorbonne, he received his Ph.D. in Religion from St. Andrew’s University in 1982. He is the published author or co-author of four books and numerous articles, and has received recognition for his work on documenting the exodus of Jews from Arab countries after the Second World War.

Green is very active as a voice for Sephardi Jews, both in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Green testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington D.C. in 2007, on the topic of truth, justice, and reconciliation for Jewish refugees from Arab countries, and serves on a number of boards for Sephardi-related organizations. In particular, he is a member of the Executive Committee for Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) and was a former member of the Academic Advisory Board of the American Sephardi Federation (ASF). His new book, Sephardi Voices: the Untold Expulsion of Jews from Arab Lands, with Richard Stursberg, will be released in late March.