The following letter is addressed to the Presbyterian Church, but the concepts also apply to the historically and still wickedly anti-Semitic Catholic Church.
Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church
By Joe Samuels, a former Iraqi Jew
Some of your members, under the banner of human rights, have demonized one country. According to them, the one country that destabilizes the Middle East and creates much pain and suffering to the Arab world, is not Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. It is Israel. They believe the root of the problem is Zionism and the return of the Jews to Israel.
Your group has just published a booklet entitled “Zionism Unsettled”. The booklet claims that if it weren’t for the Zionist movement that established Israel, the Jews from Arab lands would still be living in peace and harmony among the Arab nations.
I quote from your from Page 48 of “Zionism Unsettled”:
Middle eastern Jews, also called Mizrahi Jews, share a history of largely harmonious integration and acculturation in their host countries. Sadly, this model of coexistence was destabilized by the regional penetration of Zionism beginning in the late 19th century.
My Arabic name is Yusuf. I was born in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Baghdad known as “Taht El Takia” in December of 1930. I am now 83 years old. My mother tongue is Arabic and I am one those Jews who was integrated in the Arabic Islamic culture of Iraq.
Here are some examples of how us Arab Jews lived in harmony with our hosts:
I survived the Farhud of 1941 — a violent “pogrom” when Iraqi Muslims, incited by Nazi Germany, took to the streets, destroyed the Jewish quarter and killed 180 Jewish men, women and children. I was 11 years old. Google Farhud or read Edwin Black’s book “The Farhud”.
The cause of the Farhud, wasn’t Zionism. The Farhud was purely an anti-Jewish act.
