The Forgotten Refugees (DVD)

Everyone frets about the poor 3rd world refugees including the Palestinians. However, when those refugees were Jewish the world turned a blind eye. Only Israel opened her doors to them. Before Saddam Bagdad was 40% Jewish. Jews lived and worked in Egypt, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Morocco and other Muslim lands. They were often prosperous and better educated than the average citizen in these countries. Besides being successful merchants, they were also doctors, lawyers, accountants, and teachers. However, in the 1960's as Israel won wars perpetrated against it, the security of the Jews in each of these countries was threatened. They had to leave their property, businesses, practices and many belongings to immigrate to Israel quickly. In Israel they lived in tent cities and were cared for by the Israeli government. Newly impoverished this population had to learn Hebrew and retrain for jobs that might be available in Israel. Not one country other than little Israel offered to help. She gave sanctuary to hundreds of thousands of middle eastern Jews. Only other Jews donated money to help Israel absorb them. During this time there were over 100 U.N. resolutions dealing with protections for refugees. Not one of them applied to Jewish refugees. This story needed to be told. I thought the cinematic techniques and filming could have been better. This is not a polished BBC production. For that reason I downgraded this to a 4 star review. However, I found the story mesmerizing. For the story of just one of these merchants read The Man in the Sharkskin Suit.