Forgotten Refugees : Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands

Middle School (Grades 6-8)

High School (Grades 9-12)

Students meet Jewish refugees from Libya, Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco through their own testimonies, analyze why nearly a million Jews left Arab lands, and create collages that turn forgotten refugees into remembered ones.

Objectives

Jews lived in the Middle East and North Africa for more than 2,000 years. Between the 1940s and the 1970s, roughly 850,000 Jews left or were forced out of Arab countries and Iran, driven by violence, discriminatory laws, and the loss of citizenship and property. Most found refuge in Israel, and the communities they left have almost entirely disappeared. Students learn what makes a person a refugee, analyze population data and the causes of Jewish flight country by country, listen to refugees from Libya, Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco tell their own stories, and create a collage that helps turn forgotten refugees into remembered ones. Written by Galia Avidar.

Essential Questions

  1. What is a refugee?
  2. Who are the Jewish refugees from Arab lands, and why did they leave?
  3. Why have these refugees been called “forgotten,” and what can we do with the memories of their experiences?

Students will be able to

  • Define the term refugee and explain why Jews from Arab lands fit that definition.
  • Analyze population data showing the decline of Jewish communities after 1948.
  • Identify the push and pull factors that led Jews to leave specific countries.
  • Record evidence from a refugee’s testimony about life before, during, and after flight.
  • Express a refugee’s story through a collage of words and images.

Curriculum Connections

  • Social Studies (C3): D2.His.14.6-8, D2.His.4.6-8, D2.Geo.8.6-8
  • ELA: RH.6-8.7, SL.6.1 through SL.8.1
  • Visual Arts: collage as storytelling
  • Jewish Studies (Jewish settings): “You know the soul of the stranger” (Exodus 23:9); Sephardic and Mizrahi history

Materials

  • Projector and speakers; devices for small groups
  • Collage supplies: magazines, newspapers, printed images, construction paper, glue sticks, scissors, markers
  • The four testimonies: Gina Waldman, Libya (8 min), Mark Levy, Egypt (6.5 min), Daniel Khazzom, Iraq (5 min), Jacques Dahan, Morocco (6 min)
  • Appendix A: Then and Now and Appendix B: Testimony Listening Notes (one each per student); Appendix C: Rabbi Ezra Dangoor (optional)

At a Glance

Grade and setting: Grades 6 to 8, public, independent, and Jewish schools; adaptable for grades 9 to 12
Time: Two 45 minute class periods
Source: Adapted from Journey to the Mizrah; written by Galia Avidar

Note to teacher

Preview the testimonies. The speakers describe warm memories as well as frightening experiences of violence and flight; let students know in advance. Some students may have family histories of displacement from many parts of the world; invite, but never require, them to share. Appendix C is optional and suited to Jewish settings or older students.

Downloads

  • Lesson Plan  Full lesson with teacher background, vocabulary, assessment, and differentiation (PDF)
  • Appendix A  Then and Now: population data and country cards (PDF)
  • Appendix B  Testimony Listening Notes (PDF)
  • Appendix C  What Do We Do with These Memories? A teaching by Rabbi Ezra Dangoor (PDF, optional)

Day 1. What Is a Refugee? (15 minutes)

  1. Main questions (2 min). Write the essential questions on the board.
  2. One suitcase (6 min). Students imagine they must leave home tonight with one small suitcase. What would they pack, and what would they leave behind? How would they feel, and where would they go?
  3. Define refugee (7 min). Share the definition from USA for UNHCR: a person forced to flee their country because of persecution, war, or violence. Explain that this lesson is about refugees whose story is rarely told.

Day 1. Then and Now (30 minutes)

  1. Read the data (12 min). In pairs, students study the population table in Appendix A. Which communities were largest in 1948? What happened in the next ten years? What do the numbers for today tell us?
  2. Country cards (12 min). Each pair reads two country cards and sorts the reasons Jews left into push factors and pull factors.
  3. Discuss (6 min). Were the reasons the same in every country? Why might these refugees be called “forgotten”?

Day 2. Testimonies (20 minutes)

  1. Listen (15 min). Four groups each watch one testimony and complete Appendix B: life before, why and how the speaker left, what they carried, where they went, and what they want us to remember.
  2. Share (5 min). Each group shares the single most important detail from its testimony.