Today | Executive Vice President, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (Executive Director 2002 to 2008) |
Expertise | Jewish refugees from Arab countries, refugee rights and redress, the United Nations and Middle East refugees |
Speaks to | Universities, legislators, policy audiences, and community groups |
Education | B.A., Sir George Williams University; M.S., Boston University; Ph.D., Rutgers University (2010) |
Testimony | Canadian House of Commons, British House of Lords, U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus |
Dr. Stanley A. Urman is Executive Vice President of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), an international coalition founded in 2002 to seek rights and redress for Jews displaced from Arab countries. He served as its first executive director from 2002 to 2008. Since 2002 he has made formal representations to members of the U.S. Congress, to senior officials in Canada, Europe, Russia, and the European Union, and to Israeli presidents, prime ministers, and cabinet ministers.
Dr. Urman has testified before the Canadian Parliament, the British House of Lords, and the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus, including a 2013 appearance before the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. He helped develop congressional resolutions on the rights of former Jewish refugees from Arab countries, including H.Res. 185, which passed the U.S. House unanimously in 2008. He coauthored JJAC's 2007 legal report with Irwin Cotler and David Matas.
His 2010 Rutgers University doctoral dissertation, The United Nations and Middle East Refugees: The Differing Treatment of Palestinians and Jews, drew on archives in the United States, Canada, and at the United Nations. More recently he has led JJAC's multiyear study of property and assets lost by Jewish refugees, and in 2025 he wrote about JJAC presenting its case at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for the first time.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Urman was executive director of the Centre for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation, executive vice president of the America Israel Friendship League, executive director of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation, and national executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress. He spoke for a JIMENA online program on the history of the campaign for recognition and redress in June 2020.
Speaking Topics
What Dr. Urman talks about
1. The Forgotten Refugees
The displacement of nearly one million Jews from Arab countries and Iran in the twentieth century.
2. Two Refugee Populations, Same or Different?
How the United Nations treated Palestinian refugees and Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
3. Recognition and Redress
The history and current status of efforts for official recognition of Jewish refugees.
4. Counting the Losses
What JJAC's multiyear study found about property and assets left behind.
5. Advocacy in Parliaments and Congress
How testimony and resolutions have advanced recognition in North America and Europe.
Select Talks
Selected talks and appearances
2022 | Institute of Jewish Experience conference, American Sephardi Federation, New York: announced JJAC's study of Jewish refugee losses (December 4) |
2020 | JIMENA and The Media Line online program: Justice for Jews from Arab Countries with Dr. Stanley Urman (June 11) |
2018 | Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History, New York, conference Displacements of Jewish Communal Life in Islamic Lands: The relationship of the UN to Jewish refugees and their property in comparison to Palestinian refugees (December 10) |
2015 | ISGAP lecture: Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries, A Case Study in Discrimination (April 20) |
2013 | Canadian House of Commons, Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (May 2) |
2007 | Day of Testimonies on the exodus of Jews from Egypt, Beth Ha'Hayal, Tel Aviv (February 7) |
2003 | Keynote, JIMENA conference Forgotten Refugees, Jews Expelled From Arab Countries, Congregation Sherith Israel, San Francisco |
2002 to 2008 | Testimony before the British House of Lords and the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus; work on H.Res. 185 (passed April 2008) |
These are a selection of Dr. Urman’s talks. Dr. Urman has given many more, at parliaments, academic conferences, museums, synagogues, and community programs in North America, Europe, and Israel.
Publications and Media
Read, watch, and listen
Article
99 percent of Jews from Arab lands were forced to leave. The world must hear us
An opinion piece in Jewish News (UK), September 2025. Read in Jewish News
Book
The United Nations and Middle East Refugees: The Differing Treatment of Palestinians and Jews
His Rutgers University doctoral dissertation, 2010. View at Rutgers
Article
Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: The Case for Rights and Redress
JJAC's 2007 legal report, coauthored with Irwin Cotler and David Matas. Read the report (PDF)
Video
Palestinian Refugees and Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands, Same or Different?
His April 2015 lecture for ISGAP. Watch at ISGAP
Video
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries with Dr. Stanley Urman
A June 2020 online program presented with The Media Line. View at The Media Line
Affiliations
Organizations
- Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC)
- Centre for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation (former)
- America Israel Friendship League (former)
- Canadian Human Rights Foundation (former)
- Canadian Jewish Congress (former)
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