Lyn Julius, author and speaker “Uprooted” by Lyn Julius. Lecture on the book Uprooted about the expulsion of the Jews from the Arab countries.

Introductory lecture by the author, who has family from Iraq.

Then in conversation with journalist Sidsel Wold. In English.

The book Uprooted, (Fordrivelsen in Norwegian) begins in biblical times and tells about the Jews from the Arab countries. How was their relationship with the Muslim majority population? What made the Jews leave the countries where they had lived for thousands of years and what lessons can we learn from the mass emigration of minorities from the Middle East, are questions Lyn Julius asks in the book.

Lyn Julius is a journalist and co-creator of Harif, an association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa in Great Britain.

Lyn is the child of Jewish refugees from Iraq. She has written for The Guardian, Huffington Post, Jewish News, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, JNS News etc. Uprooted is her first book, and was published in 2018. It has been translated into Norwegian and Portuguese and is currently being translated into Arabic. She is also the co-author of a blog about the relationship of Jews and Jewish affairs in the Muslim world.

Lyn Julius tells in an interview:

“I have a strong connection to the region. My parents came to the UK in 1950 as Iraqi-Jewish refugees and throughout my childhood I was very conscious of the connection with Iraq, mainly because I still had family there. Conditions worsened for the remaining 3,000 Jews in Iraq after the Six-Day War in 1967. Saddam Hussein began a reign of terror and executed nine Jews in Baghdad’s Liberation Square. My grandparents were still in Iraq, as well as some aunts and cousins, and all were desperate to leave. Their telephone connection was cut, they lost their jobs and access to the university was prevented. Their lives were in danger – around 50 Jews were arrested and no one has seen them since. I honestly believe that understanding the Jews of the Middle East is the key to understanding the entire Middle East conflict. The way the Jews have been treated in Arab countries

points to a larger dysfunction in Arab society: the inability to tolerate anyone who is different from the majority, whether non-Sunni Muslims or non-Muslims from other minorities.” (Fanthom journal October 2018)

From reviews of the book in the British press:

“Iraq was not the only Arab country that persecuted and expelled its Jews in the 20th century. The same thing happened in Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, described in detail by Lyn Julius. The numbers are staggering: Over the past 60 years, more than 99 percent of the Arab world’s Jews have fled – nearly a million people, of whom 650,000 went to Israel, the rest to the West. This massive rescue operation was carried out by Israel and the wider Jewish – largely American – world.” (Robert Low, Stanspoint)

“This story deserves to be told and retold. The book has an engaging presentation that contributes to a useful introduction. Uprooted opens with small glimpses of the exotic Jews, many barefoot and dressed in traditional robes and headdresses, who seemed to materialize out of the mists of time and then tumble across Zion’s borders from the 1880s, when the first Yemenite migrants crossed the desert. The so-called Mizrahi exodus continued for more than a century until, in the 1980s and 1990s, Ethiopians came to Israel via two daring airlifts.” Emily Benedyk, Mosaic.