The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) is launching a fundraising campaign to restore the more than 100-year-old Jewish cemetery in Bahrain, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.

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The burial ground in the capital, Manama, holds special significance as the only operating Jewish cemetery in the Arab Gulf region. The cemetery was established by the Jewish community in the 1930s, along with the Manama synagogue, which remains the only functioning synagogue in the GCC.

The synagogue was recently renovated, and prayer services were held publicly for the first time in decades.

The campaign will kick off this Sunday evening with a tree-planting ceremony as part of festivities to mark the start of the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat, known as the New Year of the Trees.

"[W]e are planting trees in the Jewish cemetery of Bahrain which is akin to bringing life back to those that have lived in the beautiful community in Bahrain for centuries and made their resting place in Bahrain for eternity," Rabbi Eli Abadie, head rabbi of the AGJC, said of the project.

AGJC is the umbrella organization for the Jewish communities of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo, whose family was one of the original Jewish families to settle in Bahrain, serves as president of AGJC. The community dates to the late 1800s when a group of Iraqi Jews immigrated to the Gulf state.

Israel normalized relations with the UAE and Bahrain in September of 2020.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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The World Organization of Orthodox Synagogues has warned of a dangerous combination of increased activity inside synagogues due to the growing number of people inoculated against the coronavirus and lax adherence to pandemic guidelines among those who have yet to receive the vaccine.

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The organization called on the government to open synagogues to worshippers that have either been vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19, or tested negative for the virus 72 hours before entering the temple to pray.

According to existing lockdown guidelines, up to five people are allowed to gather in a closed space, and up to 10 are allowed to convene in open areas. In effect, these restrictions prevent worshippers from praying in a minyan – a quorum of 10.

As a result, the organization noted, many people have begun to either ignore or bend the rules on the number of worshippers allowed to gather in one place.

"Unfortunately, we are seeing worshippers, including those who do not have a green passport, beginning to pray in closed spaces. We fear the phenomenon will grow and threaten the health of many," the organization said in a statement.

"Worshippers must adhere to the guidelines and immediately get vaccinated as all the experts have advised. This is both a halachic and moral obligation," the organization said.

According to the framework, the number of worshippers allowed inside the synagogue would be determined by experts to maintain the necessary distance between people. In addition, mask-wearing and hygiene would be enforced. Each synagogue would appoint a coronavirus chief with enforcing the guidelines and limiting entry to green passport holders. Those without a green passport would be allowed to pray outside and in adherence with social-distancing and other pandemic guidelines.

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Though its members keep its precise location secret, the synagogue's existence and the tacit approval it has received from this Islamic sheikhdom represent a slow rebirth of a burgeoning Jewish community in the Persian Gulf, uprooted over the decades after the creation of Israel.

The United Arab Emirates' rulers have sought to boost the community by hosting interfaith events and pledging to build a massive multi-faith complex that includes a synagogue, part of their efforts to burnish the country's image to the West. Meanwhile, ties between Gulf Arab states and Israel slowly warm over their mutual enmity of Iran, though concerns about the future of the Palestinians remain a wedge.

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Yet even with the challenges, leaders of the Dubai congregation say they represent a new, growing presence that could offer a hopeful glimpse into the future.

"We have slowly found our place in the ecosystem of the UAE," Ross Kriel, the president of the new Jewish Community of the Emirates, told The Associated Press. "It reflects our optimism about the future of the UAE as a place for us to commune, contribute and flourish."

Thriving Jewish communities in the region once stretched from the neighborhoods of Baghdad and Tehran down to the island nation of Bahrain, and from the eastern coast of Oman, home to a purported tomb of the Prophet Job, to Yemen's southern shores. But the war surrounding the 1948 creation of Israel, saw both Arab rulers and their public turn against their Jewish neighbors.

Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution also saw Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who acknowledged Israel, replaced by a Shiite theocracy that views the state of Israel as an enemy, with tens of thousands of Jews fleeing.

A small Jewish community still lives in Iran today, with a few families in Bahrain. Their synagogues and others are mostly scattered relics of the past.

But the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, was only founded in 1971 and had no significant history with Jews. While still not acknowledging Israel diplomatically, Emirati officials have allowed Israeli officials to visit and the Israeli national anthem was played after an athlete won gold in an Abu Dhabi judo tournament. Next year, Israel will take part in Expo 2020, the world's fair being hosted by Dubai.

Jewish life in the Emirates now revolves around the Dubai villa, where an eclectic group of visitors gather for weekly prayers, kosher meals, and holiday celebrations. The house's living room serves as the main sanctuary, where the Torah scroll is read and prayers are recited. The upstairs living quarters offer overnight accommodations for observant visitors who don't travel on Shabbat.

The synagogue has hosted Bar Mitzvah ceremonies and performed Jewish circumcision rituals for newborn boys. Neighbors haven't complained of its presence, even after recent Jewish New Year celebrations included some boisterous blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn.

Services are conducted in Orthodox fashion, with separate seating for men and women, but the groundbreaking congregation welcomes all. Last week, the community marked the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles. The holiday commemorates the Jews' desert wandering after they were freed from Egyptian slavery, a symbolism not lost among members at the Jewish community's new Arabian home.

However, the community remains cautious and many asked not to be identified. An AP reporter had to agree not to photograph the synagogue or describe its location before visiting.

Kriel himself praised the embrace of the UAE, and said he felt very safe in Dubai, but still refrained from wearing a Jewish skullcap on the street.

"Although our community is very unique in the Jewish world, we have not wanted to sensationalize our presence here," he said. "Our future vision is a Jewish community that is not just considered a normal feature of life in the UAE but is considered to be a place where Jews flourish."

The Emirati government this year has marked what it calls "The Year of Tolerance," which included a visit by Pope Francis, an interfaith conference including American rabbis and Christian evangelicals and the creation of a Ministry of Tolerance.

As part of the effort, it announced plans to build the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, which will house a mosque, a church and a synagogue. Fitting of a country that boasts the world's tallest building, massive shopping malls and the world's busiest airport for international travel, it is being touted as the most expensive Jewish house of worship ever built, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Whether of sect, or religion, intolerance has proved to be the primary source of conflict and extremism," said Omar Ghobash, an Emirati assistant minister for cultural and public diplomacy. "The UAE has been in the forefront in challenging these forces, by building a diverse, modern, progressive and stable society, which promotes integration. We see this as much as an opportunity as a responsibility."

The UAE's tolerance push, however, does not extend to decriminalizing public protest, allowing political parties or halting a prolonged crackdown on Islamists, whom the nation's hereditary rulers view as a threat. The Emirates has long relied on the West, particularly the US, as a bulwark against Iran. Religious tolerance efforts offer something for Emirati diplomats to point to in Washington as the Pentagon keeps 5,000 US troops stationed here and relies on Dubai's Jebel Ali port.

Despite that, Yehuda Sarna, the newly named chief rabbi of the UAE's Jewish community, said the country has genuinely become "a major global hub and point of encounter between religions."

"We are being invited to that encounter," he said. "Are we going to dwell on the past or look to the future? I feel that this history has yet to be written and we are going to write it by living it."

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