Diaspora and Israeli organizations and communities representing millions of Jews around the world will participate on Saturday in a mass Kaddish (Jewish mourners' prayer) and say a specially designed azkara (memorial prayer) for Jews buried in inaccessible Arab countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

More than 100 organizations and communities have signed up thus far for the Kaddish Initiative, slated for Nov. 28, the date of the Shabbat closest to Nov. 30, which Israel in 2014 designated the Day to Commemorate the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from Arab Countries and Iran. Since then, it has been marked by Jewish communities around the world.

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The Kaddish Initiative was launched in 2018 by Iraqi-Jewish Canadian Sass Peress. According to British philanthropist David Dangoor, during the project's first year, 12 communities participated; by the next year, participation had grown to 50.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year the prayers will be recited mainly online.

Groups already registered for the event include the Israeli umbrella organization for Jews from Arab countries, representing millions of people in the Jewish state; Maccabi World Union, the Jewish organization with the largest active global membership; the European Jewish Congress, the organization representing all Jewish communities in Europe; the American Zionist Movement, representing dozens of Zionist organizations across North America; and the umbrella organizations for US, British, Canadian and Australian Jewry.

More than 11,000 rabbis and community leaders from every continent and all strains of Judaism and ethnic origin have downloaded the azkara prayer from the Kaddish Initiative website.

The Kaddish and azkara prayers are "far more" than just a religious undertaking, Dangoor explained in an oped he published on Nov. 15.

"It is about creating awareness of the history and plight of our people still suffering because of the ramifications resulting from the exodus of Jews from Arab countries in the 20th century. Whole communities of almost 1 million Jews, living in these areas for millennia, were emptied within a few short decades, with very little left of their presence or existence. … [T]here needs to be a greater sense of awareness of the history, culture and tradition of these communities," he wrote.

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The statement was made following an exclusive report in Israel Hayom on a special government report that has found that said lost assets could amount to $150 billion.

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For the most part, when addressing the issue of "refugees" in the Middle East, the international community automatically attributes the term to Palestinian refugees, even though the same period of time (1948-1967) saw over 850,000 Jews leave various Arab countries as well as Iran. Some 600,000 arrived in Israel and the rest relocated mainly to the US or Europe.

Read more: Lost Jewish property in Arab countries estimated at $150 billion

The government report, much of which remains classified, was two years in the making. It examined parameters such as rural and urban property, businesses' value, loss of existing and potential income, and loss of communal property. Its authors stressed that it is a conservative assessment that does not account for current inflation rates.

"The Jewish Agency plans to call a conference in the near future to discuss additional ways to raise awareness of the issue. This has to be dealt with on various levels," Herzog said.

"Ignoring the issue of Jewish refugees, who have lived in Arab countries for centuries and forced to leave and flee, serves Palestinian propaganda," Foreign Minister Israel Katz asserted. "History – certainly not issues pertaining to the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict cannot be interpreted without acknowledging the complexity of the story of displaced Jewish communities."

The post Jewish Agency urges greater effort to recover lost Jewish property in Arab countries appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.