We should perhaps all write articles like yours "I am also a refugee" to tell our experiences. Perhaps, then, people will learn of us, perhaps they will try to help, to remedy, to compensate, to redress the inequities as much as it can be done, to reinstall at least a minimum of justice as it can be humanly done (some 50 years later) and as G-d will allow and help to do it until Mashiah and the final redemption when all will be made completely whole again and perfect. Amen.
I was born in Egypt. My father was also born in Egypt. My paternal grandfather was also born in Egypt. My paternal grandmother was also born in Egypt. We were all born and originated from Egypt or that region. My mother was born in Palestine. My maternal grandmother was also born in Palestine and my maternal grandfather was born in Syria. That country, countries and region were our home. We were Egyptian nationals. They did not take our nationality away. We were not treated generally any worse than in many other countries or places. We were all co-nationals. We were victims of international politics, strategies, negotiations and expediencies.
My father was a respected stockbroker and a leader in the Jewish community of Egypt. He had worked his way up from the bottom of his profession. He cared and helped his community. He helped his family. He started to work at the age of 12 to help his family when his father's business went bad. It seems that he was the brother who did the most at that time, other brothers were younger or had their own agenda. Later even after he was married and had a family, he and his brothers continued to help his father and other member of the family that needed help. My father was not an extremely wealthy man, he worked for a living, his business had its ups and downs, yet he "shared" fully with other members of his family and with the community. My mother was very understanding, indeed very magnanimous toward my father's family and the community. Some of my father's family could be at times annoying and manipulative. It is in later years and in retrospect as I observed the attitude of some of them that I realised it. Of course my mother with her good and generous nature would deny it. She would always be ready to help and please everyone, she would do it to all, the good ones and the other ones.
I read in the Zohar that when a prominent member of the community, indeed perhaps any member of the community fall on their luck, it is incumbent upon the community to help them to restore them to their position. Unfortunately, I felt at times that our community has failed.
We tried all to find a country where we could rebuild our lives, or a semblance of it as is in many cases. We may have tried one or two counties or places until we somehow succeeded, settled in one of then. Often in none we were really able to reconstruct fully our lives, we just did the best we could and learned to be happy with what we were getting, hoping and trying to do better. Yet many did not do it. The older they were, the less likely they were to do it. Younger ones had their lives disrupted and changed too, unable to return completely to their ways. v
Are we assisting to another Jewish Holocaust? (G-d forbid). Our countries of origin are devoid of Jews, we were dispersed throughout the world. From some millions Jews in that region, all communities disappeared (G-d forbid). From those communities dispersed throughout the world, many have left the fold, were lost to our communities in some ways or others. How many are left? What did happens? If this was not a physical holocaust, it seems to be a spiritual holocaust as some people call it and even consider it worst.
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