David Shuker, an Israeli who claimed to be the last survivor of the Najran
a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a favored target of Houthi rocket forces because they can see it, so there's no math involved....
Jewish community in Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start..., has passed away, community sources said Wednesday. He was believed to be 82 years old.
In October 2022, Shuker made several public appeals to the kingdom’s rulers to allow him to visit the place of his birth before he died, including in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
"I’m asking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists...
and his father King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians...
to go to the city of my birth, Najran, while I am still standing on my feet... to see where my grandparents are buried," Shuker, a former mayor of the town of Bnei Ayish, near Ashdod, told Channel 13 at the time.
Despite talk of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel in recent years, Israelis remain barred from the kingdom and the request was never granted.
Shuker was born in Najran, a city on the Saudi southwest border, in 1944. Once considered part of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
, the city was taken over by Saudi Arabia when the kingdom was formed in 1934. It was known to have had a small Jewish community, but persecution amid the establishment of Israel caused most to flee to Yemen and from there to Israel.
"After the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Jews were called by the king’s representatives to gather in the main square, Shuker wrote in the WSJ. "A convoy of camels was waiting there for 260 people, mostly children like me. Our families’ belongings were loaded onto the camels, and before sunset we began walking toward the Yemeni border."
From there, his family was later brought to Israel in 1951.
Before the expulsion, Jews had a presence in Saudi Arabia for centuries, historians say.
"Jews lived in Najran long before the Saudi rule. In fact, there is evidence that Jews lived there as early as 2,000 years ago," Shuker told Channel 13 in a 2022 interview. Some traditions trace their origin to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
"We were openly Jewish. The relations between the Jewish and Moslem communities were very close. They even helped us keep Shabbat," he said. But "the rulers treated us like second-class citizens... Jews were not equal to Moslems."
"Contrary to the rule in neighboring Yemen, the Jews of Najran were allowed to carry the traditional dagger, the jambiya, on their belts," Shuker wrote in the WSJ. "To this day, I remember the king’s soldiers spoiling me with sweets and patting my curly hair."
In a post announcing his passing, the Yemenite Jewish and Israeli Communities Heritage Center called Shuker "a multifaceted public character whose image is woven into the story of the Jews of Yemen in general and the Najran community in particular."
"His life story is that of the Yemenite Jews — tradition, faith, labor and preservation of identity from generation to generation," the organization added.
Today, official records indicate that no Jews live in Saudi Arabia, although it is estimated that somewhere between dozens and several thousand live there for business, finance, or diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, but their ties have warmed quietly in recent years, driven largely by shared concerns over Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
and regional security. Saudi Arabia has at times signaled cautious openness to normalization under the Abraham Accords. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
the countries do not maintain open ties, and Israeli citizens cannot visit the nation.