Antisemitism conference will focus on mass migration of Jews from Muslim countries

Leading scholars from Europe, Israel, and North America will gather at Yale to discuss the circumstances surrounding one of the largest mass migrations in modern history at a conference hosted by the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism (YPSA). 

The second annual YPSA conference, titled “Exodus or Exile? The Departure of Jews from Muslim Countries, 1948-1978,” will be held 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4 at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. It is free and open to the public

“Although between 800,000 and one million Jews were displaced, this epochal event remains relatively little understood, overshadowed within Jewish historiography by the genocide of European Jews,” contend the organizers, adding, “it continues to haunt the relations between Muslims and Jews in both Israel and the diaspora, and remains a contentious topic both for historians and political leaders.”

Session topics will include “Jews, Arabs, and the Middle East”; “Dilemmas of Identity: The Jews of North Africa”; and “Migration, Diaspora, and Muslim-Jewish Relations.”

The conference is made possible by grants from the Knapp Family Foundation and the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation.

For more information, visit the YPSA website.