When most people today hear about Sudan, they likely think of war and devastation. What many don’t know is that this northeastern African country was once a thriving and friendly land, home to up to 1,000 Jews.
“It is a very sad thing that happened to the Sudan,” said Dr. Jeffrey Malka, a Falls Church resident and the grandson of the last chief rabbi of Sudan. “It was a pleasant and peaceful place to live when they were there.”
But the Jews of Sudan largely flew under the radar. “Most of the time, nobody knew they even existed,” Malka said.
Malka wants to tell their stories, which is why he recently spoke at a Rockville commemoration of the expulsion of Jews from Arab and Muslim lands. The Dec. 6 event was held at Magen David Sephardic Congregation in partnership with the American Sephardi Federation.
Attendees watched the 2011 documentary “The Jews and the Longest Kiss in History,” which offered a glimpse into life in Sudan before 1880. The “longest kiss in history” refers to the convergence of the Blue and White Nile Rivers in Sudan, and the connection between Jewish and African history.
“People talked about their experiences and how much they missed the community,” event organizer and MDSC member Gail Shirazi said of the film.
Eight Jewish families mainly from Egypt started the community in Sudan in the late 1800s. At the time, Sudan was a British colony, “so everything was very safe — it was a pleasant place to be,” Malka said.
“Sudan was a very undiscovered country, not even fully mapped when this happened,” he added.
He said the Jewish community lived alongside Italian, Greek and Syrian residents: “They all were friendly with each other.”
Everything changed in 1956 when Sudan gained independence. “When it did, everything went haywire,” Malka said. “Pretty much everybody left, either in ‘56 or in the few years after that.”
The Jews of Sudan weren’t formally expelled by the government, but they endured rising antisemitism, economic pressures and general insecurity, which pushed them to relocate. In some cases, Malka said, their properties were confiscated, and families left the country with a single suitcase.
Nearly all of Sudan’s Jews resettled in Israel, the United States, England or Switzerland, according to the World Jewish Congress. Jews had all but vanished from Sudan by the 1960s.
“No matter how many years we’re in a country — Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran — we eventually have to leave because of the politics; not necessarily because of the people, but the politics,” Shirazi said. “You have these tight-knit communities, and then, all of a sudden, they’re all over the world. … What struck me was the breakup and dispersion of the community when they became a diaspora community.”
“In many ways, it is similar to the story of other Jewish communities in the Arab lands,” said Malka, speaking of the nearly 900,000 Jews who fled or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries in the mid-20th century.
Some of the communities had lived in those countries for thousands of years — predating the Arabs in some cases, according to Malka — and “now there are few Jews left in the Arab world, and none in the Sudan.”
Jews who left Sudan shared their nostalgia for the land in “The Jews and the Longest Kiss in History.”
“They talked a lot about the food they missed and the community,” Shirazi said. “They seemed to celebrate so much together and were a very tight-woven community, which is similar to what I hear from Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews, Lebanese Jews — they miss the communal aspects of the old country.”
Malka’s cousin, Valery Levy, is among those featured in the film.
“She said that her heart is broken because [Sudan] was such a friendly country,” Malka said. “People were friends with each other; nobody feared anything. And now we all know what the Sudan is like: civil war, unending massacres. It really pulls our heart to see that happening.”
Shirazi believes that people should learn about these lesser-known stories, especially given that refugees are in the public eye today.
“These are refugee communities that left so much behind, not only their hearts, but properties and businesses,” Shirazi said. “You also balance the story of the Palestinians that left behind houses and property. No one hears about Jewish refugees from all these Muslim and Arab countries.”
This history isn’t just for the Jewish community, she added.
“For people to understand history, they have to see the whole story, not just parts,” Shirazi said. “That’s why it’s so important today and [to] show that people can live together.”
