Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa

For other uses, see Jimena (disambiguation).

JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) is a San Francisco based human rights organization seeking to educate and advocate for the plight of Jewish refugees from the Middle East. Prior to 1948, approximately 850,000 Jews lived in Muslim countries of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Today, 99 percent of these ancient Jewish communities no longer exist due to Arab and Islamic government actions that directly led to their displacement.

JIMENA advocates for Jews indigenous to the following countries: Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen (and Aden), Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia.

JIMENA played a key role in the unanimous passing of House Resolution 185 by the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. This resolution urges the President to ensure that when refugees from the Middle East are discussed in international forums, any reference to Palestinian refugees be matched by a similarly explicit reference to Jewish and other refugee populations. http://www.jimena.org/HRES185.htm

In December, 2007 JIMENA briefed Iraqi born Ruth Pearl, mother of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, before her meeting with the President at the Hanukka White House party. She informed President Bush, for the first time ever, of the plight of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. During the President's recent visit to Israel, he was reported to have mentioned the importance of including the Jewish refugees in future negotiations about refugees of the Middle East.

In March 2008, JIMENA Chair Gina Waldman will testify at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.

Nomi Deutch serves as the Director of the organization (info@jimena.org).

JIMENA has a facebook group entitled: JIMENA Jews Indiegnous to the Middle East and North Africa. JIMENA is funded through individual donations and grants. JCRC of San Francisco is our fiscal agent.

External links

• Official website

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-wahed041703.asp http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?contentid=26883&mode=a&sectionid=1&contentname=Chanukah_At_The_White_House&recnum=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/world/middleeast/05nations.html?ex=1352005200&en=93fd256f53c21587&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink http://www.nysun.com/article/38350?access=839775 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/06/INGM2BJH7U1.DTL http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1185379004431