• Ebrahim Nonoo, the head of the Jewish Community in Bahrain, prays at the recently renovated House of Ten Commandments synagogue in Manama. AFP
    Ebrahim Nonoo, the head of the Jewish Community in Bahrain, prays at the recently renovated House of Ten Commandments synagogue in Manama. AFP
  • Mr Nonoo unfolds the Torah scrolls. AFP
    Mr Nonoo unfolds the Torah scrolls. AFP
  • Bahrain's tiny Jewish community comprises about 50 people. AFP
    Bahrain's tiny Jewish community comprises about 50 people. AFP
  • The Jewish community have practised their faith behind closed doors since 1947. AFP
    The Jewish community have practised their faith behind closed doors since 1947. AFP
  • Bahrain's only synagogue was destroyed at the start of the Arab-Israeli conflict. AFP
    Bahrain's only synagogue was destroyed at the start of the Arab-Israeli conflict. AFP
  • For the first time in decades, Mr Nonoo can lead prayer services in a synagogue. AFP
    For the first time in decades, Mr Nonoo can lead prayer services in a synagogue. AFP
  • Mr Nonoo is the head of the Jewish Community in Bahrain. AFP
    Mr Nonoo is the head of the Jewish Community in Bahrain. AFP
  • The House of Ten Commandments is nestled within Manama's bustling streets. AFP
    The House of Ten Commandments is nestled within Manama's bustling streets. AFP

Bahrain's Jews to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day at revamped synagogue


Ismaeel Naar
  • English
  • Arabic

Bahrain's Jewish community will come together on Friday to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“It is a day to remember the six million Jews and millions of other people who perished during the Holocaust,” the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) told The National. "It's also a day to show appreciation to non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust."

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked every year on January 27. The Nazis and their allies murdered around six million Jews, as well as others, in German-occupied Europe.

Bahrain will mark the event a day later over a zoom call to connect the Jewish community in the island kingdom with friends across the world.

Amb Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, will speak at the gathering.

Elena Gaon, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, will light the Shabbat candles and Rosalyn Ben Guigui, the granddaughter of survivors, will read the English translation of the Torah portion, the organisers said.

More than a million people, most of them Jews, were killed at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied southern Poland, which was liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. The vast majority were gassed to death.

‘Coming back home’

For Bahraini Jews, this year’s commemoration holds special significance nearly two years since their island kingdom, alongside the UAE, signed the historic Abraham Accords with Israel to establish diplomatic ties.

Last year, Ebrahim Dahood Nonoo, president of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, said they marked Kristallanacht (Night of Broken Glass), a state-sponsored spree of looting and destruction of Jewish property across Germany and Austria that marked a turning point in Nazi policy, in an empty synagogue that had yet to be refurbished.

Ebrahim Dahood Nonoo, president of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, marks Yom Hashoah, the Jewish day of remembrance for Holocaust victims, in Bahrain's House of 10 Commandments synagogue.
Ebrahim Dahood Nonoo, president of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, marks Yom Hashoah, the Jewish day of remembrance for Holocaust victims, in Bahrain's House of 10 Commandments synagogue.

“We lit candles in the synagogue and the synagogue at that time didn't have anything inside it, so it was like an empty shell. But we lit candles in there just for Yom Hashoah,” Mr Nonoo told The National.

This year will be markedly different as the synagogue in Bahrain’s capital Manama, rebuilt in the 1980s by Mr Nonoo’s father, has been refurbished and is regularly filled with both the Jewish community of Bahrain and visitors of different faiths.

The Abraham Accords, signed in September 2020, paved the way for the descendants of Bahrain's former Jewish community to visit. Their parents and grandparents had fled to Israel following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, including the descendants of an Iranian immigrant named Shimon Cohen who established the House of Ten Commandments synagogue in 1935.

Ebrahim Nonoo, centre, head of the Jewish community in Bahrain, plants a tree as Rabbi Yaacov Phia, right, looks on at the Jewish cemetery in Bahrain's capital Manama, on January 23, 2022. AFP
Ebrahim Nonoo, centre, head of the Jewish community in Bahrain, plants a tree as Rabbi Yaacov Phia, right, looks on at the Jewish cemetery in Bahrain's capital Manama, on January 23, 2022. AFP

“One of the groups that we had was actually Shimon Cohen's descendants. There were 50 of them, they came over to Bahrain, they went to the cemetery, they came to the synagogue, and we managed to use the Torah at that time. So that was a wonderful occasion. But we have had hundreds of visitors come over from Israel. So that's been a really good sign,” said Mr Nonoo.

During the 1920s a Jewish-French pearl trader constructed a synagogue for the Jewish people of Bahrain and put the deed in the name of the “followers of Moses”. Restoring this synagogue has become Mr Nonoo's passion.

A rich, but interrupted, history

Historical records indicate that the earliest recorded person of Jewish faith living in Bahrain was in 1873. Most of the country's Jewish population are descendants of those who arrived in Bahrain from Basra, Iraq, during the late 1880s. Mr Nonoo's grandfather was among this number, eventually becoming a naturalised citizen.

Native Bahraini Jews trace their ancestry to Iraqi and Iranian immigrants during the 1880s who thrived on the island kingdom, working in economic and political sectors. Various statistics put the community at around 2,500 at the time, which dropped to the hundreds, which in turn dwindled over the years to just a few well-known resident families.

Houda Nonoo, the first female Bahraini ambassador to the US (2008-2013) and the first Jewish ambassador from the Arab region, pictured inside the House of 10 Commandments synagogue.
Houda Nonoo, the first female Bahraini ambassador to the US (2008-2013) and the first Jewish ambassador from the Arab region, pictured inside the House of 10 Commandments synagogue.

Today, Bahrain's tiny Jewish community numbers around 50 people but their synagogue, which once laid dormant for nearly seven decades, thrives. The small, white-painted synagogue with wood-framed windows in the heart of the capital Manama was recently renovated at a cost of 60,000 Bahraini dinars ($159,000).

Inside are wooden benches with navy blue cushions, a big screen to broadcast prayers, and a wooden podium, or bimah, holding religious books in Arabic, English and Hebrew.

Rabbi Elie Abadie, head of the association of Gulf Jewish communities, said the return of public prayer was “renewing our history in the region".

“Jewish public prayers were heard in this region for over 2,000 years and unfortunately were stopped in 1947,” Rabbi Abadie told AFP last year. “Resuming them is like coming back home.”

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UAE%20FIXTURES
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Company name: Fine Diner

Started: March, 2020

Co-founders: Sami Elayan, Saed Elayan and Zaid Azzouka

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Ruwais timeline

1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established

1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants

1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed

1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.  

1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex

2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea

2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd

2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens

2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies

2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export

2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.

2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery 

2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital

2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13

Source: The National

How to register as a donor

1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention

2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants

3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register. 

4) The campaign uses the hashtag  #donate_hope

Company%20profile
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Generational responses to the pandemic

Devesh Mamtani from Century Financial believes the cash-hoarding tendency of each generation is influenced by what stage of the employment cycle they are in. He offers the following insights:

Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.

Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.

Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996): This market situation is giving them a valuable lesson about investing early. Many millennials who had previously not saved or invested are looking to start doing so now.

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Updated: January 27, 2022, 4:57 AM