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“From 3 NO to 3 YES,” US Ambassador Ron Dermer tweeted on October 23. “In 1967, the Arab world infamously declared in the capital of Sudan that it did not recognize, did not negotiate and had no peace with Israel. Today, Sudan joins the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as the third Arab country to make peace with Israel in 2020. ” As Dermer pointed out, the Jerusalem-Khartoum agreement is the third peace agreement signed this year with the Arab states. Unlike the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Sudan was directly involved in conflicts with Israel and sent troops to fight the Jewish state in major Arab-Israeli wars. Before the October 23 peace agreement, Sudan viewed Israel as an enemy state. In the week of the signing of the peace agreement, Israel agreed to send $ 5 million worth of wheat as a welcome gesture and part of this new normalization. This is significant, as Sudan is currently beset by a food crisis, hyperinflation, and a declining economy. According to the UN, 9.6 million of Sudan’s 40 million citizens are insecure due to hunger and a national debt of $ 72 billion. Sudan consumes 2 million tons of wheat per year; Israel’s initial peace gesture sets a positive tone: The Republic of Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan gained independence. Today, it is the third largest country in Africa. In the early 19th century, extreme Muslim intolerance prevailed, with the forced conversion of Jews to Islam. In 1908 a small Jewish community was established in Sudan with the aim of undoing the effects of this intolerance. What is generally not appreciated is that Sudan was home to a small but prosperous and distinguished Jewish community from 1908 until the Six Day War. At the beginning of the 20th century, this Jewish community developed in the capital city of Khartoum, with Jews from mainly Mediterranean countries, but also from Europe. This community had 1,000 Jews at its peak. The Jewish community in Sudan was remarkably modern, Zionist, and aristocratic. Its members were educated in Christian schools that were part of the British Empire at the time. The Jews of Sudan enjoyed a rich and wonderful community life that was very well integrated, with pleasant relationships with their fellow Muslims and Christians. Sudan’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Malka, was a deeply spiritual visionary respected both by his community and by fellow Sudanese. religious communities. Malka was originally a kabbalist and dayan (judge) who lived in Tiberias, Palestine. He was sent on a mission to Khartoum to reverse the effects of Muslim intolerance towards his small Jewish community. Malka’s Kabbalistic vision of treating all people with dignity, love and respect had a generational ripple effect. He taught people to avoid hatred and promote peace among all human beings, regardless of race, religion, or creed. He felt that humanity should learn from history and realize that all power derives from the force of love and peace. His modus operandi was eloquently expressed when he was recently selected as “Tzaddik of the day” in Jerusalem. Its impact was summed up in a poster displayed throughout Jerusalem by the Paris-based international Jewish organization Alliance Israelite Universelle as living proof of the profound and permanent effects of peace. Malka declared that all humanity must maximize efforts to increase peace in the world by avoiding hatred and learning from the destructions throughout history. He called all humanity to action by increasing the power of love and peace. A role model for religious tolerance, the rabbi’s impact in Khartoum left a lasting impression on the imams and leaders of Sudan. When Malka passed away in 1949, he was mourned not only by the Jewish community but also by Sudan’s chief imam and chief priest. Unfortunately, the wave of religious harmony in Sudan was short-lived. The wave of anti-Semitism rose again when Sudan joined the Arab League in 1956. There was an inverse relationship between the rise of the State of Israel and intolerance towards the indigenous Jews of Arab lands throughout the region. After the Six Day War, all the remaining Jews emigrated from Sudan and moved around the world. It is not widely appreciated that the Jews of Sudan had a major impact on the State of Israel. They played a key role in freeing the founding Zionists from British prisons in the region, including Yitzhak Shamir, Yaakov Meridor, Aryeh Ben-Eliezer, Meir Shamgar, Rahamim Mizrachi, and Reuven Drori. These and other Zionists from the Irgun and Lehi underground were imprisoned by the British in Palestine and subsequently deported to detention camps in Africa. With the help of some brave Sudanese Jews from Khartoum, including Rabbi Malka’s grandson Mayer Malka and his wife, Vickie, some of the prisoners were released from the detention camps and were able to return to Palestine. community is a Jewish cemetery in Khartoum with 18 graves. These tombs have been preserved by current Muslim leaders who continue to remember the relationships that the two religions had in Sudan, rooted in Rabbi Malka. Most of the graves that were in the Khartoum cemetery, including that of Malka, were moved to Jerusalem in a special section of the Har Hamenuchot cemetery, marked “Jews of the Sudan”. The Sudanese Jewish community also had Sifrei Torah, which were airlifted on a cargo flight and distributed to synagogues in Geneva; North Bergen, NJ; and Herzliya. It appears that the revered rabbi’s insightful insight played an unseen historical role in the 2020 peacemaking efforts. Just 70 years after Malka’s death, US President Donald Trump, a Christian, negotiated a peace pact between the Islamic Republic of Sudan, a fundamentalist Muslim country and Israel, the only Jewish state. Sudan is the fifth Arab country to officially recognize Israel. In this week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, God promises Abraham that he will be the father of many nations that will be extremely fruitful. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism consider Abraham their patriarch. God then creates the first agreement with Abraham and endows the land of Canaan to Abraham’s progeny. Our modern challenge is to find a sustainable peace with Abraham’s other progeny. The peace agreement signed last week is believed to have a profound, lasting and positive impact. By increasing communication and person-to-person commerce, a path of cooperation has been opened for future generations of different countries and religions. The writer is a human rights attorney licensed to practice law in Israel and the United States. She is a certified mediator and a signatory to the 2013 Jordan River Pact, an agreement between Jordan and Israel to share the water of the Jordan River. She is also the proud great-granddaughter of Rabbi Shlomo [email protected]
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