Protest, Philanthropy and the Struggle for ‘Aliyah in 1940s ‘Aden

The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:

Protest, Philanthropy and the Struggle for ‘Aliyah in 1940s ‘Aden

After the 1947 “pogrom” in ‘Aden, Selim Banin and a handful of other traumatized ‘Adeni Jewish notables were left to pick up the pieces of a shattered community. They founded the “Jewish Emergency Committee,” which took charge of representing ‘Adeni Jewry in negotiations and confrontations with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the British colonial regime ruling ‘Aden, and the Zionist organizations. Theirs is a story of solidarity and culture-clash in a philanthropic network that spanned New York, London, Tel Aviv, South Africa, Asmara, and ‘Aden. In time, through a combination of petitions, closed-door negotiations, and popular demonstrations, they would play a key role in making possible the evacuation of most Yemeni and ‘Adeni Jews to Israel.

Sunday, 13 February

@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EST ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai

About the Speaker:
Benjamin Berman-Gladstone is a doctoral student at the Skirball Department for Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Department of History at New York University. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Middle East Studies and Judaic Studies and received honors for his thesis on the idea of an “Ingathering of Exiles” in relations between the American, Israeli, and Yemeni Jewish communities during Operation On Eagles’ Wings. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 2018 and spent the 2018-2019 year in Jerusalem on a Fulbright research scholarship. His writing about issues related to Israel, American Jewry, and Southwest Asian affairs has been published in the New York Times, Haaretz, Tablet Magazine, the Jewish Daily Forward, Tower Magazine, the Times of Israel, the Jewish Advocate, the Hill, the Brown Daily Herald, and the Brown Political Review.

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