Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran · Jewish Refugees Day

Culture of origin: Jewish · Historical

Holiday sources: Israel · Judaism

The Knesset made the day law on 23 June 2014, to remember the more than 850,000 Jews who were forced from Arab lands and Iran in the 20th century. It falls on 30 November, the day after the UN vote of 29 November 1947 on the partition of Palestine, and is marked with state ceremonies and school programmes. In Iran, the Islamic Revolution of 1979 brought a last exodus: in May 1979 an Islamic revolutionary tribunal had Habib Elghanian, president of the Tehran Jewish Society, shot by firing squad, and the Jewish Agency estimated that 9,100 Jews remained in Iran in 2023.