Thehistory of the Jews in Qatar is relatively limited unlike some of the neighboring countries in theGulf of Persia.
In modern days a small number of immigrants of Jewish descent reside in Qatar, mainly in the capitalDoha.Kosher food was produced during the 2022World Cup and Rabbi Eli Chitrik visits Qatar several times a year on behalf of theAlliance of Rabbis in Islamic States.
In 2005Qatar University with theQatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited a Jewish delegation from Israel to take part in an international conference on religious dialogue despite opposition from some quarters. It was the first time that Jewish scholars attended theInternational Conference on Religious Dialogue held every year in Qatar.[1]
Various Jewish people visit and live in Qatar. Professor Gary Wasserman wrote a bookThe Doha Experiment: Arab Kingdom, Catholic College, Jewish Teacher describing his stay teaching and working in Qatar where Wasserman encountered barely any personal animosity due to being Jewish.[2]
In 2013 Qatar assistedYemenite Jews to move to Israel. The first group of Yemenite Jews departed from Doha on Qatari flights and arrived in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport.[3][4]
A significant sign of Qatar's new openness to outsiders that includes Jews was that over 10,000 Israelis and many other Jews[5] visited for the2022 FIFA World Cup many of whom were provided with tens of thousands ofKosher meals showing that there is official recognition and permission to practiceJudaism.[6][7][8][9] As early as 2019 it was reported that Qatari officials had consulted with American RabbiMarc Schneier as to how to welcome the thousands of Israelis and Jews who intended to attend the world Cup finals in 2022.[10][11]
In 2021 theAssociation of Gulf Jewish Communities was established to serve Jewish populations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.[12] A 2023 report by theUnited States Department of State stated that duringRamadan the US ambassador hosted an interfaithSuhur (morning meal before sunrise or after the fast-breaking evening meal during Ramadan) bringing together Muslim, Christian, and Jewish representatives and in September, the US embassy helped facilitate the visit of arabbi who conducted Jewish religious services.[13] In a strange twist, rabbis from the anti-Zionist Jewish movementNeturei Karta attended the funeral of Hamas political bureau chiefIsmail Haniyeh in the Qatari capital Doha in 2024.[14]
Some reports suggest that Qatar's recent official benevolence and tolerance of Jews and Judaism inside Qatar itself is aimed at easing its political isolation and improving its own image by reaching out to American Jews.[15][16][17][18] Qatar's efforts to reach out to wealthy and influentuel American Jews was reported byAxios in 2023: "Jared Kushner andIvanka Trump organized a private meeting in New York last Wednesday with Qatar's prime minister and a bipartisan group mostly of Jewish businessmen and billionaires, three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting tell Axios."[19]
In a 2023 report by theBoard of Deputies of British Jews a delegation ofWorld Jewish Congress officials, led by its presidentRonald Lauder, engaged in discussions with leaders in Qatar. During these high-level meetings the concerns of global Jewry regarding the plight ofIsraeli hostages in Gaza were expressed seeking the intervention of Arab leaders to secure the release of the Israeli hostages.[20]
Antisemitism is rife in many areas of life in Qatar, alongside Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia and other Arab and Muslim countries as well as fostering antisemitism beyond its borders. The media giantAl Jazeera is based in Qatar and has frequently been accused of fostering and spouting antisemitism.[21][22] Antisemitic cartoons appear often in Qatari newspapers[23] and school books.[24] TheUnited States Department of State has found persistent antisemitism in Qatari school textbooks[25][26][27] such as that Jews seek world domination.[28] Some writers have called for a cut-off of funding to American colleges by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other wealthy Arab and Muslim countries because the multimillion-dollar donations toMiddle Eastern studies centers and departments have advanced Islamist ideology and fosteredJew-hatred at U.S. universities.[29]
Qatar has allegedly supplied money for antisemitic activists and activism against Jewish students and Jewish interests on American college and university campuses.[30][31][32][33][34] Some American politicians have spoken out against the antisemitic outcomes of Qatari funding of US institutions, such as RepresentativeJack Bergman, who has stated that: "For years, theQatar Foundation philanthropies and theQatar Investment Authority have played a key role in the organization and funding of the radical antisemiticBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement on U.S. college campuses. Since 2017, Qatar has hired at least 100 different firms for lobbying and public relations, according to theForeign Agents Registration Act database. Qatar has also lavished tens of millions of dollars on nonprofit Washington think tanks, including theBrookings Institution. And Qatar has given over $5 billion to U.S. universities, according to records published by theU.S. Department of Education."[35]
In 2016 theSimon Wiesenthal Center objected to the continued display of titles inciting to hatred of Jews at theDoha International Book Fair.[36] A 2024 first everWeb Summit Qatar bringing together thousands of investors and startups was also tainted with antisemitism due to a large number of investors and tech experts advertised as speaking at the Doha conference who are on record of promotingantisemitic tropes.[37]
Even though Qatar has been a mediator in the 2024Gaza war, it has nevertheless been accused of antisemitism in the process.[38]
As an indication of the opening up of Qatari society to western influence and giving appropriate attention to the Jewish population, theJewish Telegraphic Agency reported in December 2003 that a forum on U.S.-Islamic relations in Qatar would feature both Israeli and U.S. Jewish participants. Former presidentClinton and SheikhHamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, theemir of Qatar, were the scheduled keynote speakers at the 2004 US-Islamic Forum inDoha. The forum was sponsored by the Project on US Policy Towards the Islamic World and funded by theSaban Center, founded by American-Israeli entertainment mogulHaim Saban. Participants came from predominantly Islamic countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.Martin Kramer, the editor of theMiddle East Quarterly, was the sole Israeli participant since Saban and attended as an American.[39]
A news report that described the preparations for U.S. troops stationed in Qatar:
The Jewish members of America's armed forces will again receivekosher K-rations thisPesach throughout the holiday, provided by theU.S. Defense Department.
Thousands of packages containing kosher for PesachMREs (meals ready to eat) have already reached U.S. army and navy supply bases, with special shipments aimed at Jewish troops in Iraq and Afghanistan...
The Jewish Chaplains Council estimates that the number of Jews stationed in Iraq is between 500 and 600. Of the 30 Jewish chaplains on active duty worldwide, eight chaplains are stationed in Iraq, including two female rabbis.
Each chaplain stationed in Iraq will hold twoseders at base camps, with central seders in Baghdad, Falluja, and Tikrit.There will also be twoseders at the army headquarters in Bahrain, and air force headquarters in Qatar. Jewish soldiers stationed in remote locations will be able to attend seders led by soldiers who received special training for that purpose.[40]
In 2007 a report stated,
Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, are making some of their most public overtures ever to Israel and American Jews to undercut Iran's growing influence, contain violence in Iraq and Lebanon and push for a Palestinian solution...Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates have stepped up contacts with Israel and pro-Israel Jewish groups in the USA. The outreach has the Bush administration's blessing: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said sixPersian Gulf states and Egypt, Jordan, and Israel are a new alignment of moderates to oppose extremists backed by Iran and Syria. She has said an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would weaken militants such as Hamas and Hezbollah...Saudi and Gulf Arab contacts with Israelis and American Jews go back more than a decade but have never been so public. Arab countries have treated Israel as a pariah since it gained independence in 1948. Most Arab countries ban travel to Israel, investment there, and other commercial ties with the Jewish state and routinely refer to it as the "Zionist entity." ...Among the other recent Arab-Jewish contacts: Saudi national security adviser Bandar bin Sultan met privately with Israeli prime ministerEhud Olmert in Jordan in September, said Daniel Ayalon, Israel's former ambassador to Washington. He said it was the highest-level Saudi-Israeli meeting he'd ever heard of. The United Arab Emirates has invited a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The conference, a 51-member umbrella group, is a strong supporter of Israel. Israeli deputy prime ministerShimon Peres met the emir of Qatar in late January after taking part in a debate with Arab students there. It was the highest-level Israeli meeting withthe Persian Gulf nation since 1996 when Peres visited as prime minister."[41]
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