Comment by simonh

2 years ago

Most jews emigrated, that's true, the number killed in pogroms was not huge generally in the hundreds in any given events. Nevertheless at various times in various countries they were often banned form selling property, banned from using banks, denied legal paperwork, various banned from emigrating or forcible expelled. Of course many chose to go because they had somewhere to go.

However the idea that this was the main driving force isn't compatible with the actual pattern of emigration. If the pull from Israel was the dominant factor we'd expect to see more or less uniform emigration from Arab countries. We don't, rather emigration was at different times from different places, driven by local conditions and government policies. For example the mass emigration of most Persian jews was very late compared to Arab countries, coinciding with the Iranian revolution in the 1970s.