From a Struggle for Historical Justice to a New Model of Reconciliation, Identity, and Economic Prosperity
By Samuel Shay
Entrepreneur and Senior Economic Advisor to the Abraham Accords Treaty.
The recent call by Kuwaiti analyst Jassim Al-Juraid to recognize the rights of Jews from Arab countries, establish open Jewish quarters in Arab states, and reopen compensation files for property confiscated from Jewish families, is not merely an important media statement. It can become the starting point for a much broader historical, diplomatic, and economic process: a transition from a discourse of pain, expulsion, and confiscated property to a discourse of correction, rebuilding, coexistence, and regional growth. According to the report, Al-Juraid called on the Arab League to adopt a new charter of truth, reconciliation, and peaceful coexistence.
For decades, the story of Jews from Arab countries was pushed to the margins. These were ancient communities, some of which existed long before the rise of Islam, and they contributed to commerce, medicine, finance, craftsmanship, culture, language, music, and the local economy. According to the World Jewish Congress, in 1945 there were approximately 866,000 Jews living across the Arab world, while today fewer than 10,000 remain. It was also noted that approximately 856,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes in Arab countries between 1948 and the early 1970s, leaving behind significant property and assets.
But the real question is not only how to correct a historical injustice. The more important question is how to turn that correction into a new regional engine of reconciliation, education, culture, employment, and investment.
The New Jewish Quarter: Not a Ghetto, but an Open Center of Life, Heritage, and Economy
The idea of establishing Jewish quarters in Arab countries must be built carefully, respectfully, and strategically. This is not about creating political enclaves, and not about trying to force history backward. It is about establishing open, respectful, and modern centers where Judaism is presented as a culture of life, family, learning, social responsibility, entrepreneurship, work ethic, and economic prosperity.
Each such quarter can include an active synagogue, a community center for Jewish learning, a Jewish-Muslim dialogue center, a small museum dedicated to the history of the local Jewish community, a cultural center, a library, study spaces, a gallery of Jewish-Mizrahi art, kosher restaurants, tourism and commercial areas, and training centers for young people in the fields of the new economy.
The central principle must be clear: Judaism will not act in a missionary manner. It will not come to change anyone’s religion, compete with Islam, or undermine the identity of Arab countries. On the contrary. The goal is to present the beauty of Judaism with respect for Islam, with recognition that both religions are part of the Abrahamic space, and with the understanding that real peace will not be built only through agreements between governments, but also through positive encounters between cultures, communities, and businesses.
The Abu Dhabi Model Proves That It Is Possible
One of the most important precedents for such a model is the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi, where a synagogue, mosque, and church operate side by side. The complex includes the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue, the Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque, and St. Francis Church, and it was opened in the United Arab Emirates as a symbol of tolerance and interfaith dialogue.
The meaning of this model is profound. It proves that an Arab Muslim country can provide a physical, respectful, and safe place for Judaism without harming its religious and national identity. It also proves that a religious structure can be much more than a place of prayer. It can become a center of tourism, education, soft diplomacy, national branding, and investment.
Morocco presents another important example. Since King Mohammed VI came to power, progress has been made in the country’s approach to Jewish heritage, including initiatives to restore Jewish cemeteries, constitutional recognition of the rights of religious minorities, the restoration of synagogues, and the reestablishment of the El Mellah Museum in Casablanca, the only Jewish museum in the Arab world.
These are not merely symbolic events. They are the foundation for a new perception: Jewish heritage in Arab countries is not an enemy of Arab identity. It is part of the history of those countries, part of their local memory, and part of their ability to present the world with a new model of openness, cultural confidence, and political maturity.
The Jewish Quarter as a Free Trade and Innovation Zone
The main innovation I propose is not to stop at heritage and synagogues. Next to every Jewish quarter, a free trade zone should be established, combining Jewish heritage with a modern economy. This is the move that can transform the issue of compensation from a legal struggle alone into a regional economic engine.
Instead of allowing compensation for confiscated Jewish property to remain only a historical dispute between states, a regional reinvestment fund can be established. This fund would invest inside those countries in sectors that generate jobs, tax revenues, tourism, entrepreneurship, professional training, and business infrastructure. In other words, the money would not leave the countries and become a symbol of loss, but would return to them as an engine of growth.
Each quarter can create a dedicated area of specialization according to the relative advantage of each country:
The United Arab Emirates can focus on artificial intelligence, fintech, digital media, and global trade.
Bahrain can become a center for banking, fintech, insurance, financial regulation, and business arbitration.
Morocco can combine Jewish heritage, tourism, agricultural technology, green energy, and food industries.
Egypt can focus on logistics, media, advanced agriculture, trade through the Suez Canal, and manufacturing industries.
Jordan can focus on water, health, technological education, and desert agriculture.
Saudi Arabia, if it joins a broader regional process in the future, can become a center for artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, smart cities, and Abrahamic tourism.
Tunisia can turn the heritage of Djerba into a center of Jewish-Muslim tourism, together with smart agriculture and digital education.
Iraq, when security conditions mature, can restore the memory of Babylonian Jewry as a basis for a center of research, heritage, energy, and water technologies.
Why This Is Economically Correct
The Abraham Accords have already proven that when relations move from a declarative level to a business level, a new reality is created. The free trade agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel entered into force on April 1, 2023, granting broad access to markets, including coverage of more than 96 percent of tariff lines and 99 percent of the trade value with Israel, while also opening fields such as financial services, communications, tourism, transportation, and digital trade.
In addition, according to a review by the UK House of Commons Library, the United Arab Emirates became Israel’s second largest regional trading partner after Turkey, and economic and security ties between Israel and Abraham Accords countries expanded despite the challenges created by the war in Gaza.
The meaning is clear: even in a sensitive Middle East, the economy can preserve bridges when there is a shared interest, a legal framework, regulatory security, and real benefit for citizens.
Free trade zones can succeed only when they do not become empty tax benefit tools, but rather a system of proper governance, public-private cooperation, transparency, professional training, and integration with the local economy. The OECD emphasizes that the success of special economic zones depends on improving governance, strengthening investment, customs, and regulatory bodies, integrating private operators, and creating clear responsibility between the government, local authorities, and zone developers.
Therefore, the new Jewish quarter must be both moral and professional. It cannot be only an image project. It must be a measurable economic project.
The Compensation Mechanism: From a Claims Fund to a Development Fund
The correct way to address compensation for Jewish property in Arab countries is to establish a smart regional mechanism that will not embarrass Arab states and will not turn the issue into an endless war of blame. The solution should be an Abrahamic Development Fund that operates through three channels:
First channel: historical recognition and property documentation. This would include collecting documents, records, testimonies, community assets, synagogues, cemeteries, businesses, accounts, land, and Jewish public buildings.
Second channel: establishing a local investment fund in each country. Compensation, or part of it, would not necessarily be transferred only as cash to families, but would also be directed toward productive investments in that same country, in the name of the memory of the local Jewish community.
Third channel: social benefit sharing. Every Jewish restoration project would include training and employment for local residents, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and others, so that it will not be perceived as a foreign project or as one disconnected from local society.
In this way, compensation can be transformed from an explosive burden into a diplomatic asset. Instead of states seeing it only as an admission of guilt, they can see it as an investment in the future, the restoration of memory, the strengthening of tourism, the introduction of foreign currency, the development of innovation, and the creation of employment.
Not Only a Jewish Past, but an Abrahamic Future
The establishment of Jewish quarters in Arab countries can be the next stage of the Abraham Accords. Until today, the Abraham Accords have been perceived mainly as normalization agreements between governments. The next stage must be normalization between societies, communities, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, universities, and young people.
The Jewish quarter can be the place where a Muslim student can learn about Maimonides, Babylonian Jewry, the sages of Morocco, the Jewish community in Bahrain, the Jews of Yemen, the Jews of Iraq, and the Jewish contribution to the economy of the Middle East. At the same time, a young Jew can learn the depth of Arab culture, the language, Islam, the history of the region, and the possibility of building a shared future without erasing the identity of either side.
This is exactly the difference between cold peace and living peace. Cold peace is signed on paper. Living peace is built in streets, schools, businesses, cultural centers, restaurants, tourism, music, and workplaces.
Conclusion: Historical Justice Must Become a Work Plan
The call to establish Jewish quarters in Arab countries is a major idea, but it must move from symbolism to planning. A legal model, economic model, security model, educational model, and investment model must be prepared. A joint team should be established, including Arab states, Israel, representatives of Jewish communities from Arab countries, businesspeople, banks, investment bodies, religious leaders, and educators.
The Arab world does not need to fear Judaism. Judaism is not the enemy of Islam. On the contrary, Judaism can serve as a positive bridge between a shared past and a shared future. When it is presented with respect, humility, without missionary activity and without arrogance, it can show the Arab world the values of life, family, community, learning, charity, entrepreneurship, and social responsibility.
The new Jewish quarters can become centers of historical reconciliation, education for coexistence, heritage tourism, free trade zones, technological innovation, and local employment. They can restore Jewish memory to its natural place in the Middle East, while also creating revenues for states, jobs for citizens, and a new foundation of trust between Jews, Arabs, and Muslims.
This is not only a correction of the past. It can become one of the most important programs for building the new Middle East.
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