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Last week in Brussels, I sat at a table with the chief rabbi of Iran, rabbis serving communities from Morocco to Kazakhstan to Nigeria, three European commissioners, and the ambassadors of Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan. Some of those rabbis lead tens of thousands; some serve a few families. That three Muslim-majority governments sent envoys to sit with rabbis is itself part of my argument.
I had come to convene the board of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, which we founded in 2019. The EU appoints envoys, funds civil society and negotiates agreements across the Muslim world; it debates migration, security, radicalisation and trade. What it almost never does is talk to the Jews who have lived in those societies for centuries. For many Europeans, Jewish life there belongs in a museum, when it should be part of the conversation.
The rabbis in that room carry something no report can supply: experience. For generations, Jews in Muslim-majority societies have learned to remain visible minorities while keeping working relationships with governments, clerics and neighbours. Iran’s chief rabbi, Yehuda Gerami, told the commissioners his community has lived there for more than 2,500 years, numbers close to 20,000, and asks not for politics but for understanding and practical support. We are loyal citizens, deeply rooted in the countries we call home — and that is what Europe should understand.
