An amateur video was posted on YouTube last month highlighting the history of the arrival of Jews to the Al-Ahsa region, now located in eastern Saudi Arabia. The video has gained significant traction on social media, bringing great attention to the often-overlooked Jewish heritage of this area.
According to the Saudi Arabian newspaper, Hasa News, Jews arrived in eastern Arabian cities from Basra at the behest of the Ottoman Empire during the end of the 19th century. Jews flourished alongside Muslims in their professions as merchants and traders in important cities and villages such as Al-Qatif and Al-Hofuf. Following King Abdulaziz Al-Saud’s entry into the region in 1913, the small community mostly migrated to Bahrain or returned to Basra.
Alongside this video’s widespread attention on social media, a Saudi Arabian novel published in January 2019 entitled Tabutia: A Jewish Woman of Al-Ahsa further brings to light this chapter of Jewish history by telling of a Jewish protagonist and her interactions with the people of Ottoman-era Al-Ahsa. It was reported that this novel was the first to address the history of Jews in Al-Ahsa in Saudi Arabian literature.
While there currently is not an active Jewish community in Al-Ahsa, its presence is still remembered in the local markets named after Jewish merchants: Souq Al-Kut and Souq Al-Kayseri in Al-Hufuf. According to a 2012 book published in Arabic The Jews in the Gulf, there is a plot of land that the locals Saudi Arabians still refer to as “the Jewish cemetery,” but it remains fenced off and unattended.
