Jews hold first religious ceremony in Bahrain after decades

The Jewish community in Bahrain celebrated the first Bar Mitzvah in 16 years while the first Minyan ceremony was held for the first time since 1947.

Bearing the fruits of normalising ties between Israel and the Gulf countries, the Jewish community in Bahrain held its first Minyan since 1947.

A Minyan is a community representation comprising 10 males for liturgical purposes.

The prayer of Shabbat, a Judaism day of rest on the seventh day of the week, starts from Friday evening to Saturday night, and Torah hymns returned to the House of Ten Commandments in the capital of Bahrain, Manama, after 74 years.

Former Foreign Minister of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmad, said “a historic moment for the Jewish people of Bahrain and a renewed history of national coexistence in our dear kingdom,” over the ceremony.

On the other hand, the Jewish community in Bahrain held the Bar Mitzvah, a coming of age ceremony, this past weekend for the first time 16 years later at the oldest and only functioning synagogue in the region.

The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), which was founded in 2021 for Jewish communities living in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, facilitated the first Bar Mitzvah in Bahrain.

In the religious ceremony, a boy read the Torah as the former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner commissioned in honour of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The boy read the Torah that the former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner commissioned in honour of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Diplomats, Bahrainis and residents from other GCC countries attended the ceremony while more than 1,000 people watched it through the live broadcast.

"This is a very exciting time for Jewish life in the GCC as more families celebrate Jewish milestones more publicly," said AGJC Rabbi Dr. Eli Abadie.

“In addition to this young man's Bar Mitzvah, we recently celebrated a Bat Mitzvah for a young woman in Oman and we have a number of other Jewish life cycle events taking place before the end of the year. This is an affirmation of the continued growth of Jewish life in the region.”

Former Ambassador of Bahrain to the United States expressed her excitement on Twitter.

On September 15, 2020, Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates(UAE) signed the US-brokered normalising agreement at the White House.

Bahrain and the UAE are the first Arab nations to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 and Trump, who is hoping the deals will boost his reelection hopes, hailed it as a "historic day for peace in the Middle East."

The UAE on July 14 became the first Gulf state to open an embassy in Israel, as its envoy hailed the trade and investment opportunities that closer ties would bring at a flag-raising ceremony also attended by Israel's president.

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