(JEWISH GROUP) David Shuker, 'Last Jew of Saudi Arabia,' dies at 82

David Shuker, an Israeli who claimed to be the last survivor of the Najran Jewish community in Saudi Arabia, has passed away, community sources said Wednesday. He was believed to be 82 years old.

In October 2022, Shuker made several public appeals to the kingdom’s rulers to allow him to visit the place of his birth before he died, including in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

“I’m asking Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman to go to the city of my birth, Najran, while I am still standing on my feet… to see where my grandparents are buried,” Shuker, a former mayor of the town of Bnei Ayish, near Ashdod, told Channel 13 at the time.

Despite talk of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel in recent years, Israelis remain barred from the kingdom and the request was never granted.

Shuker was born in Najran, a city on the Saudi southwest border, in 1944. Once considered part of Yemen, the city was taken over by Saudi Arabia when the kingdom was formed in 1934. It was known to have had a small Jewish community, but persecution amid the establishment of Israel caused most to flee to Yemen and from there to Israel.

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