On August 22, following an invitation of Ebrahim Nonoo, Head of Bahrain’s Jewish Community and the President of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress’ representative Chaim Blechman participated in a Selichot prayer held in the House of Ten Commandments synagogue in Manama, Bahrain.

The joint prayer was organized by the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities that comprises the Jewish communities of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Dubai’s Hazzan Alex Peterfreund led the service from Bahrain and Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie joined him via Zoom.

EAJC President Mikhael Mirilashvili sent the Jewish community of Bahrain a letter, in which, in particular, he pointed out:

“The new developments in the GCC open up new perspectives of the Jewish life development and of cooperation between and mutual enrichment of the Arab and Jewish culture, as well as set new standards of the international relations on our planet. It is important to point out that your community has become one of the most important driving forces behind these changes.”

While exchanging their views later, the EAJC representative and Bahrain’s Jewish community’s leaders expressed their wish to further expand their contacts.

Mr. Ebrahim Nonoo noted, “we were honoured to have Chaim Blechman with us in person for the Selichot event. Our programs are all created with the aim of having Jews from all over the world join us virtually and it was quite a treat for us to have Chaim with us for a weekend of festivities.”

During his visit in Bahrain, the EAJC representative also held meetings with the country’s business community representatives interested in establishing strong ties both with Israeli partners and with partners of the Jewish communities in the Euro-Asian region.