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.

“After the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Jews were called by the king’s representatives to gather in the main square, Shuker wrote in the WSJ. “A convoy of camels was waiting there for 260 people, mostly children like me. Our families’ belongings were loaded onto the camels, and before sunset we began walking toward the Yemeni border.”

From there, his family was later brought to Israel in 1951.

Before the expulsion, Jews had a presence in Saudi Arabia for centuries, historians say.

“Jews lived in Najran long before the Saudi rule. In fact, there is evidence that Jews lived there as early as 2,000 years ago,” Shuker told Channel 13 in a 2022 interview. Some traditions trace their origin to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

“We were openly Jewish. The relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities were very close. They even helped us keep Shabbat,” he said. But “the rulers treated us like second-class citizens… Jews were not equal to Muslims.”

“Contrary to the rule in neighboring Yemen, the Jews of Najran were allowed to carry the traditional dagger, the jambiya, on their belts,” Shuker wrote in the WSJ. “To this day, I remember the king’s soldiers spoiling me with sweets and patting my curly hair.”

In a post announcing his passing, the Yemenite Jewish and Israeli Communities Heritage Center called Shuker “a multifaceted public character whose image is woven into the story of the Jews of Yemen in general and the Najran community in particular.”

“His life story is that of the Yemenite Jews – tradition, faith, labor and preservation of identity from generation to generation,” the organization added.

Heartbreaking news this morning: David Shuker, known as the "last Jew from Saudi Arabia," has passed away.
He died without ever being allowed to return to the land where he was born. The land he loved. The land he longed to see one last time.
He was barred from reentering Saudi…

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— Amjad Taha أمجد طه (@amjadt25) February 24, 2026

Today, official records indicate that no Jews live in Saudi Arabia, although it is estimated that somewhere between dozens and several thousand live there for business, finance, or diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, but their ties have warmed quietly in recent years, driven largely by shared concerns over Iran and regional security. Saudi Arabia has at times signaled cautious openness to normalization under the Abraham Accords. However, the countries do not maintain open ties, and Israeli citizens cannot visit the nation.