[Abraham]

@ Skybird:
Very small now, but they used to be substantial.

Before the U.N. voted for the end of the British Mandate and partition of Palestine, and the consequent declaration of the State of Israel (May 14, 1948), the Jewish population in Morocco was almost 300.000 and in Iraq 150.000. A total of ca. 870.000 Jews were living in Arab countries.
After May 1948 many Jews went 'voluntary' to Israel because they were suppressed, others were forced - sometimes by bloody riots and pogroms (Egypth & Yemen) to leave everything behind and became refugees who finally found their way to Israel.
A total of ca. 580.000 Jews moved from Arab countries to Israel.
As a personal note: I have spoken with some and their stories are as bitter and tragic as any refugee's story. In the Arab countries they sometimes lived in a kind of Apartheid society with minimal rights, not unlike the conditions that you described of the Dhimmi's.