First Jewish Ambassador from Arab State

Jun 02, 2008 Published under Democracy and Freedom (or lack of), Middle East, Religion

Bahraini king selects Jewish ambassador

Bahrain’s state news agency says that King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa issued a royal decree appointing a female Jewish lawmaker to the post of ambassador. "It is a great honor to have been appointed as the first female ambassador to the United States of America, and I am looking forward to meeting this new challenge," Nonoo told AP by telephone.

"We keep Rosh Hashana and Pessah and the other holidays in our homes," Houda Nonoo said, according to a report by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. "When my son had his bar mitzva, I flew a rabbi over from London for it."
The new ambassador’s cousin, Abraham David Nonoo, also formerly served in the country’s parliamentary council and is considered the unofficial leader of the Jewish community. He politely declined comment when called by The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

BBC: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2023389/posts
Bahrain’s king has appointed a Jewish woman as the country’s envoy to the United States.
Houda Nonoo said she was proud to serve her country "first of all as a Bahraini" and that she was not chosen for the post because of her religion.
She is believed to be the Arab world’s first Jewish ambassador.
Ms Nonoo, 43, has served as a legislator in Bahrain’s 40-member Shura Council for three years and is head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch.
"It is a great honour to have been appointed as the first female ambassador to the United States of America and I am looking forward to meeting this new challenge," Ms Nonoo told the Associated Press news agency.
Her family is originally from Iraq, having moved to Bahrain over a century ago.
Bahrain has one of the world’s oldest and smallest Jewish communities. It was, at one time, home to as many as 1,500 Jews. Today the community has a synagogue and numbers around 50 people.
Bahrain is a close US ally but has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
It has a Shia Muslim majority, roughly 65% of the population, but the ruling elite is Sunni.

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