History of the Jews in Iraq

The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of Babylonian captivity (). Iraqi Jews (), also known as Bavlim (, ', ), constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities.

The Jewish community in Mesopotamia, known in Jewish sources as "Babylonia", traces its origins to the early sixth century BCE, when a large number of Judeans from the defeated Kingdom of Judah were exiled to Babylon in several waves by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Jewish community of Babylonia rose to prominence as the center of Jewish scholarship following the decline of the Jewish population in the Land of Israel in the 3rd century CE. Estimates often place the Babylonian Jewish population of the third to seventh centuries at around one million, making it the largest Jewish diaspora community of that period. The area became home to many important Talmudic yeshivas such as the Nehardea, Pumbedita and Sura Academies, and the Babylonian Talmud was compiled there. The Mongol invasion and Islamic discrimination under the caliphates in the Middle Ages eventually led to the decline of the region's Jewish community. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Jews of Ottoman Iraq fared better. The community established modern schools in the second half of the 19th century. Driven by persecution, which saw many of the leading Jewish families of Baghdad flee for India, and expanding trade with British colonies, the Jews of Iraq established a trading diaspora in Asia known as the Baghdadi Jews.

The Iraqi Jewish community formed a homogeneous group, maintaining communal Jewish identity, culture and traditions. The Jews in Iraq distinguished themselves by the way they spoke in their old Arabic dialect, Judeo-Arabic; the way they dressed; observation of Jewish rituals, for example, the Sabbath and holidays; and kashrut. In the 20th century, Iraqi Jews played an important role in the early days of Iraq's independence. According to Avi Shlaim, they were deeply integrated into the wider Iraqi society, culturally and linguistically. At the beginning of the 20th century Jews formed a notable presence in the country's main cities, including up to 40% in Baghdad and 25% in Basra. In 1941, the Farhud ("violent dispossession"), a major pogrom, occurred in Baghdad, in which 200 Jews or more were murdered. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, persecution against Jews culminated in increased government oppression and cultural discrimination. The government, while maintaining a public policy of discrimination against Jews, simultaneously forbade Jews from emigrating to Israel out of concern for strengthening the nascent Israeli state. In 1950, the government reversed course and permitted Jews to emigrate in exchange for renouncing their citizenship. From 1950 to 1952, nearly the entire Iraqi Jewish population emptied out from Iraq to Israel through Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. Historians estimate that 120,000–130,000 Iraqi Jews (around 75% of the entire community) reached Israel.

In the early years, the Ba'ath Party had a dual approach toward Jews. On one hand, Jews were detained, imprisoned, tortured, and even executed on charges of spying for Israel. On the other hand, some government officials displayed personal sympathy and leniency toward them. Many Jews managed to convince the authorities to release detainees. The era of Abdul-Karim Qasim was generally considered better for Jews compared to the rule of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. During this period, a significant number of Jews fled the country, causing a sharp decline in the Jewish population. Eventually, overt repression eased, and Jews were treated more fairly. When Saddam Hussein rose to power, he repealed many antisemitic laws and policies. Under his rule, the Jewish population continued to dwindle—not due to persecution but because travel restrictions were lifted. Many Jews took advantage of this freedom to travel between Iraq and foreign countries, a practice that became routine. Those who settled abroad during this time retained their Iraqi citizenship. Additionally, several Jews served in government roles during his regime.

The remainder of the Jewish population continued to dwindle in the ensuing decades; as of 2014, the total number of Jews living in Iraq numbered around 500, mostly in Baghdad and Kurdistan region. The religious and cultural traditions of Iraqi Jews are kept alive today in strong communities established by Iraqi Jews in Israel, especially in Or Yehuda, Givatayim and Kiryat Gat. According to government data as of 2014, there were 227,900 Jews of Iraqi descent in Israel, with other estimates as high as 600,000 Israelis having some Iraqi ancestry. Smaller communities upholding Iraqi Jewish traditions in the Jewish diaspora exist in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Canada, and the United States.

"Babylonia"

What Jewish sources called "Babylon" and "Babylonia" may refer to the ancient city of Babylon and the Neo-Babylonian Empire; or, very often, it means the specific area of Mesopotamia (the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers) where a number of Jewish religious academies functioned during the Geonic period (6th–11th century CE).

In the Bible, Babylon and the country of Babylonia are not always clearly distinguished; in most cases, the same word is used in reference to both places. In some passages, the land of Babylonia is called Shinar, while in the post-exilic literature, it is called Chaldea. In the Book of Genesis, Babylonia is described as the land in which Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh are located – cities that are declared to have formed the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom. In the historical books, Babylonia is frequently referred to (there are no fewer than thirty-one allusions in the Books of Kings), though the lack of a clear distinction between the city and the country is sometimes puzzling.

Biblical history

The Ten Israelite Tribes from the northern Kingdom of Israel were exiled to Assyria from 730 BCE. In the number and importance of its references to Babylonian life and history, the Book of Jeremiah stands preeminent in the Hebrew literature. With numerous important allusions to events in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah has become a valuable source in reconstructing Babylonian history within recent times. The inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar are almost exclusively devoted to building operations; and but for the Book of Jeremiah, little would be known of his campaign against Jerusalem.

During the 6th century BCE, the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in three waves. The first was in the time of Jehoiachin in 597 BCE, when, in retaliation for a refusal to pay tribute, the First Temple in Jerusalem was partially despoiled and a number of the leading citizens removed. After eleven years, in the reign of Zedekiah—who had been enthroned by Nebuchadnezzar—a fresh revolt of the Judaeans took place, perhaps encouraged by the close proximity of the Egyptian army. The city was razed to the ground, and a further deportation ensued. Five years later, Jeremiah records a third captivity. After the overthrow of Babylonia by the Persians, Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their native land (537 BCE), and more than forty thousand are said to have availed themselves of the privilege.thumb|Jewish scribes at [[Ezekiel's Tomb, 1914|left]]

The earliest accounts of the Jews exiled to Babylonia are furnished only by scanty biblical details, although a number of archaeological discoveries (such as the Al-Yahudu Tablets) shed light into the social lives of the deportees; certain sources seek to supply this deficiency from the realms of legend and tradition. Thus, the so-called "Small Chronicle" (Seder Olam Zutta) endeavors to preserve historic continuity by providing a genealogy of the exilarchs ("Reshe Galuta") back to King Jeconiah. Jeconiah himself is made an exilarch.

The "Small Chronicle" states that Zerubbabel returned to Judea in the Greek period. Certainly, the descendants of the Davidic line occupied an exalted position among their brethren in Babylonia, as they did at that period in Judea. During the Maccabean revolt, these Judean descendants of the royal house had immigrated to Babylonia.

According to the biblical account, the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great was "God's anointed", having freed the Jews from Babylonian rule. After the conquest of Babylonia by the Persian Achaemenid Empire Cyrus granted all the Jews citizenship and by decree allowed the Jews to return to Israel (around 537 BCE). Subsequently, successive waves of Babylonian Jews emigrated to Israel. Ezra (fl. 480–440 BCE) returned from Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem (Ezra 7–10 and Nehemiah 8).

During the Second Temple period two large Jewish communities developed in Mesopotamia: one in northern Mesopotamia who attributed their ancestry to the Ten Lost Tribes, and one in central Mesopotamia associated with the Judean exiles.

Hellenistic period

Information regarding the early period of Jewish history in Iraq is extremely limited. both the "Large" and the "Small Chronicle" contain references to him.

The persecutions of Antiochus IV (168 BCE) appear to have been limited to Judea, and likely were not imposed on Babylonian Jews.

Parthian period

Mithridates (174–136 BCE) subjugated, about the year 160, the province of Babylonia, and thus the Jews for four centuries came under Parthian domination.

Jewish sources contain no mention of Parthian influence; the very name "Parthian" does not occur, unless "Parthian" is meant by "Persian", which occurs now and then. The Armenian prince Sanatroces, of the royal house of the Arsacides, is mentioned in the "Small Chronicle" as one of the successors (diadochoi) of Alexander. Among other Asiatic princes, the Roman rescript in favor of the Jews reached Arsaces as well (I Macc. 15:22); it is not, however, specified which Arsaces.

Not long after this, the Partho-Babylonian country was trodden by the army of a Jewish prince. The Syrian king, Antiochus VII Sidetes, in company with Hyrcanus I, marched against the Parthians. When the allied armies defeated the Parthians (129 BCE) at the Great Zab (Lycus), the king ordered a halt of two days on account of the Jewish Sabbath and Feast of Weeks.

In 40 BCE the Jewish puppet-king, Hyrcanus II, fell into the hands of the Parthians, who, according to their custom, cut off his ears to render him unfit for rulership. The Jews of Babylonia, it seems, had the intention of founding a high-priesthood for the exiled Hyrcanus, which they would have made quite independent of Judea. But the reverse was to come about: the Judeans received a Babylonian, Ananel by name, as their high priest which indicates the importance enjoyed by the Jews of Babylonia. Philo speaks of the large number of Jews resident in that country, a population which was no doubt considerably swelled by new immigrants after the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE).

How free a hand the Parthians permitted the Jews is perhaps best illustrated by the rise of the little Jewish robber-state in Nehardea (see Anilai and Asinai). Still more remarkable is the conversion of the king of Adiabene to Judaism. These instances show not only the tolerance, but the weakness of the Parthian kings. The Babylonian Jews wanted to fight in common cause with their Judean brethren against Vespasian; but it was not until Trajan's Parthian campaign that they made their hatred felt; so that it was in a great measure owing to the revolt of the Babylonian Jews that the Romans did not become masters of Babylonia too. The early rabbis took for granted that their rulings would be followed in Babylonia as well as locally.

The Jews of northern Babylonia appear to have suffered severely from the Roman-Parthian and Roman-Sasanian wars; this, and possibly the growing power of Christianity in the area, appear to have led to a weakening of the Jewish community in northern Mesopotamia while the center of Jewish culture shifted to the center and south. The periods of Jewish history immediately following the close of the Talmud are designated according to the titles of the teachers at Sura and Pumbedita: the Geonim and the Saboraim. The Saboraim were the scholars whose diligent hands completed the Talmud and the first great Talmudic commentaries in the first third of the 6th century.

The two academies among others, and the Jewish community they led, lasted until the middle of the 11th century. Pumbedita faded after its chief rabbi was murdered in 1038, and Sura faded soon after. Which ended the centuries-long great scholarly reputation given to Babylonian Jews, as the center of Jewish thought.

Islamic Arab period

The Arabs conquered Iraq from the Sassanids in the 630s. Ali made Kufa, in Iraq, his capital, and it was there that Jews expelled from the Arabian Peninsula went (about 641). The capture by Ali of Firuz Shabur, where 90,000 Jews are said to have dwelt, is mentioned by the Jewish chroniclers. Mar Isaac, chief of the academy of Sura, paid homage to the caliph, and received privileges from him.

The first legal expression of Islam toward the dhimmis (Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians) after the conquests were the institution of the poll-tax ("jizyah") and the tax upon real estate ("kharaj"). The kharaj land tax led to mass migration of Babylonian Jews from the countryside to cities like Baghdad. This in turn led to greater wealth and international influence, as well as a more cosmopolitan outlook from Jewish thinkers such as Saadiah Gaon, who now deeply engaged with Western philosophy for the first time.

The Umayyad caliph, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (717–720), issued orders to his governors: "Tear down no church, synagogue, or fire-temple; but permit no new ones to be built". Isaac Iskawi II (about 800) received from Harun al-Rashid (786–809) confirmation of the right to carry a seal of office. At the court of the Harun an embassy from the emperor Charlemagne included which a Jew, Isaac, took part. In 850, al-Rashid's grandson al-Muttawakil issued a decree according to which all dhimmis (including the Jews) would need to wear in addition to the already established zunnar a honey-coloured outer garment and badge-like patches on their servant's clothing, by which he began the long tradition of differentiation by colour.

Like the Arabs, the Jews were zealous promoters of knowledge, and by translating Greek and Latin The caliph al-Mu'tadid (892–902) ranked the Jews as "state servants".

When the Abbasid Caliphate and the city of Baghdad declined in the 10th century, many Babylonian Jews migrated to the Mediterranean region, contributing to the spread of Babylonian Jewish customs throughout the Jewish world. Under the Seljuk Empire, new decrees enforcing discriminatory dress laws for non-Muslims were promulgated in 1091 by Abu Shuja al-Rudhrawari and in 1121 under sultan Mahmud II. As was often the case throughout Islamic history, the non-Muslims agreed to pay a substantial sum of money to the sultan so that decree be not enforced.

Mongol period

The Caliphate hastened to its end before the rising power of the Mongol Empire. As Bar Hebraeus remarks, these Mongol tribes knew no distinction between heathens, Jews, and Christians; and their Great Khan Kublai Khan showed himself just toward the Jews who served in his army, as reported by Marco Polo. Iraq's Jewish community reached an apex in the 12th century, with 40,000 Jews, 28 synagogues, and ten yeshivot, or Rabbinic academies. Jews participated in commerce, artisanal labor and medicine. Under Mongol rule (1258–1335) Jewish physician Sa'ad Al-Dawla served as , or assistant director of the financial administration of Baghdad, as well as Chief Vizier of the Mongol Empire.

Hulagu (a Buddhist), the destroyer of the Caliphate (1258) and the conqueror of Palestine (1260), was tolerant toward Muslims, Jews and Christians; but there can be no doubt that in those days of terrible warfare the Jews must have suffered much with others. Under the Mongolian rulers, the priests of all religions were exempt from the poll-tax. Hulagu's second son, Aḥmed, embraced Islam, but his successor, Arghun (1284–1291), hated the Muslims and was friendly to Jews and Christians; his chief counselor was a Jew, Sa'ad al-Dawla, a physician of Baghdad. It proved a false dawn. The power of Sa’ad al-Dawla was so vexatious to the Muslim population the churchman Bar Hebraeus wrote so "were the Muslims reduced to having a Jew in the place of honor." This was exacerbated by Sa’d al-Dawla, who ordered no Muslim be employed by the official bureaucracy. He was also known as a fearsome tax collection and rumours swirled he was planning to create a new religion of which Arghun was supposed to be the prophet. Sa’d al-Dawla was murdered two days before the death of his Arghun, then stricken by illness, by his enemies in court.

After the death of the great khan and the murder of his Jewish favorite, the Muslims fell upon the Jews, and Baghdad witnessed a regular battle between them. Gaykhatu also had a Jewish minister of finance, Reshid al-Dawla. The khan Ghazan also became a Muslim, and made the Jews second class citizens. The Egyptian sultan Naṣr, who also ruled over Iraq, reestablished the same law in 1330, and saddled it with new limitations. During this period attacks on Jews greatly increased. The situation grew dire for the Jewish community as Muslim chronicler Abbas al-’Azzawi recorded: "These events which befell the Jews after they had attained a high standing in the state caused them to lower their voices. [Since then] we have not heard from them anything worthy of recording because they were prevented from participation in its government and politics. They were neglected and their voice was only heard [again] after a long time." It remains the case that most Jewish Iraqis are of indigenous Middle Eastern ancestry rather than migrants from Spain, as in the case of parts of North Africa and the Levant.

Ottoman rule: 1534–1917

During Ottoman rule (1534–1917) Jewish life prospered in Iraq. Jews were afforded religious liberties, enabling them to administer their own affairs in Jewish education. Tolerance towards Jews and Jewish customs, however, depended on local rulers. Ottoman ruler Sultan Murad IV appointed 10,000 Jewish officers in his government, as he valued the Baghdadi Jews. In contrast, Murad's governor Dauod Pasha was cruel and was responsible for the emigration of many Iraqi Jews. After Dauod's death in 1851, Jewish involvement in commerce and politics increased, with religious influence also transforming. The Iraqi Jewish community introduced the Hakham Bashi, or Chief Rabbinate, in 1849, with Hakham Ezra Dangoor leading the community. The chief rabbi was also president of the community and was assisted by a lay council, a religious court, and a schools committee.

Early Ottoman period

After various changes of fortune, Mesopotamia and Iraq came into the hands of the Ottoman Turks, when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1534 took Tabriz and Baghdad from the Persians, leading to an improvement in the life of the Jews. The Persian reconquest in 1623 during the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639) led to a much worse situation, so that the re-conquest of Iraq by the Turks in 1638 included an army with a large population of Jews. Some sources say they made up 10% of the army. The day of the reconquest was even given a holiday, "Yom Nes" (day of miracle).

This period of Mameluk rule in Iraq, under the aegis of the Ottoman Empire, united most of the future territory of Iraq into a single unit for the first time. As it ceased to be a warring frontier, opportunities for trade increased, especially due to the growing European presence on the ocean routes to India. Following this uptick in trade and security, Jewish communities began to be reestablished in Baghdad and Basra.

This was not the revival of a community so much as the establishment of a new one. According to the historian Zvi Yehuda, an analysis of the tens of thousands of Iraqi Jewish family trees stored at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center have indicate that families of Baghdadi Jews do not possess family trees tracing their lineage prior to the end of the 17th century. They were migrants from smaller Mesopotamian communities and from across the Middle East. Yehuda calls the Jewish community that reestablished itself in Baghdad, Basra and other cities the "new Babylonian Diaspora".

Eighteenth century

In 1743, there was a plague in which many of the Jews of Baghdad, including all the rabbis, died. Culturally, it would prove a decisive moment when Chief Rabbi Shmuel Laniyado of Aleppo picked his protege for Baghdad. Many of them were Rabbis who were to sit on the Beth Din of Baghdad and Basra. This brought the leading Jewish families of Baghdad, and with it, their Jewish practice into the network of Sephardic scribes and later printing presses established in Aleppo, Livorno and Salonica. Surviving records of the contents of the library of Solomon Ma’tuk shows a great number of books purchased from Sephardic scribes and some even originally from Spain.

Further driving this process was the high esteem in which Rabbi Sadka Bekhor Hussein was held as a halakhic authority.

This was the beginning of primarily Iraqi Jewish diaspora in Asia known as the Baghdadi Jews, to which David Sassoon and many of the other leading Jewish families in Baghdad fled the persecution of Dawud Pasha. These Judeo-Arabic speaking communities, following mostly Iraqi Jewish customs, would be formed along the so-called opium route between India and China, including in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. These were all led by leading Iraqi Jewish families such as the Sassoons, Ezras, Eliases, Gubbays and Judahs. One distinguishing feature of the communities of Baghdad and Basra remarked upon by Ashkenazi travelers was the extreme young age of marriage: between eight and twelve years old for girls to men usually eighteen to twenty. Another was the traditional face veils and long flowing garments wore by Jewish women who were not expected to show their face in public like their Muslim neighbors. After the Kurds sacked Mosul during the Yazidi campaign, they also killed the local Jews and Christians. Dr. Lobdell, an American missionary, visited Mir Muhammad in Urmia, where he wrote: “The Pasha of Ravendooz told me that when he was first appointed to that district (Urmia), three years since, Jews were bought and sold by the Koords as commonly as don-keys.”

Following the defeat of Mir Muhammad, Amadiya came under the rule of the Ottoman governor of Mosul. The situation of the Jewish community improved slightly. Early Labor Zionism mostly concentrated on the Jews of Europe, skipping Iraqi Jews because of their lack of interest in agriculture. However, across the Baghdadi Jewish Diaspora many prominent families in Asia such as such as the Meyers of Singapore strongly supported Zionism. These families, such as branches of the Sassoons, retained strong religious and familial ties to Baghdad into the early 20th century. By the 1930s there were over 7,000 Baghdadi Jews across Asia, mostly in India.

thumb|1932 photograph of [[Ezekiel's Tomb at Kifl. The area was inhabited by Iraqi Jews who appear in the photo.]]During the British Mandate, beginning in 1920, and in the early days after independence in 1932, well-educated Jews played an important role in civic life. They were important in developing the judicial and postal systems. In Baghdad's markets, they were prominent jewelers, smiths, and cloth dealers. In Basra, many Jews worked at the important port authority. The Jews established factories for the manufacture of soap, woolen textiles, cigarettes, gold and silver crafting, printing, and others. The Zionist organization in Baghdad was initially granted a permit by the British, in March 1921, but in the following year, under the government of King Faisal I, was unable to renew it. Nevertheless, its activities were tolerated until 1929. In that year, after conflict and bloodshed in Palestine during anti-Zionist demonstrations and riots, Zionist activities were banned and teachers from Palestine, who had taught Hebrew and Jewish history, were forced to leave. but these views changed with the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian Mandate and the introduction of Nazi propaganda. Zionist activity had continued covertly even after 1929, but in 1935 the last two Palestinian Jewish teachers were deported, and the president of the Zionist organization was put on trial and ultimately required to leave the country.

thumb|Mass grave for the victims of the [[Farhud in 1946|left]]

Following the collapse of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's pro-Axis coup d'état in 1941, the Farhud ("violent dispossession") pogrom broke out in Baghdad on June 1, in which approximately 200 Iraqi Jews were murdered (some sources put the number higher), and up to 2,000 injured – damages to Jewish-owned property were estimated at $3 million (US$ million in ).

In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly Hall at Flushing Meadow, New York, on Friday, November 28, 1947, Iraq's Foreign Minister, Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, included the following statement: <blockquote>Partition imposed against the will of the majority of the people will jeopardize peace and harmony in the Middle East. Not only the uprising of the Arabs of Palestine is to be expected, but the masses in the Arab world cannot be restrained. The Arab-Jewish relationship in the Arab world will greatly deteriorate. There are more Jews in the Arab world outside of Palestine than there are in Palestine. In Iraq alone, we have about one hundred and fifty thousand Jews who share with Muslims and Christians all the advantages of political and economic rights. Harmony prevails among Muslims, Christians and Jews. But any injustice imposed upon the Arabs of Palestine will disturb the harmony among Jews and non-Jews in Iraq; it will breed inter-religious prejudice and hatred.</blockquote>

In the months leading up to the November 1947 Partition vote, violence against Iraqi Jews increased. In May 1947, a Jewish man in Baghdad was lynched by an angry mob after being accused of giving poisoned candy to Arab children. Rioters ransacked homes in the Jewish Quarter of Fallujah, and the Jewish population there fled to Baghdad. Large Jewish "donations" for the Palestinian Arab cause were regularly extorted, with the names of "donors" read out on the radio to encourage more. In spite of this, Iraqi Jews still mostly continued to view themselves as loyal Iraqis and believed that the hardship would pass. The Jewish Agency's emissary to Iraq reported that "No attention is paid [by the Jews] to the frightful manifestations of hostility around them, which place all Jews on the verge of a volcano about to erupt."

In 1948, the year of Israel's independence, there were about 150,000 Jews in Iraq. Persecution of Jews greatly increased that year. In July 1948, the government passed a law making Zionism a capital offense, with a minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment. Any Jew could be convicted of Zionism-based only on the sworn testimony of two Muslim witnesses, with virtually no avenue of appeal available. On August 28, 1948, Jews were forbidden to engage in banking or foreign currency transactions. In September 1948, Jews were dismissed from the railways, the post office, the telegraph department, and the Finance Ministry on the ground that they were suspected of "sabotage and treason". On October 8, 1948, the issuance of export and import licenses to Jewish merchants was forbidden. On October 19, 1948, the discharge of all Jewish officials and workers from all governmental departments was ordered. In October, the Egyptian paper El-Ahram estimated that as a result of arrests, trials, and sequestration of property, the Iraqi treasury collected some 20 million dinars or the equivalent of 80 million U.S. dollars. On December 2, 1948, the Iraq government suggested to oil companies operating in Iraq that no Jewish employees be accepted.

"With very few exceptions, only Jews wore watches. On spotting one that looked expensive, a policeman had approached the owner as if to ask the hour. Once assured the man was Jewish, he relieved him of the timepiece and took him into custody. The watch, he told the judge, contained tiny wireless; he'd caught the Jew, he claimed, sending military secrets to the Zionists in Palestine. Without examining the "evidence" or asking any questions, the judge pronounced his sentence. The "traitor" went to prison, the watch to the policeman as a reward." In sweeps throughout urban areas, the Iraqi authorities searched thousands of Jewish homes for secret caches of money they were presumed to be sending to Israel. Walls were frequently demolished in these searches. Hundreds of Jews were arrested on suspicion of Zionist activity, tortured into confessing, and subjected to heavy fines and lengthy prison sentences. In one case, a Jewish man was sentenced to five years' hard labor for possessing a Biblical Hebrew inscription which was presumed to be a coded Zionist message. The fleeing Jews took money and some possessions with them, and this capital flight harmed the Iraqi economy. Iraqi politicians candidly admitted that they wanted to expel their Jewish population for reasons of their own. but mounted an airlift in March 1951 called "Operation Ezra and Nehemiah" to bring as many of the Iraqi Jews as possible to Israel, and sent agents to Iraq to urge the Jews to register for immigration as soon as possible. Iraqi Jews mainly left Iraq for Cyprus and Iran, from where they were airlifted to Israel, though for a time direct flights between Israel and Baghdad were allowed. From the start of the emigration law in March 1950 until the end of the year, 60,000 Jews registered to leave Iraq. In addition to continuing arrests and the dismissal of Jews from their jobs, this exodus was encouraged by a series of bombings starting in April 1950 that resulted in a number of injuries and a few deaths. Two months before the expiration of the law, by which time about 85,000 Jews had registered, another bomb at the Masuda Shemtov synagogue killed 3 or 5 Jews and injured many others. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Said was determined to drive the Jews out of his country as quickly as possible,

Overall, between 1948 and 1951, 121,633 Iraqi Jews were airlifted, bused, or smuggled out of the country, including 119,788 between January 1950 and December 1951. Iraqi Jews left behind them extensive property, often located in the heart of Iraq's major cities. The issue remains unresolved: Iraqi activists still regularly charge that Israel used violence to engineer the exodus, while Israeli officials of the time vehemently deny it. Historian Moshe Gat reports that "the belief that the bombs had been thrown by Zionist agents was shared by those Iraqi Jews who had just reached Israel". Sociologist Phillip Mendes backs Gat's claims, and further attributes the allegations to have been influenced and distorted by feelings of discrimination.

The affair has also been the subject of a libel lawsuit by Mordechai Ben Porat, which was settled in an out-of-court compromise with an apology of the journalist who described the charges as true. However, Gat argues that both claims are contrary to the evidence. Certainly memories and interpretations of the events have further been influenced and distorted by the unfortunate discrimination which many Iraqi Jews experienced on their arrival in Israel.</blockquote>

Many years later, the widow of the Zionist emissary Yehuda Tager stated that while the main bombings were carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood, later smaller attacks were staged by Yosef Beit-Halahmi, on his own initiative, in an attempt to make it seem as if the activists on trial were not the perpetrators. During the coup, Jews were subjected to violence. Conditions were improved and began to return normal during the era of Abdul-Karim Qasim, who took power in 1958. Qasim lifted restrictions on Jews.

Nevertheless, antisemitism increased during the rule of the Arif brothers (Abdul Salam Arif and Abdul Rahman Arif). With the rise of the Ba'ath Party to power in 1963, restrictions were placed on the remaining Iraqi Jews. Sale of property was banned, and Jews had to carry yellow identity cards. After the 1967 Six-Day War, Jewish property was expropriated, bank accounts were frozen, Jews were dismissed from public posts, their businesses were closed, trading permits owned by Jews were cancelled, they were not allowed to use telephones, they were placed under house arrest for extended periods of time, and were under constant surveillance and restricted to the cities.

Ba'athist Iraq

Early persecution

thumb|[[Israelis demonstrating against the persecution of Jews in Syria and Iraq, 1973]]

thumb|Memorial in [[Or Yehuda, Israel to Jews executed in 1969 ]]In late 1968, scores of Jews were jailed on charges of spying for Israel, culminating in the 1969 public hanging of 14 men, 9 of them Jews, who were accused of spying for Israel. Other suspected spies for Israel died under torture. After Baghdad Radio invited Iraqi citizens to "come and enjoy the feast", half a million people paraded and danced past the scaffolds where the men were hanged, which resulted in international criticism. Passports were taken away and travel was restricted.

As a result, Jews escaped the country by traveling to Iraqi Kurdistan and then slipping into Iran with the help of Kurdish smugglers. From there many emigrated to Israel while some also moved to other countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia.|group="A" The majority of those who stayed behind were elderly, and the community was subsequently pressured by the government to turn over $200 million worth of Jewish community property without compensation.

Reconcillation

After the kidnappings, executions, and arrests ceased, the government sought to improve its image in regard with Jews. Aside from few incidents, situation became normal.

According to Mahmoud Abbas the president of the Palestinian authority, in 1975 the government invited exiled Iraqi Jews to live in Iraq. However, it attracted only a few families.

Under Saddam Hussein

The situation improved when Saddam Hussein came to power. He provided protection, allowed religious practice, offered subsidies, and assigned guards to protect synagogues. Only a few synagogues continued to function in Iraq, "a crumbling buildings tucked away in an alleyway" in Bataween, once Baghdad's main upscale Jewish neighborhood. Saddam helped in restoration of Meir Taweig Synagogue and construction Al-Habibiyah Jewish Cemetery. The Jews were allowed to visit and practice their rituals at religious sites revered by Muslims and Christians, such as Ezekiel's Tomb, Ezra's Tomb, Prophet Nahum Shrine, Tomb of Rabbi Joshua and Tomb of Daniel, all of which were preserved. The Administrative Committee was attached to the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf).

Under the orders of Saddam, a Jewish representative was appointed by the government, who was Naji Salman Salih. The Jews had their old businesses back, mainly in the Import and export trade and factories, and held respectable jobs and civil servants. Jewish merchants and traders were active in Shorja and Daniel Market and had their own cultural center in Baghdad. Some of the well-known doctors, officers and engineers in government, public universities and government hospitals were Jews, such as Shaul Sassoon, Eliyahu Basra, and Jack Abboud Shabi. Other popular Jewish figures included writer and poet Maliha Ishaq and singer and dancer Laila. They were tasked with managing these properties and allocating the revenues according to the endower's directives, focusing on supporting the poor and establishing various charitable, health, cultural, and vocational institutions. That said, international travel, particularly to Israel, was restricted, as was contact with Jewish groups abroad. The only Ordained Rabbi died in 1996, and last kosher slaughterer (Shochet), emigrated in 2002. He functioned as the country's sole rabbi, kosher slaughterer, and advisor regarding Jewish issues. In 1998, a Palestinian killed four people, including two Jews, at a community center, but the attacker was arrested and executed in 1999. Their investigation identified 39 Jews, the majority of whom—36 individuals—resided in Baghdad. Jewish children had Muslim and Christian friends, relations with them were positive, and Jews lived alongside them as neighbors. The coalition forces bombed intelligence headquarters and founded Iraqi Jewish Archive. In the war's aftermath, the Jewish Agency attempted to locate all remaining Iraqi Jews and offer them the opportunity to emigrate to Israel. During the process, Israeli author Sami Michael was also invited to write the new constitution of Iraq.

right|thumb|Ruined Sassoon Synagogue in [[Mosul]]

In October 2006, Rabbi Emad Levy announced that he planned to move to Israel. Despite numerous death threats, Levy remained in Iraq for four more years.

Despite Jewish protests, the United States opted to transfer the Iraqi Jewish Archive to the Iraqi government instead of the Iraqi Jewish community. This archive was digitized and can be viewed online. In Al-Qosh, the Jewish prophet Nahum's tomb was being restored in 2020 thanks to a $1-million grant from the U.S. and local authorities, as well as private donations. On March 15, 2021, one of the last Jews in Iraq, Dr. Dhafer Fouad Eliyahu, died. In November 2021, Israeli police recovered a Baghdad Torah scroll from an Arab village. In December 2021, Iraqi Jews received Hanukkah kits. On May 27, 2022, Iraq passed a law making contact with Israel a capital offense.

Demographics

There are numerous estimates for the number of Jews living in Iraq. Some sources reports that only handful of Jews remain in Iraq, while other reports estimate that there are still 160 Jews left in Baghdad. Due to fear of persecution, they are reluctant to reveal the actual number of Jews. Around 300 Jews still live in Iraqi Kurdistan region. There are possibly more, but some Jewish families are afraid to publicly acknowledge their religion for fear of persecution and practice their faith in secret. Among the American forces stationed in Iraq, there were only three Jewish chaplains. In 2011, a leaked US embassy cable named eight Jews left in Baghdad, one of whom, Emhad Levy, emigrated to Israel. White also requested help saving the few Torah scrolls that remained in Iraq. After the end of the civil war, few Jews reportedly returned. According to local news reports, 400 Jews remained Iraq, out of them 160 live in Baghdad. As of 2025 the total of Jews living in Iraq number 3.

Status

The government of Iraq recognizes the following religious groups; Muslims (Shi'a and Sunni), Chaldeans (Assyrians, Assyrian Catholics, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholics, Roman Catholics, National Protestants, Anglicans, Evangelical Protestant Assyrians, Seventh-day Adventists, Coptic Orthodox), Yezidis, Sabean-Mandeans, and Jews. They are also recognized in Iraqi Kurdistan.

On June 22, 2015, Abdul Azim Al-Ajman, the head of the Parliamentary Committee on Endowments and Religious Affairs, stated that Iraq is home to various religious and ethnic groups, including Jews. He emphasized that Jewish citizens in Iraq practice their rituals without external pressure.

Society

Positive changes in Iraq regarding Jews have been noticed. After winning elections in 2018 Sadr made same declaration, welcoming Jews of Iraq, who were expelled.

A recent video was uploaded on the website of the Iraqi media outlet Yalla showing a Jewish man, dressed in black with sidelocks and a hat, walking through the streets of Basra holding a map and looking for the house his grandfather left in the 1950s.

Iraqi Jews

Many Tannaim and Amoraim, including:
Abba Arika, "Rabh", amora
Shmuel Yarchina'ah, "Mar Samuel", or Samuel of Nehardea, amora
Rav Huna
Rav Chisda
Abaye, amora
Rav Papa, amora
Rav Ashi (Abana), rav, amora
Anan ben David, founder of Qara'ism
Alan Yentob, television executive and broadcaster
Avi Shlaim, Oxford Professor
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, politician
Dodai ben Nahman, scholar
Shlomo Hillel, diplomat and politician
Ya'qub Bilbul, poet
Sir Sassoon Eskell, statesman and financier
Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, Lord Mayor of London and businessman
Naeim Giladi, writer
Sir Naim Dangoor, entrepreneur and philanthropist
N.J. Dawood, translator (best known for his translation of the Koran)
Hakham Yosef Chayyim of Baghdad, "Ben Ish Chai"
Yitzchak Kadouri, rabbi and kabbalist
Yitzhak Yamin, painter and sculptor
Hila Klein, member of YouTube channel h3h3Productions. The Klein family is of mixed Libyan, Iraqi Jewish and Ashkenazi heritage.
Elie Kedourie, historian
Sylvia Kedourie, historian
Jessica Meir, astronaut and physiologist
Sami Michael*, writer
Shafiq Ades, wealthy businessman
Samir Naqqash, novelist
Selim Zilkha, entrepreneur
Maurice & Charles Saatchi, advertising executives
Yona Sabar, scholar, linguist, and researcher
David Sassoon, merchant, and the Sassoon family
Yaakov Chaim Sofer, rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, rabbi

Notes

Bibliography

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Further viewing

Films

2002 – Forget Baghdad: Jews and Arabs – The Iraqi Connection. Directed by Samir.
2005 – The Forgotten Refugees
2007 – Baghdad Twist . Directed by Joe Balass.
2013 – Farewell Baghdad. Directed by Nissim Dayan.
2014 – Shadow in Baghdad. Directed by Duki Dror.

External links

Iraqi Jews Community By Kobi Arami
Iraqi Jews Worldwide
Iraqi Jews who left Baghdad during the 1960s and 1970s
Foundation for Sephardic Culture
Babylonian Jewry and the Rise of Islam Thinktorah.org by Rabbi Menachem Levine
The Jewish Community of Baghdad Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot
Iraq Jews hub at Iraqjews.org
Tradition of the Iraqi Jews (mostly Hebrew, with links to recordings)
Iraqi Jews genealogy
Jewish Virtual Library on the Jews of Iraq
Babylonia at Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906 ed.
Iraqi Jews in Israel: Two Iraqi Jewish Museums in Israel at WZO
A Story of Successful Absorption: Aliyah from Iraq at WZO
The Last Days in Babylon by Marina Benjamin The story of the Iraqi Jews told through the life of the author's grandmother
Aiding the Enemy Iraq's recent hatred for Jews makes it an odd place to celebrate Passover for American GIs, By T. Trent Gegax, Newsweek Web Exclusive, MSNBC
'It Is Now or Never', Iraqi Jews who were stripped of their citizenship and their homes over the past half century may finally get a chance to reclaim them, By Sarah Sennott, Newsweek, MSNBC
Guide to the Robert Shasha Collection of Iraqi Jewish Oral Histories at the American Sephardi Federation.
Personal Stories of Jews from Iraq
Remember Baghdad (2016), a documentary showing the history of Iraqi Jews from the 1940s to the 1960s as remembered by Iraqi Jews who lived there at the time