The Jews of Iraq

Tragedy-to-glory-to-tragedy in many acts … new hope and rebirth

David Sheena, Ph. D.
Dedicated to the memory of my sister Janet Schapira (Sheena) z”l

A fantastic story The First Jew

I was an “extra,” a minimal player in one of
the great dramas to play out on the world
stage. The stage was Babylon or Iraq or
Mesopotamia; Jews have many names for
everything. I personally entered the story at
its end, just before the curtain was falling for
the final time. And as the Torah enjoins us
to learn and hallow our history:
Remember the days of old.
Consider the years of many generations;
Ask thy father and he will declare unto thee,
Thine elders, and they will tell thee.
(Deut 32:7)
I learned more about how I came to be there.
And in the process of my bittersweet educa-
tion, I learned that most of our Jewish life is
founded on Babylonian invention and has
been guided by Babylonian institutions.
When we sit in a synagogue, using a prayer
book, following a liturgy, on a schedule de-
termined by a calendar, guided by Talmudic
precepts, we become aware of some of the
most wondrous and powerful institutions
that our people or any people have devel-
oped. And Babylon “invented” them all or
was the major participant.
And, now, we can be struck by the drama of
the pictures most of you have seen of the
epilogue to this glory of Iraqi Jewish culture,
pitiful scenes of the last two or three dozen
remaining broken Iraqi Jews left in Baghdad
at the end Saddam’s regime.
What a fantastic and improbable story that
got us here!
The first Jew was an Iraqi Jew, or, in any
case, he came from the land that was to be-
come modern day Iraq.
Of course, he was our first Patriarch.
Abraham was commanded to leave the land
of his birth in order to found an enduring
and universally valid way of life. It was
thanks to this affinity with Mesopotamia,
which goes back far into the past, that the
people of Israel were able to fulfill their
unique mission. The credit for giving Israel
its all-important start, physically and cultur-
ally, belongs to ancient Mesopotamia.
Around the year 1850 BCE, an emigration
by a group of Arameans took place from Ur
of the Chaldees in Sumeria, a powerful, col-
orful and busy capital city situated halfway
between Baghdad and the Persian Gulf. So
Abraham was a citizen of a great city and
inherited the traditions of an old and highly
organized civilization
The family of Abraham wandered North to
Harran in upper Mesopotamia and then to
Canaan, where they brought with them the
influences of Babylonian culture, law and
tradition.
Biblical stories regarding the Creation, the
Flood, and the Tower of Babel have striking
parallels in Babylonian literature, and show
that the Hebrew tribes were influenced by
Mesopotamian culture during their stay in
that area. The social and legal backgrounds
of the patriarchal narratives likewise reveal
cultural contacts with Mesopotamian legal
tradition. Elements of Jewish hymnal and
wisdom literature, along with certain cultic
practices, also stem from the period of the
tribes’ stay in the land between Ur and
Harran.
We also know about the similarities between
the law-giving tradition of Moses in Sinai
and that of Hammurabi in Babylonia.
Many of the names of the Hebrew months
we use to this day are Babylonian, and our
lunar calendar with its intercalations, i.e. the
addition of leap months, to keep track with
the solar year is also Babylonian in origin.
All the marriage, inheritance and birthright
stories in Genesis have their origins in
Babylonian law. For example, the younger
sons who do not inherit, may receive some
payment and be sent off so as not to contest
the prime inheritor, as in the stories of Isaac
and Ishmael and again with Jacob and Esau.
The first travels in Iraq
It is possible that the flight from Ur coin-
cided with the destruction of Ur by the
Elamites around 1960 BCE. Terah, Abra-
ham’s father died in Harran, and Abraham
went on to find G-d, separate from his fa-
thers, G-d for whom justice and righteous-
ness were of supreme concern.
Our history now ends its connection to
“Iraq” for a while with the period of our so-
journ in Egypt, the Exodus, the period of the
Judges, the rules of the Kings and the rend-
ing of the nation into Israel and Judah.
More Iraqi geography in the Torah
It was clear in the Bible from the very first
chapter that we were “born” in Iraq, in the
Garden of Eden. It is possible that Eden is
the name of a plain or a steppe, Edinu, wa-
tered by the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
These were two of the four rivers that went
out of Eden, the rivers many of us have
swam and rowed in, the Hiddekel (al-Dijla),
and the Euphrates.
Four great civilizations grew in Mesopota-
mia, and they are all in the Torah. In the
third millennium BCE, the cradle of civiliza-
tion gave birth to Sumeria in the south
(where writing was invented) and Akkad in
the north. The next century produced the
descendants of these two great civilizations,
Assyria and Babylon.
2
The Torah continues. Our genealogy, issu-
ing from Noah (Genesis X: 9-11), reads like
a map and historical summary of these cul-
tures
He was a mighty hunter before the Lord;
wherefore it is said: 'Like Nimrod (see map)
a mighty hunter before the Lord.'
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel
(Babylon, see map), and Erech (Uruk, see
map), and Accad (Agade, the predecessor of
Babylon, or the land of Accad; see map),
and Calneh, in the land of Shinar (identi-
fied as Mesopotamia, or Sumeria; see map).
Out of that land went forth Asshur (Assyria;
see map), and builded Nineveh (near Mosul;
see map), and Rehoboth-ir, and Calah (pos-
sibly Nimrud)
The next “Iraqi” connection – Assyria –
Are the tribes really lost?
The superpower of the time was Assyria,
from northern Iraq, seated in Nineveh - It
was the locale of the story of the Prophet
Jonah who was sent by G-d to warn the in-
habitants of Nineveh, and was located near
the current Mosul of recent news. Assyria
rose up to challenge and annex its surround-
ings.
The kingdom of Israel was made a tributary
of Assyria in the year 745 BCE. After peri-
ods of acquiescence and rebellion, Israel
was laid waste in the year 721 BCE. The
people of Israel were exiled. And here we
have the question of the ten lost tribes.
What happened to them? We know from
later history that the exiles of Judah sur-
vived. After all, here we are.
.
It may be interesting to note, in reverse his-
tory, that we see the hand of Saddam Hus-
sein. He is from the town of Tikrit, and is
descended from a people racially related to
the Assyrians. And, unlike the later Babylo-
nians we will encounter, the Assyrians were
a powerful and cruel people. The tribes of
See Harran, Ashur, Nineneh, Caleh above, and Ur, Erech, Babylon, Sumer (Sh inar) and Agade
below; all place names, among others, mentioned in The Torah

3
the northern kingdom of Israel were brutally
dispersed to Syria, Assyria and Babylon. Not
having the leadership of their prophets,
princes and scribes, they dissolved into their
host populations. Some of these exiles may
have connected with later exiles from Judah.
These tribes are lost or completely ab-
sorbed, so, contrary to stories in the popular
press, there are no lost tribes to search for.

Moving on to the kingdom of Judah – the

next Iraqi connection – Babylonia
Again, we have a small state caught in a
power struggle between Egypt and Babylon,
being under the rule of one or the other. And
again, tragic and politically misguided rebel-
lions brought Judah to an end. In March 597
BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to
The tomb of the prophet Ezekiel near
Jerusalem, and in that year, the city fell and
Baghdad, a pilgrimage site.
the flower of Judah’s population - along
with the king - was taken into captivity. Babylon. He taught them a previously un-
Thus begins our story, the story of Iraqi heard of notion: that although the nation was
Jews. defeated, the G-d of Israel had not been de-
feated and had not abandoned them.
As a footnote: ever rebellious, the remnants
of Judah rose again, and a furious Nebu- Ezekiel also taught and promised the hope
chadnezzar stormed Jerusalem again, razing of individual salvation: that the righteous
it to the ground in the year 586 BCE, one of will not suffer for the sins of the wicked, so
the events we still commemorate on Tisha everyone had a chance regardless of the sins
b’Av. of the fathers.

Although, according to the Psalmist, our

ancestors reportedly “wept by the waters of
Babylon,” they emerged purged and purified
into a new people - the Jews.

Judaism in Babylon – a surprising success

story
It took the fire of exile to produce a vibrant
and economically successful Jewish society.
It was because the Judeans saw themselves
in a special light and took a special view of
their destiny. The outlooks of Jeremiah (the
prophet of doom) and Ezekiel (the prophet
of hope) had been their strength and well-
spring.

Ezekiel, exiled to Babylonia in 597 BCE,
broke new ground for the people of Judah in
4
The ruins of Babylon today. Saddam Hus-
sein imported Sudanese workers during
the Iran-Iraq War to restore the city and
put his name on top.
It was by the river Chebar (traditionally the
river Habur; see lower map) that Ezekiel
had his vision of the Throne-Chariot, the
Merkabah, an inspiration to the Jews that it
would be possible to worship G-d in exile as
well as in Jerusalem.
A second prophet also had administrative
and religious success in Babylon and later
Persia. Daniel is said to have amazed Nebu-
chadnezzar by walking out of the fiery fur-
nace, perhaps in a place near the oil fields of
modern day Kirkuk.
Monotheism and Judaism under test
We must note that until the time of the
Babylonian exile, Jews, like all the other
peoples of the time, believed in a unity of
G-d with city or G-d with place, and
although our monotheism had become finely
honed by the prophets Isaiah and Habakkuk,
it was entirely another thing to test it in the
fire of exile. Historically, we had become a
detached Jewish community, and as had
happened to others, including the exiles of
northern Israel, exiles would turn to the gods
of the stranger.
But, and this is the source of the greatness of
our people, our monotheism evolved into a
universal one, where G-d was the G-d of the
Babylonians and of all people, in addition to
the Jews. G-d had become a G-d of
compassion, justice, and love. The Jews
were chosen to carry this beacon. And, the
Torah, along with later edited writings,
became a more solid rock for the people
than the hills of the actual Jerusalem.
In Babylon, among our ancestors, the “mod-
ern” Jew was born, and the concepts of galut
and aliya, exile and return, were born.
The first “America”
The opportunity of return did arrive. In the
year 539 BCE, King Cyrus the Great of Per-
sia, Kouroush-e-Kabir, entered Babylon.
And, following the policy that prosperous
provinces make for greater tribute, in 538
BCE, Cyrus issued the famous decree per-
5
mitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem and
rebuild their Temple.
We see a surprising parallel to our own lives
here in America. The Jews in Babylon had
become comfortable and well established in
business and government in the fifty years
since the exile and were reluctant to return
to their homeland; in the same manner,
American Jews are not always eager to emi-
grate and settle in modern day Israel. In any
case, over 40,000 persons did return, and our
story continues with the population that re-
mained in Babylon – almost an equal num-
ber.
The new “inventions” of Babylon
Ezekiel was not alone in seeking to impress
upon the exiles the centrality of the Torah
for their individual and national well-being.
He was probably assisted and followed by a
long line of teachers known as sofrim,
scribes who began to collect and write down
the oral traditions that contained the essence
of our religious faith and way of life.
And thus, with the appearance of the scribes
and their assumption to the role of teachers,
the school replaced the Temple and the
teacher replaced the sacrificing priest; and
most importantly, meaningful religious ob-
servance - especially Shabbat and fasting -
took the place of sacrificial rites. It was at
this time that the foundation of the syna-
gogue was laid.
The tomb of Ezra the Scribe near Basrah on
the Tigris; he established the weekly reading
of the Torah among other institutions.
A great experiment had succeeded, an exiled
nation had survived, and religion moved
from the hands of the priests to the hands of
the people. Sacrifice worship gave way to
synagogue prayer.
The next heroes from “Iraq”
Some historians ascribe to two Babylonian
giants of our people the Mosaic qualities of
greatness and leadership. Ezra the Scribe
and Nehemia the king’s cupbearer traveled
to Jerusalem to establish much needed re-
forms in order to revitalize the community
and make the Torah the effective constitu-
tion of the land.
Ezra’s burial place in Iraq has long been a
pilgrimage site for Iraqi Jews to this day.
Ezra and Heskel (Yehezkel) are very com-
mon Iraqi Jewish names.
Are our current-day professions Babylo-
nian in origin, and maybe the glue that
still binds us?
It appears that we owe much of our profes-
sional inclinations to the activities of the
Jews of Babylon. It was there that the occu-
pations of merchant, trader, financier and
banker were introduced to Jewry – profes-
sions we continue to favor to this day. Our
ancestors in Palestine had been peasants,
settlers, cattle breeders and small tradesmen.
There were no serious provisions for com-
merce in the Torah. It was an alien occupa-
tion; the word “Canaanite” was synonymous
with shopkeeper and merchant who were
sometimes reviled by the prophets for their
deceit.
There is a parallel here with the Babylonian
Talmud being “commercially” oriented and
the Jerusalem Talmud being “agriculturally”
oriented.
Also, there is reason to believe that the Jews
had had a love and a desire to cultivate the
land of Israel that was holy to them, whereas
they had no attachment to the land of Baby-
lon and no drive to cultivate it.
6
This gravitation to these “urban” professions
may have been a fortunate “cement” for our
people, because whereas farming is scat-
tered, these occupations tended to require
more communal and societal organizations
of our people, and therefore provided the
necessary critical mass for the survival of
the Jewish community. The size of the
community was very large even by today’s
standards. The Talmud estimates the Jews of
the year 70 CE to number about a million.
Estimates for two-to-five centuries later,
also approach two million. These numbers
sound surprising. Compare this number to
less than 200,000 in the final days of the
Iraqi community of the 1950’s.
Babylonians – Persians – Greeks – Seleu-
cids – Parthians – Romans – Byzantines –
The Arch of Ctesiphon, of the Sassanians,
near Baghdad, one of the “70” wonders of
the world, and still a tourist attraction. See
below a picture of my father visiting the
Arch
Sassanians
A steady stream of conquests and rebellions
weakened the Jews of Palestine and Babylo-
nia. Four centuries of Sassanian rule (227-
636) followed. Remnants of the palace of
the Sassanian Chosroes I remain an attrac-
tion near Baghdad, and my family and I are
counted among its visitors. See the Appen-
dix for a historical time line.
Babylonia assumes leadership
Following the romantic but very ill-fated
Bar Kochba rebellion in 135 CE, Roman
repression succeeded in driving the Jewish
community of Palestine into poverty and
decline. The Jewish community of Babylo-
nia was by then ready to assume intellectual
and cultural leadership. Parthian and then
Sassanian tolerance was welcoming to the
Jews living in and immigrating to Babylo-
nia. See the Appendix for a historical time
line.
Rabbinic Judaism was the outgrowth of the
Palestinian traditions subjected to a Babylo-
nian interpretation. This was a fortunate turn
of events for later centuries. The Jews of the
Diaspora critically needed it, since “Babylo-
nian Judaism” was the first functional Dias-
pora model, and until recently all world Ju-
daism was Diaspora (galut) Judaism.
The Babylonian Talmud, in addition to hav-
ing supremacy over the Palestinian Talmud,
was more focused on issues faced by “ex-
iles.” The Palestinian Talmud addressed ag-
ricultural issues, ritual purity matters, and
sacrifice and Temple rite concerns that did
not exist outside of our national homeland.
. century, the glory of Babylonian Jewry re-
Encounter with Islam
In the first half of the seventh century, after
the death of Muhammad, his followers in-
vaded Mesopotamia and also conquered the
Sassanian Empire in 644. Shortly after, they
became the undisputed masters of the near
East, the southern coast of the Mediterra-
nean, and the south of Spain.
This occurred on the tail end of a period of
Persian persecution of Babylonian Jews. The
Moslems, on the other hand, had developed
a practical political tolerance for existing
institutions in order to make use of them.
The Jewish population under Islam, was tol-
erated as the “People of the Book,” believers
in the True G-d. They were designated
Dhimmis, protected people of a special
covenant with Moslems. This was a “mixed
bag.” Islam offered protection and religious
autonomy but at an economic and political
cost. The non-Moslems were politically sec-
ond-class citizens and had to pay a special
poll tax. The Exilarch, the head of the exile,
was allowed to remain. The state was de-
7
fined in religious terms and therefore ex-
cluded non-Moslems.
Diaspora leadership
It was at this time that the Order of Prayer
was established by Rabbi Amram, the Gaon
of the Sura Academy, in the 8th century.
The Jews of Spain, France, Germany, Italy,
and North Africa would have been com-
pletely lost, had the Jews of Babylonia not
come to their aid with material and spiritual
support. Responsa (answers to questions)
found in the Geniza of Cairo provides a rich
record of this correspondence.
The community had two heads: one) an Exi-
larch, the Resh Galuta, the (head of the ex-
ile), who was a descendant of the Davidic
line and lived and was treated royally by the
Jews and the host government; and two) the
Geonim or the heads of the prestigious acad-
emies. From the beginning of the Islamic
era, which coincided with the completion of
the work of the Talmud, until the eleventh
sided in the two ancient academies of Sura
and Pumbeditha (and later in Baghdad) and
in the work of their masters. In the 8th cen-
tury, Baghdad became the center of activity
for not only the Muslim empire but for the
Babylonian Jewish community.
What these institutions created was the first
equality of the individual in history based on
ability and study. Learning became the op-
erative nobility and class. The school in
Babylon made for a cultural democracy, and
the synagogue made for a religious democ-
racy.
Our literary tradition from “Iraq”
Tannaim; amoraim; saboraim; Geonim:
10-220 CE The tannaim – the teachers -
the editors of the Oral Law into
the Mishna.
220-500 CE The amoraim – the speakers -
the ones who “completed” the
Mishna by adding the Gemara;
the Mishna and the Gemara
comprised the Babylonian
Talmud.
500-650 CE The Saboraim - the explainers
and expounders.
650-1038 CE The Geonim (sages) – heads of
the academies.
Hillel, the renowned teacher and counterfoil
to Herod in the first century, was “Hillel
haBavli,” the Babylonian.
Saadia Gaon
The appearance on the scene of the first
“heretics,” the Karaites in the 8th century
with their anti-Talmudism, resulted in a re-
sponse from the most notable of geonim
Saadia Gaon who in 921 established the cal-
endar we currently use. He edited the stan-
dard prayer book, and he wrote the Book of
Doctrines and Beliefs, a precursor to Mai-
monides’ Guide to the Perplexed.
The Jewish Iraqi presence in the golden Talmudic age; see the three great academies of Sura,
Pumbeditha, and Nehardea; the last being the name of the current publication of the Babylo-
nian Jewry Heritage Center in Israel
8
The pressure becomes too great – the pe-
riod of tragedy begins - decline of the
Geonim
Many forces happened upon the scene to
begin to grind away at the established order.
There was infighting within the Exilarchate,
and the Karaites were draining some of the
community’s energies. New centers of rab-
binic scholarship in Spain, North Africa and
the East had sprung up to challenge Babylo-
nian eminence. The decline of Baghdad and
the Abbasid Caliphate were external forces.
The Academy of Sura closed in the 11th cen-
tury CE and the Gaonate ended in 1038 CE
The next force was so great that the surprise
is that there was any subsequent recovery at
all. Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan the
Mongol, took Baghdad in 1258. (In an
interesting twist of history, he named a Jew
Sa’d al-Dawla as governor – the first since
Joseph. Anti-Jewish resentment among the
Moslems - the beginning- brought about his
death.)
By the middle of the thirteenth century the
Gaonate ceased to exist either as a historical
record or as a fact. Conditions in Mesopo-
tamia faded into the dark ages. After the
Mongol conquest of 1258, the creative work
of Babylonian Jewry was done, and the
Babylonian center fell into a period of deep
slumber. Their words however, reverberated
in North Africa and Europe.
Our own dark ages – the glory fades
The Mongols managed to end the Caliphate,
Baghdad’s glory and the glory of its Jewish
community. Some estimates put their killing
at up to 2,000,000. The Jews are almost not
heard from at that time. And Babylonia,
which had hosted a peak population of per-
haps up to two million Jews, had little Jew-
ish population left to reckon with. Nothing
was ever the same again. Jewish persecu-
tions at that period probably put a temporary
end to Jewish presence in the city of Bagh-
dad.
Legacy
In particular, a lasting facet of the cultural
heritage of Babylonian Jewry was the deci-
sive role it played in the rise and efflores-
cence of Judeo-Arabic culture in Muslim
Spain. The Legacy left by Spanish Jewry –
later known as the Golden Age of Jewish
culture – would not have been possible
without the contributions made by the Rab-
bis of Sura, Baghdad and Pumbeditha. The
Jews of Spain followed the Babylonian and
not the Palestinian Talmud and imitated
Babylonian Jewry in every aspect even in
the pronunciation of Hebrew. That is why
oriental Jews (as Jews from Arab Lands are
called) are referred to as Sephardic Jews.
Babylonian Jews gave law, Midrash, poetry,
philosophy, and grammar. They transmitted
the basic strong tenets of our observance and
community to the west:
• The idea that an ignorant man cannot be
an observant one.
9
• The concept that man’s life, although
worldly, is dedicated to G-d.
• The belief that all Israelites are
brothers.
• The hope of a messianic future humanity
that will recognize the value of Jewish
contribution to civilization.
Recovery but not former glory
The Ottomans, the hosts of the exiles of
Spanish Expulsion of 1492
A quick list of invaders includes various
Mongols, Turkmans, Persians, Safawis, Ot-
tomans, and the British in World War I. The
Ottomans came in 1534 with Suleiman the
Magnificent. There were also decimating
“invasions” of plagues in 1743, 1773, and
1831,
Life for the Jewish Community under the
Ottoman Turks was for the most part toler-
able and hospitable to growth. The Otto-
mans knew that they had many minorities in
their empire and tried to deal with them.
They were the ones who welcomed the
Spanish exiles in 1492. By the middle of the
sixteenth century, the Jewish community of
Baghdad began to reassert its existence. It
was a mixed bag under the Ottomans. There
was no ghetto, and there was significant
autonomy. There were 6,000 Jews living in
Baghdad in the 1st quarter of the 19th cen-
tury.
Jews, however, were subject to the whims of
the local walis (governors), and, on too
many other occasions, the caprice of outside
intruders such as the Mamalukes.
A small revival
In 1808 Sultan Mahmud II instituted reforms
which were salutary to the Jewish popula-
tion. There were rebirths of some commerce,
Rabbinic scholarship, and Torah study.
Some Yeshivot were opened for the first
time in five centuries, in 1840.
You can’t tell a man by his hat
This same Sultan, Mahmud II, introduced
the Fez to all his subjects to make everyone
- even the Jews – indistinguishable from one

My paternal grandparents, Sassoon and
Loulou, at their wedding around 1900, with
my grandfather wearing the Turkish Fez.
Photograph of my father Salim. In the
1940’s, at the Arch of Ctesiphon, wearing
an Iraqi Sidara introduced by King Faisal
another. King Faisal I of Iraq later intro-
duced the Sidara. In both cases, the purpose
was to disassociate from the past culture and
to build a new community. See the photo-
graphs of my grandfather in the Fez and my
father in the Sidara. Hats played an impor-
tant role in many communities, and head-
dress for Jews was borrowed from the native
population. Below is a picture of Rabbi Yo-
sef Hayim wearing the eastern turban. Rab-
bis in Britain wore top hats, and today we
10
identify an entire community of Jews as
“black hats.”
An interesting footnote of history regarding
the community of hats: Kemal Ataturk, the
father of modern Turkey (the descendant of
the Ottoman Empire), broke tradition with
the Fez and introduced the cap to the Turks
to bring Turkey into Europe. He also discon-
tinued the use of the Arabic alphabet.
Western Civilization arrives
In 1864, the Paris-based Alliance Israelite
Schools, which brought western culture,
opened in Baghdad and in other cities. It
was a double-edged sword. It provided a
fine modern education and prepared the
Jewish population to be able to enter the
twentieth century. However this was done
at the expense of drawing students away
from their religious studies.
Western civilization was being felt, and the
Jews were there to receive it. The famous
David Sassoon dynasty built commerce,
learning and philanthropy in the nineteenth
century between Baghdad, India, and Brit-
ain. By World War I, The Jews had recov-
ered to form the largest single group
(80,000) in Baghdad. They controlled the
commerce, banking, and civil service sectors
of the country.
The Ben Ish Hai
I take great personal pride that my great
great-uncle is the Hakham Yosef Hayim,
known by his pen name, the Ben Ish Hai,
after his books. I trace my lineage to him
through his brother Hakham Yehezkel, the
father of my maternal grandmother. The Ben
Ish Hai, who died in 1910, is still the Hala-
chic authority for the oriental Jews in Israel
and in this country. Many modern day
Sephardic siddurim state that they are in ac-
cordance to the Ben Ish Hai.” His halachot,
laws, are studied today in synagogues from
Boston to Paris, and there is currently in
Great Neck, New York, the Midrash Ben Ish
Hai, a synagogue named after him.

My great great-uncle, the modern day ha-
lachic luminary, Hakham Yosef Hayim,
known as the Ben Ish Hai after his major
work.
The final act
The British had a mandate over Iraq and
“created” the country of Iraq in 1932. Those
decades were the cauldrons of Zionism,
Communism, Nazism and nationalism, and
Iraq felt them all. Zionism was a small force,
and for the most part Iraqi Jews made much
of their public displays of citizenship and
loyalty.
Again, it was a “mixed bag,” with various
periods of calm and repression. The Jewish
community, sensing the future, tried in vain,
to dissuade the British from granting inde-
pendence or at least to give British citizen-
ship to the Jews, as the French had done in
North Africa. Interestingly, however, it was
a Jewish finance minister, Sassoon Heskel
who negotiated with Churchill for the inde-
pendence of Iraq.
In 1941, anti-British sentiment brought
about a coup and a pro-Nazi government. A
11
riot known as the farhud (looting), on Sha-
vuot took almost 200 Jewish lives. In true
historical complexity, the Shiite leader of
the time ordered his followers to not partici-
pate.
Ezra and Nehemia once again
After a relative calm, came executions, ter-
rorization, and firings – the Jews were seen
as being associated with Israel which had
defeated Iraq. Jewish life in Iraq was no
longer tenable.
Iraqi Jews started to emigrate clandestinely,
and in 1950, laws of surrender of Iraqi Na-
tionality were promulgated. This meant that
Jews could renounce their citizenship and
leave for”parts unknown” (the word Israel
would never be publicly stated). Virtually
the entire Jewish population registered to
leave. In a cruel trick at the last minute, the
government froze the assets of the departing
Jews, and in an instant, they were rendered
penniless. This was the second exodus. Is-
rael was the moving force behind the trans-
porting of Iraqi Jews to Israel. This was
dubbed Operation Ezra and Nehemia, after
the leaders of the Babylonian Jews who led
them to Israel under the Persians in 539
BCE.
After almost three millennia, only 6,000
Jews were left in Iraq, and I was one of
them.
Some painful thoughts. Where are we
now? What happened?
I once asked the eminent Iraqi historian Dr.
Elie Khedoorie z”l “what happened? Where
is the ancient prominence and glory? We
wrote the books.” We Iraqis are poorly rep-
resented in the institutions of the Diaspora.
There are Iranian synagogues, Syrian syna-
gogues, and Egyptian synagogues, among
others, but if it were not for the heroic ef-
forts of the founders and leaders of Bene
Naharayim and the Babylonian Jewish Cen-
ter, there may not be any synagogues of our
community outside Israel. So what hap-
pened?

Some possible answers:
Dr. Khedoorie said that every institution has
to hand over its mantle of leadership some-
time, and the Mongols, among others, did a
good job of helping that along.
Rabbi Ya’aqob Menashe of the Midrash
Ben Ish Hai told me that he puts the root
cause at the hands of the Alliance school
which influenced the Iraqis to become cos-
mopolitan and to become more culturally
assimilated. In support of that notion, I note
that the majority of the populations of the
Iranian and Syrian synagogues do not come
from the capital cities of Teheran and Da-
mascus, but rather from places like Bukhara
in Uzbekistan and such towns as Isfahan,
Shiraz, and Kerman in Iran or Halab in
Syria. Whereas, we Iraqis in America are,
for the most part, from the capital city of
Baghdad. It is also possible that the more
“western” professions of the Iraqi Jews fa-
cilitated more integration in America’s cul-
tural life. Clearly such professions as medi-
cine, law, pharmacy, and international trade
are more likely to be studied and practiced
in a capital city than in one of the outlying
towns.
My cousin and Bene Naharayim member,
Sami Kattan, puts the cause into an interest-
ing historical perspective; he told me to just
look at the original Babylonian galut; we
assimilated then, and have been doing it ever
since.
I have one more hypothesis to add, and that
is the peculiar Iraqi character. When I came
to America and looked in wonder at the fan-
tastic country that the westerners had cre-
ated. I told myself that we are equally intel-
ligent, wise and capable, so how could they
have accomplished so much, and we did
not? The answer struck me to be that that
they know how to work together and we do
not. Iraqis tend to be individualistic, and
somewhat resentful of leadership authority.
Why else did it take fifty years to build a
synagogue for our community? Since I came
to America, we had been meeting for holi-
12
days in one hotel after another until we fi-
nally built a spiritual home, our synagogue.
It is my deep wish that our communal
“homes” in America will help to keep us
Jewish and with enough taste of our Baby-
lonian essence.
Wanting to forget … then needing to re-
member
A phenomenon that Iraqi Jews experienced,
both in America and in Israel, was the desire
of immigrant young people to fit in: to stop
speaking our special Judeo-Arabic, to forget
our “Arab” history, and to become Ameri-
can or Israeli as the case may be. History,
however, has to be viewed with the benefit
of the passage of time, and fortunately that
has happened.
Iraqi Jews today - in Israel and in America -
do want to learn more about their unique
heritage, take pride in it, and keep it alive
for the next generation before it completely
slips away
Some communal hope for the future
Having described the historical pain, I want
to put it behind and be part of the rejuvena-
tion of the Jewish future in America, Israel,
and the world, and to work hard to maintain
our part of the Jewish kaleidoscope and rain-
bow. It is vital to define our place in the new
century - which puts so much emphasis on
the “new.” I am proud that there are now
two Babylonian synagogues in New York,
Congregation Bene Naharayim in Jamaica
Estates and the Babylonian Jewish Center
in Great Neck.
These two institutions appear to be keenly
aware of their duty at this time in history;
they are the guardians and the keepers of our
heritage. In addition to Babylonian services,
siddurim, and hazzanut (cantorial chants),
every attempt is made by their leaders to
celebrate all the different Jewish holidays
according to the Iraqi tradition in matters of
food, music, and customs that accompany
special yearly cycle celebrations. There are
cultural events and activities to connect the
American Iraqi-Jewish community with its
history. There is work going on at this time
in the wake of the second Gulf war to “res-
cue” as much as possible of the Judaica that
was abandoned in Iraq or confiscated by the
government there.

Along with the Babylonian Jewry Heritage

Center in Or Yehuda (Israel), and the Scribe
publication in London (see websites in the
references section), these institutions offer
our hope to remain linked to our past as we
hope to nourish our special Babylonian
links.

Wedding picture of my maternal grand-

mother, Mouzli Bassous, the niece of the
Ben Ish Hai, on the cover of Nehardea, the
publication of the Babylonian Jewry Heri-
tage Center in Or Yehuda (Israel), in an
issue featuring Baghdadi Jewish Women,
in 1993.

13
 My Personal Journal of Iraqi of Recollections

My grandfather and the Turks

As the Ottomans gave the Jews civil equal-
ity, this equality came at a price: conscrip-
tion. My grandfather was drafted to fight the
British in World War I. It was a march from
which many did not return. The sentiment of
the Jews was, of course with the “liberating”
British, and my grandfather “deserted” the
Ottoman army, and stayed to do business
with them. The fortunes of war changed, and
he was arrested by the Turks and sentenced
to be executed. He escaped and long adven-
tures and travel in the wilderness, he showed
up in Baghdad looking like a wild man.

Throngs of Jews waiting to register to re-

nounce their citizenship and leave penniless to
Israel in 1950. The scene is outside my syna-
gogue, Meir Tweig, the last now remaining in
Baghdad, and the one I attended with my fa-
ther and grandmother.

rich and substantial, but we had to be dis-

“Staged” photograph of my paternal grandfa-
ther Sassoon after his escape from the Turks in
World War I.
Fear
As a child, I was keenly aware of our posi-
tion as Jews in a Moslem country. We were
educated, economically well-off, and part of
the cultural elite of the country. Our life was
crete, watchful and inconspicuous. We did
not advertise our Judaism. There were no
Jewish stars, no openly displayed Hebrew,
and our sissioth had no Jewish identifica-
tion. It was such a surprise for me in Amer-
ica to first hear someone say publicly out
loud “give this to the Rabbi.” That is when I
knew I was in America.
I remember the vague fear that was felt eve-
rywhere and the stories being told around
1950 of houses being targeted for searches
for any Zionist connection – not much was
needed for an excuse. My mother and father,
I recall with my curiosity of the time “sani-
tized” our house and burned anything that

14
could be incriminating in a little fire in the
kitchen.
I remember the dislocation and havoc of the
Exodus of 1950. The lines of people regis-
tering to leave; the rush to sell belongings –
jewelry was being sold on grocers’ scales. I
can still see that day of panic when every-
one’s property was frozen. My relatives
were leaving with four or more layers of
clothes, because that was all they could take.
Yet there was a hope of a return to our land
of Israel that kept the spirit alive in many.
A relative calm
Until my family and I left Baghdad in 1955,
I was a protected child. So after that period
of upheaval, I was able to enjoy and absorb
what the country offered, which, in perspec-
tive, at its worst, did not approach the hor-
rors of many a European country.
Our language was Judeo-Arabic, a Hebra-
ized Arabic, which our family spoke here in
America. Jews took the flavor of their host
nations in language, dress, food, music, and
customs. Our rabbis wore turbans like the
Moslem clerics.
The Jewish community, in the Turkish style,
ran its autonomous institution under the
Chief Rabbi, who had to walk a fine line
between the Moslem authorities and the
community to try to keep the peace, fre-
quently raising the ire of one or the other.
Still, I remember being awed when he vis-
ited my father accompanied by two Iraqi
policemen provided for him, a small rem-
nant of the glory afforded the Exilarch a
thousand years before.
The community ran its own schools, rab-
binic courts, hospitals, ritual baths, the vari-
ous services for the needy, and so on. It sup-
ported itself largely by a tax on kosher meat.
All civil documents of birth, marriage, etc.
were the responsibility of the community.
The Christian communities operated simi-
larly.
15
I did visit the ruins of Babylon as a child,
but I did not know enough to hear the ech-
oes of the old Jewish glories cry out to me. I
do not believe that there was an awareness
among the people of their own historic place
in history, being preoccupied with everyday
survival. And I did visit the Arch of Ctesi-
phon, of the Sassanians and again I did not
connect it with our history. In the Iraqi civ-
ics studies prescribed by the ministry of
education, we were taught about the Jews
being Muhammad’s adversaries in his strug-
gles. We were duly put in our place.
The rest my education in the Jewish schools
(only one or two were left in my time) was a
bright star. I learned Arabic, French, Eng-
lish, and Hebrew, and academic subjects
taught in each of them. All my fellow stu-
dents showed their mettle in the universities
of America and England. Most businessmen,
like my father, spoke half a dozen lan-
guages.
At the end of our sojourn in Iraq, I used to
accompany my father to the many govern-
ment departments, as he tried to get us pass-
ports to leave the country. I learned a great
deal about the fine art of bribery.
Religious life in Iraq – an exercise in
moderation and courtesy
Since a Jew in that world did not have to
work at being Jewish (as we must do now in
America), Jewish life was gentle and pleas-
ant, without the excessive need to be obser-
vant in the same extreme practiced by some
of our Ashkenazi co-religionists. There was
only one type of being “Jewish” with no
factions or divisions as here or in Israel. Of
course, I am referring about different times
that no longer exist.
Eastern Jewish life had an ease about it that
was different from the European mode, per-
haps because of the weather and generally
more hospitable host countries. So women
did not wear wigs, and men wore either tra-
ditional or western dress. Rules of modesty
notwithstanding, women were not hidden
away. If I may be permitted a vernacular
usage, Iraqi Jews were not “uptight” about
their Judaism.
The synagogue had its special etiquette.
People stood up when the Rabbi passed, and
I as a child, kissed his hand. People would
not cross their legs in the synagogue, but
could use snuff. Aliyot were auctioned so
that the synagogue honors were available to
anyone and not decided by a group or com-
mittee.
The interior of the Meir Tweig synagogue
I attended with my family in Baghdad. It
now houses the last few Jews in the city.
The Sephardic synagogue is arranged in a
parlor style and not a theater form. The Te-
bah (Bimah) is in the middle with seats all
round. In the summer, services would be
open-air, outside.
Shabbat services began early, and people got
home in time for breakfast. Some of my
fondest memories are of walking home, with
my father, after Havdala on mosaei Shabbat,
and seeing the Moslem bakeries which were
especially open then to sell to the Jews.
The prayer book we use for Shabbat is about
80% the same as the traditional Ashkenazi
prayer books. This is not quite the case for
Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur mahazorim
which are fleshed thick with special poetry
16
and supplications. The biggest differences
between Eastern and Western synagogues is
that in the East, every word is said aloud,
except, of course, silent prayers – a vestige
of older times when everyone did not have a
book or could read. The other difference one
would notice is that there is a birkat ko-
hanim, the priestly blessing being offered to
the congregation at every morning service,
and twice when there is a Musaf.
I remember very fondly our personal greet-
ing “cards” on the holidays. I used to ac-
company my father as we went from relative
to relative to family friend to deliver holiday
wishes, and being served coffee and candy
in each place.
The other holiday tradition I miss is the cus-
tom of the Baghdadi Jews to visit the tomb
of the prophet Ezekiel south of Baghdad,
just as it was the custom of the Basra Jews
in the south to visit the tomb of Ezra the
Scribe.
Epilogue
Our Iraqi life continued. Most Iraqi Jews
went to Israel, where they make up the
fourth largest segment of the population
(third before the recent Russian immigra-
tion). The Iraqi community in Israel was
Iraqi Jews, after many years of comfort,
arrived to rationing and privation into tent
cities like this in Israel in 1950. Better
housing was allocated to the Europeans.
very useful for its Arabic language skills in
all of Israel’s needs in war and in negotia-
tion with the Arabs. But Israel has been a
successful melting pot, and Israelis think of
themselves as coming from a particular part
of Israel and not from a country of origin as
the do in America. It takes many questions
to extract an Israeli’s origin. There is a
strong effort to maintain the Iraqi cultural
heritage in Israel, but the advance of years is
inexorable on communal memory.

Iraqi tradition sandwiched among other

Sephardim
In the Boston area as in many other cities
and communities around the US and the
world, the handfuls of Iraqi Jews can only
manage, when they care, to be part of a lar-
ger Eastern community. The community My son, Solomon, leads a procession, on
here began as Egyptian and is now predomi- May 23, 2004, carrying our family Torah,
nantly Iranian. I, along with few other Iraqis, from our old rented place of worship at
am very comfortable among people who Beth Zion in Brookline to our new home,
our own Sephardic synagogue, Beth Abra-
share our style and traditions.
ham.

My interview with Boston Globe in 1991 on occasion of the Gulf War. It was
a surprise to the general public that there were Iraqi Jews in America.

We are all very happy that we have just ac-
quired a modest building in Brookline, for a
synagogue, where we can try to nurture our
Sephardic moderation
Loyalties
Everyone is entitled to his moment of fame.
I got mine in 1991, when I was interviewed
by CNN and the Boston Globe as an Iraqi

17
Jew while America was fighting “my coun-
try.” They wanted to know my feelings and
loyalties. It was my “country,” Iraq, attack-
ing my “country,” America, All while my
other “country,” Israel, was being attacked.
It was difficult to explain the views of a hos-
tage population that had much love for their
roots but not for the regimes that brutalized
the land and its people.
Childhood with my sisters and brother –
As children, my sisters Janie and Nadia, and
my brother Sami and I, lived protected from
the storms that roiled around us. Iraq was
not the cauldron of fear and dislocation of
pre-war Europe, and our family was able to
shield us.
Whenever we feel the different life in Amer-
ica, sweet childhood memories are evoked.
Sleeping under glorious starry skies on the
flat roof of our house in rainless summers;
swimming with our parents in the Tigris
River in the dark of the evening – it was not
seemly for women to swim in public; play-
ing together in our sukkah made of palm
fronds.
The snacks we used to buy from street sell-
ers would make our own children grimace.
We bought paper cones filled with sumac
and za'tar, the very sour spices, and poured
them into our throats. We bought fava
beans, mango pickles, and real hearts of
palm – the trunk of a palm tree.
18
My current wish
I hope that peace and stability will finally
bring healing to present day Iraq. I am wait-
ing to be able to return and visit my birth-
place, in many ways the birthplace of our
Jewish people.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Anny Dietz who developed
the “Shabbat across the World” series in
Forest Hill, New York, and who asked me to
present this material in memory of my sister
Janie, z”l.
This loving labor of setting down some per-
sonal and communal memories would be
poorer had it not been for the sharp eye and
valuable and valid corrections, insights, and
additions of my cousin, Alice Aboody, of
the Babylonian Jewish Center.
David Sheena, Ph. D.
Shebat, 5765
January, 2005
Newton, Massachusetts
 APPENDIX
Time Line of Rulers over Babylonian Jewry

586 BCE-539 BCE Babylonians (Nebuchadnezzar)

539 BCE-331 BCE Achaemenians (Persians - Cyrus)

331 BCE-126 BCE Seleucids (Greeks – Alexander the Great)

126 BCE-227 CE Parthians (Inhabitants of Persia)

227 - 636 Sassanians (Persians)

636 -1258 Moslems (Caliphs)

1258-1336 Mongols (Genghis Khan, Hulagu)

1336-1405 Jala’ris (Mongols)

1405-1508 White Sheep Dynasty (Diyarbakr)

1508-1534 Safawis (Shiite dynasty from Persia)

1534-1917 Ottomans (Turks, Pashas, walis)

1917–1921 British Mandate (High Commissioner)

1921-1932 Iraqi monarchy under mandate (Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein proclaimed
King)

1932-1958 Various dictators, beginning with Abdul-Karim Kassem and ending with
Saddam Hussein.

1950-1951 Jewish exodus from Iraq; 107,603 Jews airlifted to Israel; significant
Jewish presence in Iraq begins to end.

2003 Less than one hundred Jews left in Iraq; some airlifted to Israel after the
second U. S. Gulf War.

19
References and bibliography:

Rejwan, Nissim, The Jews of Iraq, Weidefeld and Nicolson, London, 1985.

Saggs, H.W.F., The Babylonians, The Folio Society, 1988.

Sawdayee, Maurice, M., The Baghdad Connection, 1991.

Sassoon, David Solomon, a History of the Jews in Baghdad, 1949.

Stillman, Norman A., The Jews of Arab Lands, Jewish Publication Society, 1979.

The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, http://www.babylonjewry.org.il/

The Scribe, Journal of Babylonian Jewry, http://www.dangoor.com/scribe.html

20