Lyn Julius
The Jews of Iraq
Summary
The history of Jews in Iraq, highlighting the deep-rooted history of the Jewish community, dating back 2,600 years to the Babylonian exile. The British mandate for Iraq after World War I, influenced by figures like Gertrude Bell and T.E. Lawrence, set the stage for challenges faced by minorities in the complex political landscape of post-Ottoman Iraq. The aftermath of World War II saw increased persecution of Jews, which had a profound impact on the Iraqi Jewish community leading to their expulsion.
Lyn Julius
Lyn Julius was born in the UK and educated at the French Lycée in London and the University of Sussex. The daughter of Jewish refugees from Iraq, she is a journalist and founder of Harif, the UK Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (www.harif.org). Lyn blogs daily at Point of No Return (www.jewishrefugees.org.uk). Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Huffington Post, Jewish News, and Jerusalem Post. She has a regular column in the Times of Israel and JNS News. Her book Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight has been translated in to Norwegian, Portuguese and Arabic, and a Hebrew version is in progress.
There were several ministers. Those two I mentioned, Ben Porat and Shlomo Hillel were both ministers at one point. Hillel was the speaker of the Knesset.
There were rumours that there were very early editions of the Talmud. I think the oldest item there goes back to the 16th century and was a Hebrew bible. A lot of it was damaged in the basement of the Secret Police headquarters. They did find copies of books that were actually owned by famous rabbis. For instance, the Ben Ish Chai, who was a very famous rabbi in the early 1900s.
I would get in touch with your congressman and protest that way. There’s also an organisation called JIMENA, Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, based in California. They have been very active protesting against this.
We know that 50 were murdered in the late 1960s and probably another two were executed in the early 1950s. And the Jews who died of torture and whatnot, I would say possibly about 60 people altogether.