Jews of Iraq: 3000 Years of History and Culture

An overview of the long tenure of the Jewish community in Iraq, this fascinating history details the comfortable, centuries-long coexistence between Jews and Muslims under an Islamic majority government. Opening with the Babylonian captivity in 731 BC, this account chronicles a time when the Jews were pushed out of Israel and Judea and deported to Babylon. Tracing the growth of Jewish towns in this new setting, the discussion points to a long period when Babylon was the center of Jewish life in exile and Talmudic study flourished. Continuing thought the centuries, the material covers the Mongol massacres of the Middle Ages, the Arab and Ottoman domination of Iraq, and the horrors of World War II, during which time the Rashid Ali regime carried out a Nazi-inspired pogrom in which Jews were murdered in the streets of Baghdad. The final chapters detail the exodus in 1951 of 100,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel.