The history of Jews in Iraq (יְהוּדִים בָּבְלִים) is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE. Babylonian Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities. The Jewish community of Babylon included Ezra the scribe, whose return to Judea in the late 6th century BCE is associated with significant changes in Jewish ritual observance and the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The babylonian Talmud was compiled in Babylonia, between the 4th to 6th centuries CE. From the Babylonian period to the rise of the Islamic caliphate, the Jewish community of Babylon thrived as the center of Jewish learning. The Mongol invasion and Islamic discrimination in the Middle Ages led to its decline. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Jews of Iraq fared better. The community established modern schools in the second half of the 19th century. During WWII the Farhud ("violent dispossession") pogrom of June 1 and 2, 1941, broke out in Baghdad in which more than 200 Jews were murdered, and up to 2,000 injured. There was also looting in many other cities at around the same time. Between 1950–52, 120,000–130,000 of the Iraqi Jewish community (around 75%) were immigrated to Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. Most of the 10,000 Jews remaining after Operation Ezra and Nehemiah stayed through the Abdul Karim Qassim era when conditions improved, but anti-Semitism increased during the rule of the Aref brothers. 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, the Jews suffered severe economic and personal persecutions, including the expropriation of property and jailing. 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 falsely accused of spying for Israel. In the early 1970s, bowing to international pressure, the Iraqi government allowed most of the remaining Jews to emigrate. In October 2006, Rabbi Emad Levy announced that he was leaving for Israel and compared his life to "living in a prison". He reported that most Iraqi Jews stay in their homes "out of fear of kidnapping or execution" due to sectarian violence. Present estimate of the Jewish population in Baghdad is reportedly less than 10, probably all Mosad agents :). (wiki +) |