Jews Of Iraq

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 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 education, 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 determined 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 developed. 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 The first Jew was an Iraqi Jew, or, in any case, he came from the land that was to become 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 culturally, 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, colorful 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.

The Torah continues. Our genealogy, issuing from Noah (Genesis X: 9-11), reads like a map and historical summary of these cultures

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.

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 (identified 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 (possibly Nimrud)

The first travels in Iraq It is possible that the flight from Ur coincided with the destruction of Ur by the Elamites around 1960 BCE. Terah, Abraham’s father died in Harran, and Abraham went on to find G-d, separate from his fathers, G-d for whom justice and righteousness were of supreme concern. Our history now ends its connection to “Iraq” for a while with the period of our sojourn in Egypt, the Exodus, the period of the Judges, the rules of the Kings and the rending of the nation into Israel and Judah.

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 inhabitants of Nineveh, and was located near the current Mosul of recent news. Assyria rose up to challenge and annex its surroundings.

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, watered 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.

The kingdom of Israel was made a tributary of Assyria in the year 745 BCE. After periods 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 survived. After all, here we are. .

Four great civilizations grew in Mesopotamia, and they are all in the Torah. In the third millennium BCE, the cradle of civilization 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.

It may be interesting to note, in reverse history, that we see the hand of Saddam Hussein. He is from the town of Tikrit, and is descended from a people racially related to the Assyrians. And, unlike the later Babylonians we will encounter, the Assyrians were a powerful and cruel people. The tribes of

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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

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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 absorbed, 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 rebellions brought Judah to an end. In March 597 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, and in that year, the city fell and the flower of Judah’s population - along with the king - was taken into captivity. Thus begins our story, the story of Iraqi Jews.

The tomb of the prophet Ezekiel near Baghdad, a pilgrimage site.

Babylon. He taught them a previously unheard of notion: that although the nation was defeated, the G-d of Israel had not been defeated and had not abandoned them.

As a footnote: ever rebellious, the remnants of Judah rose again, and a furious Nebuchadnezzar stormed Jerusalem again, razing it to the ground in the year 586 BCE, one of the events we still commemorate on Tisha b’Av.

Ezekiel also taught and promised the hope of individual salvation: that the righteous will not suffer for the sins of the wicked, so everyone had a chance regardless of the sins 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 wellspring. Ezekiel, exiled to Babylonia in 597 BCE, broke new ground for the people of Judah in

The ruins of Babylon today. Saddam Hussein imported Sudanese workers during the Iran-Iraq War to restore the city and put his name on top. 4

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.

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 emigrate and settle in modern day Israel. In any case, over 40,000 persons did return, and our story continues with the population that remained in Babylon – almost an equal number.

A second prophet also had administrative and religious success in Babylon and later Persia. Daniel is said to have amazed Nebuchadnezzar by walking out of the fiery furnace, 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.

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 observance - especially Shabbat and fasting took the place of sacrificial rites. It was at this time that the foundation of the synagogue was laid.

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 “modern” 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 Persia, 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-

The tomb of Ezra the Scribe near Basrah on the Tigris; he established the weekly reading of the Torah among other institutions.

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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.

This gravitation to these “urban” professions may have been a fortunate “cement” for our people, because whereas farming is scattered, 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.

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 reforms in order to revitalize the community and make the Torah the effective constitution 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 common Iraqi Jewish names.

Babylonians – Persians – Greeks – Seleucids – Parthians – Romans – Byzantines –

Are our current-day professions Babylonian in origin, and maybe the glue that still binds us? It appears that we owe much of our professional inclinations to the activities of the Jews of Babylon. It was there that the occupations of merchant, trader, financier and banker were introduced to Jewry – professions 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 commerce in the Torah. It was an alien occupation; the word “Canaanite” was synonymous with shopkeeper and merchant who were sometimes reviled by the prophets for their deceit.

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 Babylonia. Four centuries of Sassanian rule (227636) followed. Remnants of the palace of the Sassanian Chosroes I remain an attraction near Baghdad, and my family and I are counted among its visitors. See the Appendix for a historical time line.

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 Babylon and no drive to cultivate it.

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 6

decline. The Jewish community of Babylonia 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 Babylonia. See the Appendix for a historical time line.

fined in religious terms and therefore excluded 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 completely 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.

Rabbinic Judaism was the outgrowth of the Palestinian traditions subjected to a Babylonian interpretation. This was a fortunate turn of events for later centuries. The Jews of the Diaspora critically needed it, since “Babylonian Judaism” was the first functional Diaspora model, and until recently all world Judaism was Diaspora (galut) Judaism.

The community had two heads: one) an Exilarch, the Resh Galuta, the (head of the exile), 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 academies. From the beginning of the Islamic era, which coincided with the completion of the work of the Talmud, until the eleventh century, the glory of Babylonian Jewry resided in the two ancient academies of Sura and Pumbeditha (and later in Baghdad) and in the work of their masters. In the 8th century, Baghdad became the center of activity for not only the Muslim empire but for the Babylonian Jewish community.

The Babylonian Talmud, in addition to having supremacy over the Palestinian Talmud, was more focused on issues faced by “exiles.” The Palestinian Talmud addressed agricultural issues, ritual purity matters, and sacrifice and Temple rite concerns that did not exist outside of our national homeland. . Encounter with Islam In the first half of the seventh century, after the death of Muhammad, his followers invaded 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 Mediterranean, 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.

What these institutions created was the first equality of the individual in history based on ability and study. Learning became the operative nobility and class. The school in Babylon made for a cultural democracy, and the synagogue made for a religious democracy.

The Jewish population under Islam, was tolerated 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 second-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-

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. 7

500-650 CE The Saboraim - the explainers and expounders. 650-1038 CE The Geonim (sages) – heads of the academies.

The pressure becomes too great – the period 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 rabbinic scholarship in Spain, North Africa and the East had sprung up to challenge Babylonian eminence. The decline of Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate were external forces. The Academy of Sura closed in the 11th century 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

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 response from the most notable of geonim Saadia Gaon who in 921 established the calendar we currently use. He edited the standard prayer book, and he wrote the Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, a precursor to Maimonides’ 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 Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Israel

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Joseph. Anti-Jewish resentment among the Moslems - the beginning- brought about his death.)

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By the middle of the thirteenth century the Gaonate ceased to exist either as a historical record or as a fact. Conditions in Mesopotamia 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.

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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, Ottomans, 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,

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 perhaps up to two million Jews, had little Jewish population left to reckon with. Nothing was ever the same again. Jewish persecutions at that period probably put a temporary end to Jewish presence in the city of Baghdad.

Life for the Jewish Community under the Ottoman Turks was for the most part tolerable and hospitable to growth. The Ottomans 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 century.

Legacy In particular, a lasting facet of the cultural heritage of Babylonian Jewry was the decisive role it played in the rise and efflorescence 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 Rabbis 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.

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 population. There were rebirths of some commerce, Rabbinic scholarship, and Torah study. Some Yeshivot were opened for the first time in five centuries, in 1840.

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.

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 9

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 discontinued 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. My paternal grandparents, Sassoon and Loulou, at their wedding around 1900, with my grandfather wearing the Turkish Fez.

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 Britain. By World War I, The Jews had recovered 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 Halachic authority for the oriental Jews in Israel and in this country. Many modern day Sephardic siddurim state that they are in accordance 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.

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 introduced the Sidara. In both cases, the purpose was to disassociate from the past culture and to build a new community. See the photographs of my grandfather in the Fez and my father in the Sidara. Hats played an important role in many communities, and headdress for Jews was borrowed from the native population. Below is a picture of Rabbi Yosef Hayim wearing the eastern turban. Rabbis in Britain wore top hats, and today we 10

riot known as the farhud (looting), on Shavuot took almost 200 Jewish lives. In true historical complexity, the Shiite leader of the time ordered his followers to not participate. Ezra and Nehemia once again After a relative calm, came executions, terrorization, 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 Nationality 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. Israel was the moving force behind the transporting 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.

My great great-uncle, the modern day halachic 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.

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 represented in the institutions of the Diaspora. There are Iranian synagogues, Syrian synagogues, and Egyptian synagogues, among others, but if it were not for the heroic efforts of the founders and leaders of Bene Naharayim and the Babylonian Jewish Center, there may not be any synagogues of our community outside Israel. So what happened?

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 independence or at least to give British citizenship 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 independence of Iraq. In 1941, anti-British sentiment brought about a coup and a pro-Nazi government. A

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days in one hotel after another until we finally built a spiritual home, our synagogue.

Some possible answers: Dr. Khedoorie said that every institution has to hand over its mantle of leadership sometime, and the Mongols, among others, did a good job of helping that along.

It is my deep wish that our communal “homes” in America will help to keep us Jewish and with enough taste of our Babylonian essence.

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 cosmopolitan 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 Damascus, 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 facilitated more integration in America’s cultural life. Clearly such professions as medicine, law, pharmacy, and international trade are more likely to be studied and practiced in a capital city than in one of the outlying towns.

Wanting to forget … then needing to remember 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 American 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 rejuvenation of the Jewish future in America, Israel, and the world, and to work hard to maintain our part of the Jewish kaleidoscope and rainbow. 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.

My cousin and Bene Naharayim member, Sami Kattan, puts the cause into an interesting 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 fantastic country that the westerners had created. I told myself that we are equally intelligent, 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-

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 12

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 “rescue” 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 grandmother, Mouzli Bassous, the niece of the Ben Ish Hai, on the cover of Nehardea, the publication of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda (Israel), in an issue featuring Baghdadi Jewish Women, in 1993.

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My Personal Journal of Iraqi of Recollections

My grandfather and the Turks As the Ottomans gave the Jews civil equality, this equality came at a price: conscription. 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 adventures and travel in the wilderness, he showed up in Baghdad looking like a wild man.

Throngs of Jews waiting to register to renounce their citizenship and leave penniless to Israel in 1950. The scene is outside my synagogue, Meir Tweig, the last now remaining in Baghdad, and the one I attended with my father and grandmother.

rich and substantial, but we had to be discrete, watchful and inconspicuous. We did not advertise our Judaism. There were no Jewish stars, no openly displayed Hebrew, and our sissioth had no Jewish identification. It was such a surprise for me in America to first hear someone say publicly out loud “give this to the Rabbi.” That is when I knew I was in America.

“Staged” photograph of my paternal grandfather Sassoon after his escape from the Turks in World War I.

I remember the vague fear that was felt everywhere 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 “sanitized” our house and burned anything that

Fear As a child, I was keenly aware of our position as Jews in a Moslem country. We were educated, economically well-off, and part of the cultural elite of the country. Our life was

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could be incriminating in a little fire in the kitchen.

I did visit the ruins of Babylon as a child, but I did not know enough to hear the echoes 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 Ctesiphon, of the Sassanians and again I did not connect it with our history. In the Iraqi civics studies prescribed by the ministry of education, we were taught about the Jews being Muhammad’s adversaries in his struggles. We were duly put in our place.

I remember the dislocation and havoc of the Exodus of 1950. The lines of people registering to leave; the rush to sell belongings – jewelry was being sold on grocers’ scales. I can still see that day of panic when everyone’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.

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, English, and Hebrew, and academic subjects taught in each of them. All my fellow students showed their mettle in the universities of America and England. Most businessmen, like my father, spoke half a dozen languages.

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 perspective, at its worst, did not approach the horrors of many a European country. Our language was Judeo-Arabic, a Hebraized 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.

At the end of our sojourn in Iraq, I used to accompany my father to the many government departments, as he tried to get us passports to leave the country. I learned a great deal about the fine art of bribery.

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, frequently raising the ire of one or the other. Still, I remember being awed when he visited my father accompanied by two Iraqi policemen provided for him, a small remnant of the glory afforded the Exilarch a thousand years before.

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 pleasant, without the excessive need to be observant 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.

The community ran its own schools, rabbinic courts, hospitals, ritual baths, the various services for the needy, and so on. It supported 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 similarly.

Eastern Jewish life had an ease about it that was different from the European mode, perhaps because of the weather and generally more hospitable host countries. So women did not wear wigs, and men wore either traditional or western dress. Rules of modesty notwithstanding, women were not hidden 15

away. If I may be permitted a vernacular usage, Iraqi Jews were not “uptight” about their Judaism.

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 kohanim, the priestly blessing being offered to the congregation at every morning service, and twice when there is a Musaf.

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 committee.

I remember very fondly our personal greeting “cards” on the holidays. I used to accompany 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 custom 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 immigration). The Iraqi community in Israel was

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 Tebah (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

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. 16

very useful for its Arabic language skills in all of Israel’s needs in war and in negotiation 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 larger Eastern community. The community here began as Egyptian and is now predominantly Iranian. I, along with few other Iraqis, am very comfortable among people who share our style and traditions.

My son, Solomon, leads a procession, on May 23, 2004, carrying our family Torah, from our old rented place of worship at Beth Zion in Brookline to our new home, our own Sephardic synagogue, Beth Abraham.

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.

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

We are all very happy that we have just acquired a modest building in Brookline, for a synagogue, where we can try to nurture our Sephardic moderation

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Jew while America was fighting “my country.” They wanted to know my feelings and loyalties. It was my “country,” Iraq, attacking my “country,” America, All while my other “country,” Israel, was being attacked. It was difficult to explain the views of a hostage population that had much love for their roots but not for the regimes that brutalized the land and its people.

My current wish I hope that peace and stability will finally bring healing to present day Iraq. I am waiting to be able to return and visit my birthplace, 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.

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.

This loving labor of setting down some personal 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.

Whenever we feel the different life in America, 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; playing together in our sukkah made of palm fronds. The snacks we used to buy from street sellers 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.

David Sheena, Ph. D. Shebat, 5765 January, 2005 Newton, Massachusetts

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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.

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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

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