JEWISH continued from page 31 B.C.E.); another 20,000 were smuggled out through Iran. The number of Jews in Baghdad decreased from 100,000 to 77,000 and after the mass exodus to Israel. In 1968, there were only an estimated 2,000 Jews left in Iraq. With the establishment of Israel, hundreds of young Jews were arrested on charges of Zionist activity and two Zionist leaders were publicly hanged in Baghdad. On January 27, 1969, nine other Jews were hanged on charges of spying for Israel. Iraqi activists still regularly charge that Israel used violence to engineer the exodus. The synagogue bombings of 1950 were such event. Iraqi nationalists threw bombs at Jewish institutions and synagogues in Baghdad, and Iraqi law forbade the Jews to leave the country. From the start of the emigration law in March 1950 until the end of the year, 60,000 Jews registered to leave Iraq. Two months before the expiration of the law, by which time about 85,000 Jews had registered, another bomb at the Masuda Shemtov Synagogue killed either 3 or 5 Jews and injured many others. While Israeli officials of the time vehemently deny it, historians report that “the belief that the bombs had been thrown by Zionist agents was shared by those Iraqi Jews who had just reached Israel.” Iraqi authorities eventually charged three members of the Zionist underground with perpetrating some of the explosions. Two of those charged, Shalom Salah Shalom and Yosef Ibrahim Basri, were subsequently found guilty and executed, whilst the third was sentenced to a lengthy jail term. Salah Shalom claimed in his trial that he was tortured into confessing, and Yosef Basri maintained his innocence throughout. Education Until Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, there were 28 Jewish educational institutions in Baghdad. Sixteen were under the supervision of the community committee and the rest were privately run. The number of pupils reached 12,000; many others learned in foreign and government schools. An estimated 400 students studied medicine, law, economics, pharmacy, and engineering in these schools. In 1951, the Jewish school for the blind was closed; it was the only school of its type in Baghdad. The Jews of Baghdad had two hospitals in which the poor received free treatment, and several philanthropic services. Out of 60 synagogues in 1950, only seven remained in 1960. The Alliance School (the Israeli Federation) is considered one of the oldest schools that provided service to the Israeli community in Iraq. It was established in 1864 and worked to allocate classes for teaching religious books to the Jews and preaching its concepts, especially the Talmud. It had always taught the Hebrew and Arabic languages, in addition to the general curriculum, and it is clear that the aforementioned school graduated caravans of young men, most of whom played a prominent role in Iraqi society. Branches of the school were established in Mosul, Basra and Amara. In 1903, the Israeli Union Association established a school for girls’ education in Baghdad, then in Basra, Mosul and Amarah. In 1921, construction was completed for the Laura Khadouri School for Girls, built by Azar Khadouri and named Clockwise from top of page: 1. Mr. and Mrs. Naim and Renee Dangoor 2. King Faisal I visited the Baghdad Jewish community with Chief Rabbi Ezra Ruben Dangoor and community notables 3. Sir Naim Dangoor and Queen Elizabeth II 4. Tomb of Al-Kifil, near Al Hilla, believed to belong to the biblical prophet Ezekiel. after his wife. Education spread in Baghdad as the number of pupils enrolled in Jewish schools in Iraq reached 8,228 - distributed among only twenty-six schools in five Iraqi cities. Resources for the schools came from multiple destinations but most of them were the outcome of what the wealthy Jews donated in Iraq. Jews in Israel With Jews largely gone from Iraq, memories survive in Israel. Drive west to the shores of the Mediterranean - just a day’s journey geographically but a world away politically - and there is a lament inscribed at the entrance to the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre in Israel - “The Jewish community in Iraq is no more.” It is no accident that such a somber epitaph to Iraq’s Jews should be found in Israel, where tens of thousands of them fled after 1948 amid the violent spasms that accompanied the birth of that state. That transplanting of an educated, vibrant, and creative community unquestionably enriched Israel, but it also denuded Iraq of a minority that had long contributed to its political, economic, and cultural identity. This article is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, which can never return to what and where they once were - even if they wanted to. Seen in this light, it is an expression of a common tragedy of oppressed indigenous, Middle Eastern people. The story is repeated in the 21st century as their fellow Christian, Yazidis, Mandeans and others struggle for recognition and restitution. Read more about the Jews in Israel on our website at chaldeannews.com. Acknowledgement of excerpts from Wikipedia and articles by Shamuel Moreh, Saad Salloum (Policies and Ethnicities of Iraq, Minorities in Iraq), Abbas Baghdadi (Baghdad in the Twenties), Mazin Lattif (Iraqi Jews), Yacoub Yousif Goreyh (The Jews of Iraq), Judge Zuhair Karim Abboud, Maher Chmaytelli - Jeffrey Heller - Stephen Farrell, Nostalgia Journey in the History of the Jews of Iraq by Yousif Rizq Allah Ghanima, and online interviews of Iraqi Jews by Kamal Yaldo. Special editing by Jacqueline Raxter. 34 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>JULY</strong> <strong>2021</strong>
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