(25w3) Escape from Iraq – History of the Last Jews of the Babylonian Exile (5 Feb 2025)

February 5th, 2025, 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm

 

The recording of this class is at https://youtu.be/dZuPwiKH4B0

As government upheaval spread through Iraq in the 1940’s, its 140,000 Jews started to leave the country, with a mass Aliyah to Israel in 1950-1951.  But Maurice Shohet’s family stayed in Iraq 20 more years until it had to flee the country with the majority of the remaining community starting in the 1970’s.  Of the 3,100 Jews still in Iraq after the 1967 Six Day War, only 3 are left today.

Maurice will recall his family’s story, how they fled the country and the fate of Iraq’s Jews.  He will discuss the history of the Iraqi Jews in the 20th century that led to the end of the oldest known Jewish community since the Babylonian exile.

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Maurice Shohet recently retired as Managing Editor of the Arabic Website of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and is a Board Member of Sephardic Heritage International (SHIN) DC.

Representing the World Organization of Jews from Iraq, he was an advisor on the project to preserve what became known as the “Iraqi Jewish Archive (IJA),” a group of wet and moldy Iraqi Jewish documents and books rescued in 2003 from the flooded basement of the Baath intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.  Despite where they were found, the books and documents originated with a variety of Baghdadi Jewish organizations such as Jewish schools, hospitals, synagogues, and other groups.  For many years, Maurice has been trying to convince the State Department that the IJA should be returned to the Iraqi Jewish diaspora rather than the government of an Iraq with no Jews.

 

 

Nahum Tomb in Alqosh, Northern Iraq

 

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel Tomb in Central Iraq             

 

 

 

 

Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al Husseini with Hitler

 

 

 

 

 

Iraqi Prime Minister Rashid Ali ALkailani with Hitler

 

 

 

 

 

A-Haj Amin AL Huseini with Hitler

 

 

 

 

 

Picture of the Masses of 1941 Calling for the Slaughtering of the Jews

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two of the 9 Jews Executed in Iraq in 1969