Religion and the State: Iraq—Tracing the Final Decades in the History of Iraq’s Jewish Community

Abstract

The history of Iraqi Jewry dates back more than 2600 years. Iraq’s Jews are one of the world’s oldest and most storied Jewish communities. A century ago, Iraqi Jews were nearly a third of Baghdad’s population. They enjoyed a dominant position in the commercial affairs of the city and were active in its cultural, political, and social affairs. However, following the independence of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, Jews were subjected to a rising number of legal restrictions. The ascent of Arab nationalist forces in Iraqi politics, combined with the victory of Israel over the Arab armies in 1948, led to a new, fiercer wave of policies persecuting Iraq’s Jews as an alleged fifth column. Culminating in the denationalization law in 1951, 120,000–130,000 Jews, the overwhelming majority, fled Iraq for Israel between 1951 and 1952. Approximately 6000 remained in Iraq. While a growing field of scholarship has illuminated the history of Iraqi Jewry until this point, very little has been written about those who remained in Iraq over the subsequent decades, especially from the 1970s up to the present day. Iraq’s Jewish community currently counts no more than three individuals. As they are older and without children, these individuals will be the last members of a community that traces its history back to the Babylonian captivity, several hundred years prior to birth of Christianity and well over a millennium before the advent of Islam. Drawing on news articles, Western diplomatic documents, and the records of Saddam Hussein’s Baʿth Party, this chapter pieces together and outlines the last half-century in the history of Iraq’s Jewish community.