Heritage
Iraqi Jews, Al Jazeera and Theft
by Lyn Julius, author of UPROOTED: How 3,000 years of Jewish Civilisation in the Arab World Vanished Overnight After taking control of Baghdad from Saddam Hussein, US troops discovered what came to be called the Iraqi-Jewish archive in the waterlogged basement of the Iraqi secret police headquarters. This priceless collection of Jewish books and documents was shipped to the […]
The Baghdadi Jewish Dish that was Created in Mumbai and Kolkata
the taste was sour and sweet, a smooth, compelling aroma filled my mouth and nose, the texture was silky, a depth in it. i’d never tasted a chicken dish like this before. i’d never tasted anything like this before. the first time i had chicken chitannee, i certainly didn’t think of aurangzeb, or the […]
In Queen Esther’s Time, Persia’s Baghdad Was the Center of the Jewish World
by Maria Bywater Happy Purim! To mark the occasion, I’m posting this piece about the Jews in one of the cities of Queen Esther’s Persian Empire: Baghdad. It’s an excerpt from an article I wrote in 2003 on an exhibit about the Jews of Iraq at London’s Jewish Museum. The exhibit was called “By […]
Protagonists of ‘Remember Baghdad’ feel Jews have ‘unfinished business’ in Iraq
By Eliana Rudee/JNS When thinking of the words “refugee” and “Middle East,” many displaced groups come to mind. But few know that some of the original refugees of the region were a million Middle Eastern and North African Jews whose history often entails hangings, imprisonment and finding refuge in Israel. The critically acclaimed documentary “Remember […]
Remember Baghdad – a film
On the hundredth anniversary of the British invasion in 1917, Remember Baghdad is the untold story of Iraq, an unmissable insight into how the country developed from a completely new perspective – through the eyes of the Jews who lived there for 2,600 years until only a generation ago. With vivid home movies and archive […]
Iraqi Jews Speaking Up to Preserve Their Heritage
by Fiyaz Mughal Jewish history in Iraq has been documented as far back as 2,500 years to Babylonian Times and few know that Iraqi Jews played a role in the Independence movement of Iraq in the last century. From influencing the development of culture, learning, reading and writing, Iraqi Jews had always been part of […]
Evidence of Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem unearthed in City of David
By Daniel K. Eisenbud “These findings depict the affluence and character of the Judean Kingdom and are mesmerizing proof of the city’s demise at the hands of the Babylonians.” During the excavations, concentrated on the eastern slope of the City of David, structures dating more than 2,600 years ago were unearthed after being delicately extricated from […]
It’s Easier to Serve Bagels than Baba Ganoush:
Chelsie May’s M.A. Thesis at Brandeis: Iraqi Jewish Women Articulate an Arab Jewish Subjectivity
Jews in Shanghai
by Steve Hochstadt I Jews in Colonial Shanghai One of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in the world, Shanghai in the late 19th and early 20th century was an international banking city and the gun-running capital of Asia, a center for trade in textiles and opium, an open port where law was subordinated to […]
Books by Rabbi Shelomo Bekhor Hussein
Books by Rabbi Shelomo Bekhor Hussein Rabbi Hussein was a legal decisor, liturgical poet, journalist, translator, and printing house owner who was one of the outstanding Babylonian rabbis in the second half of the 19th century. He founded his Hebrew press in Baghdad in 1867 and published several works of Iraqi Jewish liturgy and ethical […]
Haggadah of Rabbi David Hai Einy
Haggadah of Rabbi David Hai Einy – Jerusalem, 1905 This Babylonian-rite Haggadah was published in Hebrew with Arabic and English translations by the ancestor of Ronald Einy, our past synagogue president (2011-2017). By presenting it in these three languages, the author felt that it would be guaranteed to be understood by all Baghdadi Jews living […]
