Table of contents

Introduction ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. Table of contents ...... 4 Time Table ...... 10 History ...... 12 Ancient Time ...... 12 The Name ...... 12 Location ...... 13 Designation ...... 14 Geography ...... 15 Country of Asia ...... 15 Kurdistan ...... 16 Erbil ...... 18 Ancient history of Erbil ...... 19 History of the in Kurdistan ...... 20 Medieval history of Erbil ...... 20 Modern history of Erbil ...... 21 Kurdish Jews in modern times ...... 21 Kirkuk ...... 22 Geography ...... 24 Mesopotamia ancient history ...... 25 Writings of Mesopotamia ...... 26 Sumer ...... 27 Babylonian history ...... 28 Biblical history ...... 29 Biblical Babylon ...... 30 The Assyrian ...... 31 The Jewish exile to Babylon ...... 32 Jews of Babylon ...... 33

4 Archeological excarvations ((Greek Period and before)) ...... 34 , Ninveh ...... 35 The Specificity of Mosul ...... 36 Statistics ...... 38 Alexander the great ...... 38 Parthian period ...... 39 Jews in the Sassanid period ...... 40 Jews of Babylon ...... 41 Jews out of the cities ...... 42 Judaism - the first One God Religion ...... 43 Babylonia as center of Judaism ...... 43 Academies of Babylon ...... 44 , , Pumbedita ...... 44 Nehardea ...... 46 Sura ...... 47 Pumbedita ...... 47 The title Gaon and the Geonic period ...... 49 The ...... 49 Geonim and the Academies ...... 50 Appointment as Gaon ...... 51 The Babylonian / Talmud Bavli ...... 52 The structure of the Talmud ...... 54 Sassanid period ...... 55 Arab conquest and early Islamic period ...... 55 Basra ...... 56 Theosophists in Basra ...... 58 The Farhud in Basra, 1941 ...... 58 Anti-Jewish and anti-Zionism in Basra ...... 59 Non-Muslim population of Basra ...... 60 Islamic period and the Jews ...... 61 The Umayyads ...... 62 The Umayyads and the Jews ...... 62

5 The Abbasid Caliphate ...... 63 Baghdad ...... 65 Jews of Baghdad ...... 67 1258- the ruin of Baghdad ...... 68 The Ottomans ...... 69 Statistics: ...... 70 Jewish housing in Baghdad ...... 70 Brits in Baghdad ...... 71 The Farhud in Baghdad ...... 72 The bombing in Baghdad ...... 73 Jews of Islam ...... 75 Crisis in at the 10th century ...... 76 The Buyids ...... 77 Iraq from 1055 to 1534 ...... 78 The Seljuqs ...... 78 The later Abbasids ...... 79 The Mongols ...... 79 Mongol period and the Jews ...... 80 The Safavids ...... 81 Ottoman Iraq ...... 82 The Ottoman entry to Iraq ...... 82 The 16th century ...... 84 The 18th century ...... 85 Iraqi Jews in India ...... 85 The 19th century ...... 86 The Kurdish minority ...... 88 Jews of The 19th century ...... 89 The 20th century ...... 90 Education ...... 92 Ottoman rule and the Jews ...... 92 Zionism ...... 94 The beginning of Zionism in Iraq ...... 94

6 Zionism in Iraq ...... 95 Brits in Iraq ...... 96 World War I (1914-1918) ...... 98 After World War I ...... 100 Education ...... 101 The Art of the Jews of Iraq ...... 103 Literature ...... 104 Jewish Press ...... 104 Music ...... 105 Art and handy-craft ...... 107 Theatre ...... 108 British mandate ...... 108 British Mandate and the Jews ...... 110 The "State of Iraq" ...... 111 Independency 1932 ...... 113 Before World War II ...... 114 Nazis in Iraq ...... 115 World War II (1939-1945) ...... 116 Jewish emigration to Iraq around 1938 ...... 117 Excurse ...... 117 The Farhud of 1941 - Pogrom of the Iraqi Jews ...... 118 Post World War II Iraq ...... 119 The cold war ...... 121 1948, the birth of the state of Israel ...... 122 The Jewish Exodus - ‘Operation Ezra & Nehemiah’ ...... 124 In Israel ...... 126 Iraqi Jews, Zionism and Israel ...... 127 British Statistics ...... 128 Later years in Iraq ...... 132 1958, the Officers coup ...... 132 1963, military revolt ...... 132 1967 war against Israel ...... 133

7 1968, a new revolt ...... 133 Time Table ...... 135 Lost and confiscated assets ...... 135 The Babylonian Amora’im ...... 156 The Babylonian Jews ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. The Jews of Iraq in the Land of Israel ...... Error! Bookmark not defined. The Jews of Kurdistan ...... 136 The Social-cultural Development of the Iraqi Jews from 1830 until today ...... 137 The Jews of Iraq in the Land of Israel ...... 137 University ...... 138 Iraqi Hahamim ...... 141 Jewish writers ...... 141 Education ...... 142 Art and culture in the Jewish society of Iraq ...... 143 Jewish journalism in Iraq ...... 143 Theater and stage ...... 145 Music ...... 147 Other fields of the Art ...... 148 Jews in Iraqi economy ...... 149 Comerce ...... 149 Industry ...... 149 British occupation ...... 150 Conclusion ...... 151 Background & Talking Points ...... 151 The Issue ...... 151 The Collection ...... 152 The Jews of Arabia ...... 155 Famos Jews from Iraq ...... 156 Israeli Authors of Iraqi origine ...... 167 Bibliography ...... 168 Academic sources ...... 178

8 The web ...... 179 Research institutions ...... 180 Archives ...... 181

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