THOSE WHO REMAINED: THE JEWS OF IRAQ SINCE 1951 by Marcus Edward Smith A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History West Lafayette, Indiana December 2019 2 THE PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL STATEMENT OF COMMITTEE APPROVAL Dr. Stacy E. Holden, Chair Department of History Dr. David Atkinson Department of History Dr. Rebekah A. Klein-Pejsova Department of History Dr. Henry A. Green Department of Religious Studies, University of Miami Approved by: Dr. David Atkinson Head of the Graduate Program 3 To my wife Ruth, whose faith in me made this project possible 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ 6 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 8 1.1 The Last Chapter of an Ancient History ............................................................................. 8 1.2 Ancient Heritage of Iraqi Jews ......................................................................................... 10 1.3 Imperial Rivalries and Modernizing Reforms .................................................................. 12 1.4 Jews in British Iraq ........................................................................................................... 14 1.5 Vulnerable Minorities in a Fragile Nation ........................................................................ 16 1.6 Divided Country and Divided Community ....................................................................... 19 1.7 Iraqi Political Culture and the Jewish Question ................................................................ 23 1.8 Those Who Remained ....................................................................................................... 26 THE NEW NORMAL: REMAKING IRAQI JEWISH LIFE 1951-1958 .......... 29 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 29 2.2 Uncertain Future in Post-Jewish Iraq ................................................................................ 30 2.3 Landscapes of Absence ..................................................................................................... 37 2.4 Jews in the Public Sphere ................................................................................................. 44 2.5 Status of Jews and their Property ...................................................................................... 50 2.6 Communal and Social Life after the Mass Emigration ..................................................... 53 2.7 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 60 JEWISH REVIVAL IN THE REVOLUTIONARY DECADE, 1958-1968 ...... 62 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 62 3.2 Uncertainty in the Wake of Revolution ............................................................................ 63 3.3 Jewish Freedoms in Qassim’s Iraq ................................................................................... 66 3.4 Jewish Inclusion in a Pluralist Society.............................................................................. 74 3.5 Hardships and Resilience under Xenophobic Nationalism ............................................... 81 3.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 88 THE SIX DAY WAR AND THE JEWS OF IRAQ, 1967-1968 ........................ 90 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 90 4.2 Iraqi Responses to the Arab Defeat .................................................................................. 91 5 4.3 State Responses to the Arab Defeat .................................................................................. 95 4.4 Jewish Life After the Arab Defeat .................................................................................... 98 4.5 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 99 BA’TH VIOLENCE AFTER THE SIX DAY WAR, 1968-1973 .................... 101 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 101 5.2 Ba’th Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Zionism ..................................................................... 103 5.3 Hidden Violence ............................................................................................................. 107 5.4 Campaigning on Conspiracy ........................................................................................... 109 5.5 Spectacle of Violence ..................................................................................................... 116 5.6 International Criticism and Ba’th Defiance .................................................................... 121 5.7 From Jewish Spectacle to Public Terror ......................................................................... 128 5.8 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 134 HOMELANDS AND DIASPORAS ................................................................. 138 6.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 138 6.2 The Frank Iny Diaspora .................................................................................................. 141 6.3 Iraqi Jewish diaspora....................................................................................................... 142 6.4 Iraqi Diaspora.................................................................................................................. 152 6.5 Arab and Arab Jewish Diaspora ..................................................................................... 157 6.6 World Jewry .................................................................................................................... 160 6.7 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................... 165 EPILOGUE ....................................................................................................... 167 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 171 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 174 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Iraq Jewish Deaths 1949-1959 ...................................................................................... 33 Figure 2: Abandoned Former Jewish Residences in the Old City, Present Day. .......................... 40 Figure 3: Baghdad Map, 1970 ...................................................................................................... 42 Figure 4: Chief Rabbi Sassoon Khedouri with President Qassem ................................................ 67 Figure 5: Population Trends indicated by Death Record, 1949-1968 .......................................... 79 Figure 6: The caption in this picture, which accompanied the article discussed reads: “How Israel Spies.” ............................................................................................................................. 105 Figure 7: Political cartoon published January 18, 1969 in Al Jumhurriyah. .............................. 119 Figure 8: Population trends indicated by death records, 1949-2001 .......................................... 134 Figure 9: Faiza Saigh lights a candle for her brother Daoud Ghali Yadgar at the Bene Neharayim Synagogue in Great Neck, NY during the fiftieth anniversary of the 1969 hangings .... 138 Figure 10: Overlapping diasporas of Frank Iny era Jews ........................................................... 140 Figure 11: Iraqi Jews peruse a book at the Montreal reunion, 2017. .......................................... 142 Figure 12: On left: Old Jewish Quarter residences in Baghdad, Iraq. On right: Babylonian Jewish Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, Israel ............................................................................. 143 Figure 13: Edwin Shuker outside his childhood home. .............................................................. 151 7 ABSTRACT Author: Smith, Marcus, E. PhD Institution: Purdue University Degree Received: December 2019 Title: Those Who Remained: The Jews of Iraq since 1951 Committee Chair: Stacy Holden This dissertation examines the history of Jews in Iraq from 1951 to 1973 and their associations in diaspora thereafter. Iraqi Jews trace their community back 2500 years to the Babylonian exile and Jews played prominent roles in modern Iraqi politics, society, and culture until 1950-1951, when most Iraqi Jews left following a period of anti-Jewish hostility. The history of the remaining Jewish community after 1951 is an important case study