The Jews of Iraq

The Jews of Iraq

Nissim Rejwan

Weidenfeld and Nicolson

Covering nearly three thousand years of history, this fascinating book is the first comprehensive account, written in English, of the fortunes of the Jews of Iraq, their culture, society and religious heritage. Divided into three equal parts, the book deals with the most crucial phases of the community’s history: from the Assyrian captivity to the Arab conquest; the encounter with Islam; and the century of radical change preceding the mass exodus of the Jews to Israel in 1950-51. Special emphasis has been placed on the Iraqi Jewish contribution to Judaism as a religion, a culture and a civilization.
The distinguishing feature of this book is the author’s attempt to set his account in the wider context of general Jewish, regional and Iraqi history, making the work a highly self-contained narrative which the general reader can use without having to refer to other historical books. For this, Nissim Rejwan has put to good use his knowledge of the community, of Islam, of Arabic society and culture, and his training in sociology and anthropology.
Since the virtual liquidation of the Iraqi Jewish community in the early 1950s, a whole new generation of Iraqi Jews has grown up in Israel and many parts of the English-speaking world. It is hoped that this absorbing book will prove invaluable to this as well as the older generation of Jews from Iraq as a journey into their past and as a quest for their roots.

Nissim Rejwan started his writing career in Baghdad as a regular film and book reviewer for the Iraq Times. After his arrival in Israel, he worked for the English-language daily the Jerusalem Post and was Editor-in-Chief of the Tel Aviv daily Al- Yaum. In the late 1960s he was Senior Research Fellow at the Shiloah Centre, Tel Aviv University, where he did research for his book Nasserist Ideology: Its Exponents and Critics. He is also the author of two forthcoming books: Arabs Face the Modem World, an intellectual history of Arabic Islam during the last century, and Passage from Baghdad: A Memoir, an autobiographical work dealing with his experiences during a crucial period of Iraqi history.

Contents

Preface / ix

Part One: From the Assyrian Captivity to the Arab Conquest (731 bc-ad 641) / 1

1 Roots / 3
2 The Lure of Exile / 11
3 The Scribes and the Birth of the Synagogue / 17
4 The Way They Lived / 24
5 Greeks, Romans, Seleucids, Sassanians / 30
6 Family, Home and Education / 36
7 A Neat Division of Labour: Exilarch and Gaon / 47
8 From Mishnah to Talmud / 53
9 The Talmud in Action / 61
10 Babylonia Assumes Leadership / 70

Part Two: The Encounter with Islam (641-1850) / 77

11 A Deep Sigh of Relief / 79
12 Islam and the Jews: Theory and Practice / 85
13 Baghdad’s Jewish Population / 94
14 Messianism and Karaism: Rabbinic Judaism Challenged / 104
15 Saadia’s Legacy / 117
16 The Last of the Geonim / 130
17 The Dark Ages of Iraqi Jewry / 136
18 Lasting Imprint / 144
19 100 Years of Turmoil / 155
20 Recovery and Reassertion / 161

Part Three: A Century of Radical Change (1850—1951) / 169

21 The Road to Equality / 171
22 Exilarch to Nasi to Hakham Bashi / 177
23 The Impact of Modern Education / 185
24 World War 1 / 192
25 Rumours of a Brave New World / 200
26 Mandate and Independence / 210
27 The Farhud and its Consequences / 217
28 Youth in Revolt / 225
29 The Politics of Extortion / 233
30 The Exodus / 243

Appendix: the organization of the community / 249

Chronology / 254

Select Bibliography / 258

Source Notes / 260

Index / 267

Maps: Jewish settlements in Babylonia in the Talmudic period / 49
The city of Baghdad in the seventeenth century / 165

PREFACE

Apart from the last few chapters, where I made use of my own limited first-hand knowledge and observation, this book makes no claims to original research, its chief merit being the way the information is collated, summarized and organized. For some time now, the need has been felt for a straight, comprehensive and brief account of the Jews of Iraq, their history, culture and society, and in putting this account together I have tried to do something by way of filling that need.

The nearly three millennia of Iraqi Jewish history surveyed here are covered in three parts, dealing respectively with the period extending from the first Assyrian captivity in the early eighth century BC to the Arab conquest in the middle of the seventh century ad; the encounter with Islam (641—1850); and the last hundred years (1850—1951), a period of political upheaval and radical change culminating in the mass exodus of the Jews to Israel. Learning from my experience as a reader, I have also attempted to depict the story of the Jews of Iraq in its wider context of general Jewish and of Iraqi and regional history. My hope has been to spare the reader the difficulty of trying to fit the account into events and developments in the surrounding world.

I am indebted to the many authors and scholars whose own labours have provided the groundwork for this book. My thanks also go to Dr Davide and Mrs Irene Saia (Salman), whose active interest and whose encouragement made the production of this book possible. I have also benefited greatly from the comments and suggestions offered by friends who read the work in manuscript. My thanks to all of them - and to my editor at Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Ms Linda Osband, for her diligence, patience and forbearance.

Nissim Rejwan
Jerusalem, May 1985

Part One

From the Assyrian Captivity to the
Arab Conquest (731 bc-ad 641)

From the Maccabean era to the middle of the eleventh century, when the Babylonian academies fell into oblivion, the development of the Talmud and its elevation to a position of classical authority constitute the most significant achievement of the Jewish people. And this, too, may be added: the intellectual qui vive so characteristic of Jews throughout the Middle Ages despite contumely and persecution was the result of the Talmud.

Judah Goldin'

Chapter I

Roots

For close on four millennia the fortunes of the Jewish people, the growth of their religious beliefs and the shaping of their culture were in one way or other inextricably linked with ‘the land of the twin rivers’, now known as Iraq. At first glance Egypt, the ancient Hebrews’ other close neighbour, would seem to have exercised a more decisive influence, if only because of its geographical proximity to the Land of Israel. However, in the cultural sphere Israel’s contacts with Mesopotamia were far closer than they were with Egypt. Indeed, most of the important outside influences - as reflected in the Bible - came from the direction of Mesopotamia, and much of the contents of the early chapters of Genesis points unmistakably to that land.

The founding Patriarch came from Mesopotamia; he had been bidden to leave that land for the very purpose that is to become the leading theme of the Bible, namely, the quest of an enduring and universally valid way of life. The story of the ages anterior to the period of Abraham should, therefore, bear the distinctive imprint of his original homeland. That it does so in fact is but further proof that the account as a whole is based on genuine traditions instead of being the invention of some imaginative writer, or school of writers.1

It was thanks to this affinity with Mesopotamia, which goes back far into the past, that the people of Israel was able to go on to its unique and enduring achievement by filling the vast spiritual vacuum that had caused Abraham to leave Mesopotamia and proceed to the Promised Land. ‘That the original promise was fulfilled remains to this day one of the great wonders of history. The credit, however, for giving Israel its all-important start, physically and culturally, belongs to ancient Mesopotamia.’2

The ancestors of the present-day Jews were members of a clan of no clear ethnicity or peoplehood led by Terah, father of the Patriarch Abraham. The clan left Ur of the Chaldees in Sumer, spent some time in Harran in upper Mesopotamia, and finally left for Hebron in the …

Nissim Rejwan

The Jews of Iraq
3000 years of History and Culture

Weidenfeld and Nicolson

Weidenfeld and Nicolson
The Jews of Iraq
3000 years of History and Culture
Nissim Rejwan

Weidenfeld and Nicolson
London

Copyright © Nissim Rejwan 1985
First published in Great Britain by
George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited
91 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7TA
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or Otherwise,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN 0 297 78713 6

Printed by Butler & Tanner Ltd Frome and London
This book is dedicated to the memory of my father,
Barukh Eliyahu, and my mother, Lulu Nissim Ezra Nissim,
two typical Iraqi Jews from Baghdad
who strove to make the best of a difficult situation.

Jacket design by Joy Fitz Simmons

Back cover: The photo of the Great Synagogue,
Baghdad, is reproduced by courtesy of
Mr Naim Dangoor.

Weidenfeld and Nicolson
91 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7TA

The Great Synagogue in Baghdad, with its dean
Hakham Ezra Dangoor, who later became Chief Rabbi.
On this site stood the great synagogue of the Head of Captivity,
where new Exilarchs were installed from
the ninth to the thirteenth centuries AD.