{"id":2004,"date":"2017-06-14T13:34:25","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T12:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/"},"modified":"2020-03-30T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T11:45:36","slug":"jews-of-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Jews of Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Miriam Phelan, Assistant Curator<\/b><\/p>\n

Over the next few months we will be exploring Sephardi Jewish communities from around the world and throughout time on the blog, alongside our exhibition Sephardi Voices: Jews from North Africa, the Middle East and Iran<\/a>. Explore the historic Iraqi Jewish communities in the first of these blogs below.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The history of the Iraqi Jewish community\u00a0is a long and significant one that dates back to the 6th century BCE following the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, and the subsequent\u00a0exile to Babylonia, in present-day Iraq.<\/p>\n

Life improved for the Jewish captives\u00a0when the Persians, under Cyrus, who conquered Babylon in 537 BCE, allowed the\u00a0Jewish community to leave Babylonia and vast numbers left for Jerusalem. Many,\u00a0however, chose to remain in Babylon, establishing new synagogues and a\u00a0community that remained in Iraq for almost 1,000 years.<\/p>\n

I will take you through this rich history\u00a0by looking at some of the objects we have in the Jewish Museum collection, both\u00a0in storage and on display.<\/p>\n

Incantation Bowl, 5th Century<\/b><\/p>\n

Possibly one of the oldest in the\u00a0museum\u2019s collection, this incantation bowl is thought to have originated in\u00a0Iraq and was decorated with Aramaic text and images believed to have mystical powers.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

The image at the base of this bowl has\u00a0long since faded but would most likely have been an image of Lilith. Lilith is\u00a0a female demon from Jewish mythology, first referenced in the Babylonian Talmud\u00a0around the 3rd-5th centuries.<\/p>\n

These bowls were buried upside down in\u00a0the foundations of buildings as a means of protecting those inside from evil
\ndemons. During the excavation of the ancient Iraqi city of Nippur in the 19th\u00a0and early 20th centuries many Jewish settlements had incantation bowls\u00a0concealed in their foundations or walls. It was during this period, from the\u00a03rd to the 5th centuries, that Babylon became the religious, cultural and\u00a0scholarly centre of Judaism and when the Babylonian Talmud came to be written.<\/p>\n

Torah Case, 19th Century<\/b><\/p>\n

This highly decorated Torah case was made\u00a0in Iraq in the late 19th century and is currently on display in our Judaism\u00a0gallery.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

This Torah case, or Tik,<\/i> is made of wood and overlaid in silver decorated with a\u00a0trellis pattern of flower-sprays and gilt \u2018wheat-ear\u2019 borders. Its inscribed\u00a0top is set with small pieces of coral and a domed top hung with small bells,\u00a0both common features of Torah cases made in Iraq at this time.<\/p>\n

David Solomon Sassoon, the treasurer of\u00a0Baghdad in the early 19th century, recorded in 1910 that there were more than 70\u00a0scrolls in the Baghdad Great Synagogue alone, many of them stored in cases such\u00a0as this.<\/p>\n

This highly decorated and beautiful\u00a0object is indicative of the relative prosperity of the Baghdadi community\u00a0during this period, although many families such as the Sassoon family, were\u00a0forced to leave their homes and businesses following increasing persecution by\u00a0Dawud Pasha, the Mamluk ruler of Iraq from 1816 to 1831.<\/p>\n

Baby\u2019s Dress, 1935<\/b><\/p>\n

This small baby\u2019s dress was made of\u00a0cream-coloured silk with gold embroidery by a student at the Laura Kadoorie\u00a0Girls\u2019 School in Baghdad in the early 1930s.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Classes for vocational skills at the\u00a0school were \u00adintroduced in 1923 to teach poorer children and orphans of Baghdad\u00a0the skills of dressmaking and embroidery, allowing them to earn an income\u00a0making clothing for the community.<\/p>\n

From the 19th century onwards more\u00a0affluent members of the community supported the provision of free education for\u00a0poor or orphaned children and better healthcare as part of an increased\u00a0awareness of social care within the community.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Alliance Israelite Universelle<\/i> was formed in Paris in 1860 and created a\u00a0network of schools throughout the Middle East, most successful of which was the\u00a0Laura Kadoorie School for Girls (founded in 1911).<\/p>\n

Conditions continued to deteriorate in\u00a0Iraq for the Jewish community after the war and the population of around\u00a0150,000 Jews in the 1940s has since reduced to just a handful today.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0the Iraqi Jewish community diminished in the second half of the 20th century, this history remains a hugely important part of wider Jewish history.\u00a0We seek to preserve the story of this ancient community by collecting and\u00a0displaying objects such as those shown here.<\/p>\n

Help us grow our collection of Sephardi objects! <\/b>The objects shown here were given to the museum by Sephardi Jews who settled in the UK. We would love to have more Sephardi objects in our collection. Do you have objects representing your own story that you would be happy to donate to us? Email curator@jewishmuseum.org.uk<\/a> and let us know.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Miriam Phelan, Assistant Curator Over the next few months we will be exploring Sephardi Jewish communities from around the world and throughout time on the blog, alongside our exhibition Sephardi Voices: Jews from North Africa, the Middle East and Iran. Explore the historic Iraqi Jewish communities in the first of these blogs below.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,301],"tags":[139,180,146,179,145,173,170,174],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJews of Iraq - The Jewish Museum London<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jews of Iraq - The Jewish Museum London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jewish Museum London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-14T12:34:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-30T11:45:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Helen Atkinson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Atkinson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/\",\"name\":\"Jews of Iraq - The Jewish Museum London\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-14T12:34:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-30T11:45:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e8273ce13cefda4b5129425e91e8ddb0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg\",\"width\":540,\"height\":226,\"caption\":\"A wooden bowl with writing inscribed on the inside of it\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jews of Iraq\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Jewish Museum London\",\"description\":\"Explore the diversity of Judaism and the cultural heritage of Jewish people in Britain\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e8273ce13cefda4b5129425e91e8ddb0\",\"name\":\"Helen Atkinson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f578fd09b55d7811708a97f00f94b009?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f578fd09b55d7811708a97f00f94b009?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Helen Atkinson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/author\/helen-atkinson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jews of Iraq - The Jewish Museum London","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jews of Iraq - The Jewish Museum London","og_url":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/","og_site_name":"The Jewish Museum London","article_published_time":"2017-06-14T12:34:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-03-30T11:45:36+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg"}],"author":"Helen Atkinson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Helen Atkinson","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/","url":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/","name":"Jews of Iraq - The Jewish Museum London","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg","datePublished":"2017-06-14T12:34:25+00:00","dateModified":"2020-03-30T11:45:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e8273ce13cefda4b5129425e91e8ddb0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/tumblr_inline_orhocoLTcw1rivt1t_540.jpg","width":540,"height":226,"caption":"A wooden bowl with writing inscribed on the inside of it"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/2017\/06\/14\/jews-of-iraq\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jews of Iraq"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/","name":"The Jewish Museum London","description":"Explore the diversity of Judaism and the cultural heritage of Jewish people in Britain","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e8273ce13cefda4b5129425e91e8ddb0","name":"Helen Atkinson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f578fd09b55d7811708a97f00f94b009?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f578fd09b55d7811708a97f00f94b009?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Helen Atkinson"},"url":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/author\/helen-atkinson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishmuseum.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}