The Mesopotamian "Iraqi" Mizrachi Jews, Where Babylonia lies, Home of Abraham

 

The Mesopotamian "Iraqi" Jews, From the Land of Shinar

 Nadene Goldfoot                                    

Iraq was originally  called Mesopotamia. It's where Babylonia lies.  In the Torah it was also known as the land of Shinar or of Kasdim (Chaldees), as in Ur of the Chaldees-the city that Abraham was from.    Jews of Iraq are the Mizrachi Jews.  There are the Ashkenazim of Europe, originally of Germany, and the Sephardim of Spain and Portugal, and the Mizrachim of the Middle East.  Jews had gone or stayed as the Mizrachim did after 70 CE and the Roman destruction.  

The Torah says it was the cradle of humanity and also the scene of man's 1st revolt against G-d as we read about the Tower of Babel.  Many stories found in our Tanakh are found also in Babylonian literature such as the Flood story with Noah and his  Ark.                                                     

Abraham had migrated from the big city of Ur to Canaan where he later fought against Amraphel, king of Shinar (Gen. 14).  Babylon, another great city, had a bad reputation with our prophets, known as sin city and a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.  The Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II (604-56BCE) inherited the Assyrian empire, and after his conquest of Judah in (597-and 586 BCE) exiled many Jews to Babylon as slaves.  

They in turn ran into the members of the Ten northern population of Israel who had been abducted 200 years earlier by the Assyrians.  Now there were a very large population of Jews living there against their will.  Many acclimated and of course, some of the younger generations knew very little about their history of why they were there, living in all Jewish cities such as Nehardea, Nisibis, and Mahoza.                                

Since the destruction of the First Temple there was a connection between Babylonian exiles and the Land of Israel. According to the Al-Yahudu Tablets, a collection of tablets from the sixth century BCE, multiple Jews were given names reflecting their families desire to return to Zion.  The Al-Yahudu tablets are a collection of about 200 clay tablets from the sixth and fifth centuries BCE on the exiled Judean community in Babylonia following the destruction of the First Temple. They contain information on the physical condition of the exiles from Judah and their financial condition in Babylon. The tablets are named after the central settlement mentioned in the documents, al-Yahudu (Akkadian: The city of Judah).

               Yemenite Jews

The earliest document in the collection dates back to 572 BCE, about 15 years after the destruction of the Temple, during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. The most recent tablet dates back to 477 BCE, during the reign of Xerxes I, about 60 years after the Return to Zion began and about 20 years before the rise of Ezra the Scribe.

The Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem in 538 BCE, , but not all chose to leave as the 1st thing that the leadership wanted to do was to rebuild Solomon's Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.  They would have to start the city from it's beginnings again, and in fact it was already re-populated by Samaritans and others that had been brought in by their captors, an exchange of population.  They got rid of slaves they were tired of and were hoping for a better batch of workers who were work-oriented, such as the northern tribes, they thought.   

However, there were Jews there who did remember, and they were able to keep in touch with Jews back in Judah and even supplied some of their leaders like Hillel.  

During the Roman occupation, the Babylonian Jews rose against the emperor, Trajan, the revolt being bloodily suppressed by his commander, Lucius Quietus in 116.  Under both Persian and Parthian rule, the Jews of Babylon enjoyed an extensive measure of internal autonomy, being headed by an Exilarch of Davidic descent who was the king's representative, while the community was governed by a council of elders.  

The Jews of Babylon created the Babylonian Talmud that was rated higher than the Jerusalem Talmud.  It reflected a society mainly based on agriculture and crafts.  They were learned students in their Jewish studies and had produced works of literary merit by such people as Ezekiel, Daniel and  Tobit.  

By the beginning of the 3rd century, Babylon became the main center of rabbinic studies.  They had academies that were founded by Samuel at Nehardea and by Rav at Sura, while in the later 3rd century, the academy of Purnbedita was founded to replace that at Hehardea which was destroyed in 261.  These schools were most important as they saw the abolition of the Palestinian patriarchate in 425 when Babylon became the spiritual center for all Jewry in the Middle East and possible even Europe as well, like Rome is for Catholicism.

The 5th century of the 400s was the start of much persecution against Jews which led to the Jewish revolt under Mar Zutra II who held out for 7 years, but was finally captured and killed. Mar-Zutra II was a Jewish Exilarch who led a revolt against the Sasanian rulers in 495 CE and achieved seven years of political independence in Mahoza. Mar-Zutra II became Exilarch of the Jewish community in Babylon at the age of fifteen in 483 CE, twelve years before the revolt. Wikipedia                 

 This was when the Talmud was concluded about this period.  Jewish position in the world continued to be difficult until the Arab conquest in the 7th century after Mohammad had died in 632.  Can you imagine?  It was Arabs who ended the anti-Semitism of the others, coming to the Jews' rescue. The Jews had assisted the Arabs in the take-over of Babylonia in the hope that it would deliver them from Sassanid persecution.  After the Arab occupation, what happened to the Jews in Arabia?  Strangely, the Jews there, making up several tribes, were expelled, so they settled in Kufa.  

For centuries, the land of today's Iraq continued to be the center of Jewish life.  The Exilarch and the Gaon (Jewish leadership) was recognized throughout the Diaspora (the world).  Jews wherever they lived would submit their religious questions to the Geonim whose answers were accepted as binding.  There was internal Jewish problems due to newly-founded sects of Issawites and Yudganites, and especially by the rise of Kasraism.  

Then by 1040, their 2 famous academies were closed and Iraq lost her central position in the Jewish world, although Geonim are recorded in Baghdad as late as the 13th century.  The Jewish leader (Exilarchate) was suspended in 1040, and then restored 2 centuries later for a short period.  

Jews suffered from restrictions laid down by Caliph Umar/Omar but weren't strictly observed by the Arab leadership.  Caliph Al-Muktadir in 908 allowed Jews to 2 state offices as physicians and bankers.  There were Jewish physicians, scientists and scholars among the Arab population. 

 Umar initially opposed Muhammad, his distant Qurayshite kinsman and later son-in-law. Following his conversion to Islam in 616, he became the first Muslim to openly pray at the Kaaba. Umar participated in almost all battles and expeditions under Muhammad, who bestowed the title al-Faruq ('the Distinguisher') upon Umar, for his judgements. After Muhammad's death in June 632, Umar pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) as the first caliph and served as the closest adviser to the latter until August 634, when the dying Abu Bakr nominated Umar as his successor.

On his orders, this 2nd Caliph ruled for 10 years and conquered Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia.  Most of the Jews were expelled from N. Arabia, and also asked for more taxation from the Jews.  Omar set up the temporary structure situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah before the modern Mosque of Omar was built by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 738.  

Because of heavy taxation on cultivated land, Jews left agriculture and concentrated in the larger towns, especially Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, where they mostly became traders and craftsmen.  Some were financiers or participated in international commerce.  

                        Mongol Invaders

Benjamin of Tudela visited Iraq in 1170 and reported places with up to15,000 Jewish people.  Then the Mongols invaded the land in the 2nd half of the 13th century who were free from religious prejudice, the the Jewish position of being considered 2nd class citizens (Dhimmis) improved as they were no longer discriminated against because they were Jews, and even the highest state offices were now open to them.  But....

Mongol rulers became converted to Islam!  Then they introduced those old discriminating laws.  In 1291, the Jewish administrator and physician, Saad ad-Daula, was assassinated, and this was  followed by a general attack on the Jews of Iraq.  Nobody heard from them for  several centuries.

The city of Timur was invaded at the end of the 14th century and Jews suffered along with the rest of the population, and then along come the Turks and their conquest of Iraq in 1534 which bettered everyone economically.  The Turkish domination was of the Ottoman Empire, and it didn't take much for Jews to be treated badly by them.

                                   from Zeyad al-Ahmed

Many Iraqi Jews were doctors, pharmacists and journalists. The first Hebrew newspaper in the country, Hadover (“speaker” or “spokesman”), was printed by the first Hebrew printing press, established in 1863 by Musa Baruch Mizrahi. The Jews of Iraq had an Arabic dialect of their own, and they wrote books in Judeo-Arabic, written in Hebrew letters.. 

 In 1914, the first Zionist organization was founded by Menashe Hakim, Maurice Fattal and Raphael Horesh under the name "Zionist Association of Baghdad", to promote the Zionist cause in Mesopotamia. The short-lived organization collapsed in November of that year when the Ottoman Empire declared  war on Britain.   

Jews were appointed to high government offices and some served in the Iraqi army.  In 1932, Iraq gained their independence.   and this brought out persecution of the Jews.  At the time, Jewish leaders were speaking with the League of Nations in making Palestine the Jewish Homeland.       

Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and Haj Amin al-Husseini, speaking at the anniversary of the 1941 Iraqi coup in Berlin-right.  

  Prime Minister of Iraq, Rashid Ali  He is chiefly remembered as an ardent Arab nationalist who attempted to remove the British influence from Iraq by starting a coup against the government in 1941. During his brief tenures as Prime Minister in 1940 and 1941, he attempted to negotiate settlements with the Axis powers (Hitler) during World War II in order to counter British influence in Iraq.  WWII wasn't over until 1945.   Hundreds of Baghdad Jews were killed and wounded in a pogrom during the revolt of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani in 1941.

  Iraqi troops participated in the 1948 attack on Israel on the central front. Despite their defeat, Iraq never concluded an armistice agreement with Israel.  the great majority of Iraqi Jews left the country, chiefly for Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, and their property in Iraq was confiscated, so they were left penniless.

      123,000 Iraqi Jews reached Israel since 1948.  Those that remained were subject to severe restrictions, especially after the Six Day War of 1967 when the treatment of Iraqi Jews led to international protests.  The Jewish population in 1991 was 150 who had remained, chiefly in Baghdad, where one synagogue still operates. Egyptian Jews experienced the same situation, with a few remaining to caretake the synagogue and cemeteries. 

Iraqi Jews in Israel, also known as the Bavlim (Hebrew for "Babylonians"), are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the Iraqi Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They number around 450,000.  They live mostly in Or Yehuda, Givatayim and  Kiryat Gat.                                             

 Moshe Levi, IDF Chief of Staff (Hebrew: משה לוי, April 18, 1936 – January 8, 2008) was an Israeli military commander and the 12th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He served in this position from 1983 to 1987, towards the end of the first Lebanon war and the establishment of the South Lebanon Security Belt. He was the first Chief of Staff of Mizrahi origin.  Levi, born in Tel Aviv to an Iraqi-Jewish family, was known by his army nickname Moshe VaHetzi (Hebrew: משה וחצי ("Moshe and a half") because of his towering height, which was about 1.96 metres (6 ft 5 in).  While serving as Chief of Staff and after retiring from the army, Levy lived in Kibbutz Beit Alfa in northern Israel. In his last years, he was the founding chairperson of the supervisory board of Highway 6, also known as the Trans-Israel Highway.

Resource:

Updated 7/19/22;  8/2/22

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/02/could-iraqis-have-jewish-roots.html

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_Ali_al-Gaylani

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Jews_in_Israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Levi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Yahudu_Tablets

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-archaeology-babylon/ancient-tablets-reveal-life-of-jews-in-nebuchadnezzars-babylon-idUSKBN0L71EK20150203

https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2013/nr13-96.html

 https://www.jns.org/opinion/iraqi-jews-share-a-deeply-rooted-heritage/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrNmWBhA4EiwAHbjEQFL1vDJM-MbFjsky1-zFvau0m6K1eX4FHPTK2vkS3b-FVaTEI8K_aRoCsS4QAvD_BwE