Iraqi Jews

Yoni Battat in Jerusalem. (Emily Glick)

Piecing together the fragments of our Arab-Jewish identity

Siblings Yoni and Sivan Battat discuss how collaborating on the former's music album became a means of reconnecting with their Iraqi family and heritage, and of disentangling Mizrahiness from Israeliness.

By Yoni Battat and Sivan Battat November 17, 2022

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas shakes hands with Idit Shemer, daughter of Iraqi-Jewish writer Ishaq Bar-Moshe, Ramallah, November 16, 2019. (Office of the President of the Palestinian Authority)

Abbas to family of Iraqi-Jewish author: ‘You are our bridge to peace’

An Iraqi-Jewish family visits Ramallah for the first time — at the personal invitation of the Palestinian president.

By Naomi Niddam November 22, 2019

Ishaq Bar-Moshe in Iraq. (Courtesy of Bar Moshe's family)

The Mizrahi author whose book Mahmoud Abbas wants to distribute

Ishaq Bar-Moshe started writing in Arabic two decades after he emigrated from Iraq to Israel. The language aroused deep antipathy in Israel — but Bar-Moshe was undeterred.

By Naomi Niddam November 8, 2019

Latest

Prof. Sasson Somekh, scholar in the field of Arabic literature and translator of poetry, was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1933. (Emet Prize CC BY-SA 3.0)

Bidding farewell to ‘the last Arab Jew’

Born in Baghdad, Prof. Sasson Somekh was a prominent expert on Arabic literature, and a notable author and activist. He passed away this week. By Raanan Shemesh Forshner Prof. Sasson Somekh, one of Israel’s most prominent experts on Arabic literature and a lifelong proponent of peace, passed away this week in Tel Aviv. A winner of…

By +972 Magazine August 23, 2019

Immigrants from Iraq and Kurdistan exit their plane on arrival in Israel, having flown via Tehran, late spring 1951. (Teddy Brauner, GPO)

Iraqis want their Jewish neighbors back

Months after a Shiite cleric who won the parliamentary elections in Iraq said Jews “are welcome,” an online poll on the matter suggests that Iraqis are ready to discuss the right of return – more than Israelis are. By Meron Rapoport “Iraq’s Jews: 70 years after their expulsion, they seek to return to Iraq and become citizens…

By +972 Magazine August 30, 2018

Photo from the Kadoorie Agricultural School, Tulkarm. (Photo Schwartz collection)

The unknown history of the Palestinian school funded by an Iraqi Jew

Ellis Kadoorie hoped that by establishing an agricultural school in Tulkarm, he would be helping to educate and improve the conditions of Palestinians and Jews alike. Little did he know it would become a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By Tamar Novick and Arie M. Dubnov The Kadoorie Agricultural School holds a special place in Israeli…

By Haokets February 25, 2017

The Jewish prisoners who went on hunger strike in Iraq

Like Palestinians today, Jewish hunger strikers used the method to demand fair trial and better jail conditions in 1950s Iraq. Orit Bashkin Some have compared the act of hunger striking to terrorism, claiming that there is no difference between a suicide bomber who targets civilians on a bus and a political prisoner who puts himself…

By +972 Magazine August 22, 2015

Mass grave of victims of the Farhud, 1941. (photo: Ministry of Education and the Ben - Zvi, Jerusalem)

Farhud, 1941: Iraqi Jews remember a massacre

On the holiday of Shavuot in 1941, Iraq’s Jews experienced a pogrom that claimed over 180 lives and ended in mass looting. But there’s another story from the Farhud that often goes undiscussed: the bravery of Muslims during the crisis. “The Farhud” / Foreword By Orit Bashkin (translated by Asaf Shalev) Silently but not without some…

By Cafe Gibraltar June 10, 2014