Jewish community in Iraq (1839-1952)

Throughout the historical process, Iraqi Jews were a community that existed in Iraq approximately 2.500 years and had a historical heritage. Iraqi Jews lived mainly in the city of Baghdad with freedom of belief and prosperity, and took their place in the foundations of classical Islamic and cultural civilization. After Iraq came under the domination of the Ottoman Empire, the development and change of Iraqi Jews continued in the fields of economic, cultural, and social, and especially they carried out activities aiming at internationalization in the commercial sense. One of the most important periods in the evolution of the Jewish community in Iraq was the developments that emerged during and after the World War I. From the period when the mandate administration was established in Iraq after the invasion of Iraq by the British till 1932 Iraq began to exist as an independent state in 1932, Iraqi Jews were also influential in the institutional life of the state through holding important positions in the economic, social, and cultural fields as in the Ottoman Empire period. As a result of the increasing Nazi propaganda and Zionist activities, and the approach of the World War II (1936-1939), there occurred some changes in their situation. There was a process in which anti-Jewish attitudes that started with restrictive laws against Jews and their dismissal from public services, turned into physical attacks. As a result of the events described as Farhud in 1941, many Jews lost their lives; however, these events did not cause a mass migration movement. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 marked a turning point in the migration of Iraqi Jews from Iraq, and within the scope of the law enacted in 1950, Jews were allowed to leave Iraq if they met certain criteria. While the law in question caused the mass migration of Iraqi Jews from Iraq, the existence of Jews in Iraq actually ended by 1952. Keywords: Iraqi Jews, Farhud, Migration, The State of Israel, Zionism.