From Babylon to Iraq

Abstract There were Jewish settlements in the region of what is now Iraq from the time of the destruction of the First Temple in 587 bce. The sizable Jewish community of Babylon played an important role for Jewish communities worldwide, with the writing of the Babylonian Talmud and later the presence of the academies of Sura and Pumbedita. However, many Jews left with the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate and following the Mongol destruction of Baghdad. During the period of imamic rule, the Jewish population of Baghdad and Basra increased once again. Jews were strongly integrated into Iraqi society in the first half of the twentieth century, but persecution of the Jews increased later in that century, particularly when the State of Israel was founded, and this led to large-scale emigration. Those who remained fled within a short period following renewed persecution after the Six-Day War in 1967.