The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 B.C.E.. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities. The Jewish community of Babylon included Ezra the scribe, whose return to Judea was associated with significant changes in Jewish ritual observance. The Talmud was compiled in Babylonia, identified with modern Iraq. From the Babylonian period to the rise of the Islamic caliphate, the Jewish community of Babylon thrived as the center of Jewish learning. The Mongol invasion and Islamic discrimination in the Middle Ages led to its decline. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Jews of Iraq fared better. The community established modern schools in the second-half of the 19th century. In the 20th century, Iraqi Jews played an important role in the early days of the Iraq's independence, but the Iraqi Jewish community, numbered at around 120,000 in 1948, almost entirely left the country due to persecution following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Most of them fled to the newly founded state of Israel, and today, fewer than 100 Jews remain.
Famous Jews of Iraqi background
Many Tannaim and Amoraim, including:
Abba Arika, "Rabh", amora
Shmuel Yarchina'ah, "Mar Samuel", or Samuel of Nehardea, amora
Rav Huna
Rav Chisda
Abaye, amora
Abba bar Yoseph bar Hama, "Rabha", amora
Rav Papa, amora
Huna ben Joshua, amora
Huna ben Nathan
Rav Ashi (Abana), rav, amora
Chaham Ovadia Yosef Shlita
Ben Ish Chai
Chaham Yitzchak Kaduri ZTL
Chaham Mordechai Eliyahu ZTL
http://www.ijworldwide.com/http://www.iraqijews.org/http://hazzan.qpon.co.il/Front/Tools/homepage.asphttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/iraqijews.htmlhttp://www.doingzionism.org.il/resources/view.asp?id=1418&subject=50
Topic: Mizrahi Jews of Iraq (Read 3280 times)