Treasure of Jewish History Recovered

January 31, 2014

Jewish Presence in Iraq

From the first Babylonian captivity to the rise of the Islamic Caliphate, the Jewish community in Iraq was a thriving center of Jewish learning. The Jews of this community would be the first to acclimate themselves as a people without a land. It would be here that Jewish prayers would be written in a language other than Hebrew for the very first time. Babylonian Jewish sages would take a leading role in redefining Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple.

Two of the most influential academies in Jewish history were established in Iraq in the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries AD, and they would dominate Torah study throughout the Jewish world for centuries. From these institutions would emerge the Babylonian Talmud and some of the greatest Talmudic commentaries ever written. Iraqi Jewish sages were considered the weighty authorities on matters of Jewish law and practice, and their decisions were accepted wherever Diaspora communities existed. Until the 11^th century, Babylon was recognized as the center of Jewish thought.

This was the oldest of the Diaspora communities and historically knew periods of acceptance and prosperity, interspersed with times of oppression and persecution.  But even under the most difficult of circumstances, the Jewish population in Iraq adhered faithfully to their traditions and continued to grow in size.

By 1948, however, things had taken a drastic turn for the worse. Anti-Israel sentiment in the Arab world resulted in extreme persecution of the Jewish people. Iraq instituted Nazi-like restrictions and oppressive legislation, even limiting legal immigration for all but a very brief window of time. In 1963, the Ba’ath party came to power, and the lives of the Jewish people became even more difficult. They were not allowed to use telephones, open businesses, or attend public meetings. Arrests, incarcerations and executions were common. Whenever possible, Jewish people fled the oppressive nation, many making their way to Iran and then to Western nations where they sought asylum.

A Final Exodus

Edwin and his family
www.ija.archives.gov Fast forward to the late 1960s when the remnants of Iraq’s Jewish community began a final exodus. One such illegal immigrant was a young boy named Edwin Shuker. Edwin’s family was fairly well-to-do; his father was a lawyer, and they were very involved in Jewish life. Edwin attended Jewish school, enjoying an innocent and happy existence. During earlier waves of immigration, his parents insisted on staying in Iraq, connected to their heritage and praying that circumstances would change for the better. But they didn’t, and finally the family made their way under cover of darkness to Iran and then to England where they were granted asylum and eventually citizenship.

In discussing their departure from Iraq, Edwin remembers his experiences as a child. “The hardest thing,” he says, “was leaving behind anything and everything that would identify us. School certificates, identification papers, diplomas…all left behind. I walked away from my very identity when I left Iraq.” As Iraqi Jews established themselves throughout the Diaspora, they had to come to terms with that loss. With only a very few Jewish people remaining behind, preserving and maintaining the history of Iraq’s Jews seemed an impossible task.

The Miracle

Edwin’s school certificate
www.ija.archives.gov That history would be miraculously preserved, however, through an amazing set of circumstances. When coalition forces entered Baghdad at the start of the Iraq War in 2003, their search for military intelligence led them to the flooded basement of the headquarters of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence services. Imagine their astonishment when they discovered 2,700 Jewish books and tens of thousands of documents, dating from the mid-16^th century and chronicling the history of Iraq’s Jewish community, floating in several feet of water!

The experts at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC were immediately contacted for assistance in preserving these priceless materials. They were shipped to the United States where nearly all of them have been restored. Many of them are now on display at the National Archives Museum, where by what he considers an act of God, Edwin Shuker, now 58, found a copy of his own school certificate, chosen for display out of thousands of documents.

Edwin Shuker
www.ija.archives.gov “This is more than a school certificate,” he has remarked. “It is the identity I was forced to leave behind. The preservation of this document parallels the survival of the Jewish community, and certainly of my family. Forty-six years ago, I left this certificate, and now we are reunited.”

The story, however, doesn’t end here. Due to pressure from Iraq’s Shiite-led Muslim government, the United States plans to return the collection to Iraq next summer. Jewish leaders worldwide are incensed at such a suggestion. Returning the collection to a Jewish-free Iraq under current conditions, they say, is incomprehensible and unacceptable.

For Edwin Shuker, it would be like surrendering his identity once again. “I would like to be reassured,” he says, “that my children and future generations will have unrestricted access to this collection which is our history and our heritage.”

Source: By Cheryl Hauer, International Development Director