History of Jews in Iraq

In 1948, at the start of Israel's founding, the number of Jews in Iraq was 150,000, and three years later,

96% of them had left.

Over the past century, due to rising tensions in the region and the creation of Israel, most fled, their property was confiscated, and any chance of returning to Iraq vanished.

Those who remained emigrated after the US intervention in Iraq in 2003 and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime.

One of the diplomatic documents published by WikiLeaks states that the Jewish community in Baghdad consisted of only eight Jews in 2009.

Official statistics indicate there are 219,000 Jews of Iraqi origin in Israel, forming the largest group of Jews of Asian origin in Iraq's modern history.

The vast majority of Iraqi Jews lived in cities, while a small minority lived in the countryside, especially the northern countryside.

Iraqi Jews contributed to building the Iraqi state, as the first minister of finance in the Iraqi government in 1921 was Jewish, named Sassoon Eskell.

In 2015, the Kurdistan Region Parliament passed a law recognizing Judaism as a protected religion, and regional authorities say that about 400 families of Jewish origin live in Iraqi Kurdistan but converted to Islam and are officially registered as Muslims.

Among them were elites whom Iraqis still remember to this day, including prominent singers and artists of Baghdadi musical folklore.

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