Exploring Jewish Heritage in Iraq

I am in Babylon, in the houses of Babylon, in the palaces.

Ancient Babylon, central Iraq.

An Orthodox Jew with a strong identity, evading his Muslim escort, secretly documenting one of the places

most important in the history of the Jewish people.

I told him I needed the restroom, and walked away.

I saw, I'm sick of all this Arabic all day.

On an extraordinary journey into Iraq, Yitzhak Horwitz managed to penetrate areas that were once

the heart of the magnificent Jewish community. Look at me here.

Among the alleys of Babylon and Baghdad, he uncovers the remains, the memories, and the traces left behind

of the Jewish world that flourished here for thousands of years.

While today, only a few Jews live in the country, among tens of millions of Shiites.

It's actually quite exciting to walk in the ancient Jewish neighborhood there.

It's called Taht al-Tura, meaning, the Torah neighborhood.

And to this day, there is a sign showing that is its official name.

But you see pictures of Nasrallah in the Jewish neighborhood, pictures of Khamenei in the Jewish neighborhood.

Right, right.

The footage Yitzhak presents reveals the reality

The sad reality in places that until recently were the centers of life of the Jewish community.

Here is an Iraqi guard at the entrance to the Great Synagogue in Baghdad, with a picture of Nasrallah above it.

And here, in front of an abandoned synagogue, a stall offering swastikas for sale and the book Mein Kampf written by

the tyrant Hitler. One of the Jews there explained, because these are areas that were abandoned by the Jews,

so all kinds of poor families came and squatted in these places, and that was usually the story.

Yes, you heard right.

Yitzhak also had a rare opportunity to meet with the tiny Jewish community that still remains in Iraq.

The head of the community is an elderly Jewish woman, a dentist, who is the head of the Jewish community,

but the community is no more than about five or six people, all elderly.

I met with her, she explained to me that she is there to guard the Jewish properties that still exist in Iraq.

Yitzhak says that overall,

the Jews in Iraq feel they are treated well.

They also recently renovated some of the distinct Jewish sites in Baghdad, with the help of the authorities.

She told me that the authorities are very friendly towards the Jews.

In Baghdad, Yitzhak managed to locate the Beit Zilkha Midrash,

one of the most important seminaries in the history of Iraqi Jewry and the Jewish people.

Many great Torah scholars emerged from this place in the 19th century, including Hakham Yosef Hayyim of Baghdad.

One of the greatest Eastern sages, widely known as the Ben Ish Hai, named after his important work.

Yitzhak was surprised to find that the holy site is now used as a warehouse, but the building is still standing.

The grave of the Ben Ish Hai, located in a Jewish cemetery in Baghdad, is in the heart of Sadr City,

a Shiite area considered one of the most militia-dominated in the Iraqi capital.

It is very, very difficult to get there.

The Jews also said, "It's not clear how you will get there."

In the end, I got there with the help of a Shiite contact.

I arrived at the place,

I was at the grave of the Ben Ish Hai,

There is no marking on it, nothing,

Everything there is still neglected, but it is preserved.

No one can touch it, there is a police guard around.

He visited other Jewish sites that are currently in Shiite hands,

such as the Tomb of Ezekiel the Prophet and the Tomb of Ezra the Scribe, which were converted into mosques.

In this picture of Ezra's Tomb, you can see Hebrew inscriptions still remain,

but on the wall hangs a picture of the Shiite saint, Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Iraq, historical Babylon,

is one of the cradles of Jewish culture and religion.

From Abraham our Father, through the Babylonian exile and the Babylonian Talmud,

from the period of the Geonim to modern times and the Ben Ish Chai, who lived in Baghdad.

Yitzchak Horowitz, a journalist for Bakehila and Ami magazines, set out on this journey to uncover what remains

of the glorious Jewish world,

in the heart of areas currently controlled by Shiite forces trained by Iran,

to fight for the destruction of Israel.