Baghdad, Yesterday: Sasson Somekh’s Memoir of Jewish Life in Iraq

Iraq was home to one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities, dating back to the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE. In the early twentieth century, under British rule and later a British-backed monarchy, Jews made up about 30 percent of Baghdad’s population. A prosperous Jewish middle class flourished, deeply engaged in Arabic literature and culture. Though the deadly 1941 Farhud riots shook the community, life soon returned to normal. Few imagined that by 1951 nearly all of Iraq’s 125,000 Jews would leave for Israel. In this source, Sasson Somekh recalls life in Baghdad after many years in Israel.