Topic Jewish life in Baghdad

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Topic: Jewish life in Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital city of the Asian country Iraq. It is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. Jews came into Baghdad during the 18th, 19thand 20th and had been living there for 2500 years under the emperor rule; however the Jewish community greatly migrated, with more than 120000 Iraqi Jews moving to Israel between 1949 and 1951. This was due to the persecution of many Jewish people in 1948 in the Israel- Arab war; today only about 100 Jews remain in Iraq most of them fled to the new found state Israel.

Jews took very important position in the Iraq Empire and republic, while they had very important positions in the Iraq government. During the British mandate between 1918 and 1932, educated Jews took and participated in Iraq’s political and social system. They were essential in the development in the judicial and the postal system of the republic. During the 1930s however tables started to turn, the Jews position in the government started to deteriorate with the introduction of the Nazi propaganda and ongoing conflict of the Palestinian mandate. They loyalty of the Iraq Jews grew more and more questionable. Despite protestations in their defence, Jews became subject to discrimination and harsh laws. In 1934 many Jews were dismissed from public service and restriction (quotas) was placed in colleges and universities. A Zionist teacher, teaching of Jewish history and Hebrew was also banned. War broke out in 1941 leading to the loss of life by close to 200 Jews and 2000 injured. The Iraq Prime Minister thought of Jews as a source of evil to their country and had to be driven out of the country. Penalties and laws were increased, such as, making Zionism punishable by execution, most of the wealthy Jews were arrested, and they were also banned from taking part in any exchanging of foreign currency. These are some of the thing Jews in Diaspora went through in the 20th century while in Baghdad. Underground Zionist communities managed to illegally smuggle out Jews out of the country starting from 1949 saving and managing to rescue close to a total of 120000 Jews.

Jewish Diaspora relates or is defined by the historical exile of Jews from the kingdom of Judah and Roman Judea, as well as emigration from Israel (Ehrlich,126). In the middle ages of their Diaspora life, they Jewish community divided into three geographically distinguished groups, the Ashkenazi Jews who immigrated to central and Eastern Europe, Sephardi Jews who settled in Iberia and northern Africa and finally the Mizrahi Jews who remained in Babylon. In the 19th century, the Ashkenazi population grew with the greater majority occupying the Poland and Russia, in the 20th century several millions migrated to America. The three distinct groups share the same history and cultures as well as the series of persecutions and massive migration. The ample Evidence of continuous communication and migration has lead to the similarities in the unique culture and religious way of life. Most of the regions where the Jewish community migrated to were Russia, North Africa, Middle East and America. We are going to go through the lives of the Jews in Diaspora in all this nations dating from the 20th century to the present day.

The vast territories of the Soviet Union hosted great numbers of Jews in the world. Within this territory, the Jews developed many modern Judaism’s most distinctive theological and cultural traditions as well as persecution and anti-Semitic discrimination (Moshe, 99). Many Jews were prominent in the Russian revolutionary parties in the 1897 General Jewish Labour Bund joined the two principal parties:  Socialist-Revolutionary Party and Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. About 450000 Jewish soldiers fought in the First World War side by side with their Christian comrades. When hundreds of thousands of Polish and Lithuanians fled from their enemies an innumerable amount of Jews were part of the group that migrated to interior Russia; education restrictions were removed. In 1914 Vladimir Lenin delivered a speech that sort to explain anti-Semitism as a way to divert discrimination of workers and peasants from the exploiters towards the Jews. This alongside other actions including extensive participation of the Jewish community plagued the communist in the Russian Civil War. Jews were the majority in the Communist Central Committee, outnumbering the Russians. Jews were held important positions in the soviet communist parties as well as the Russian Anarchist movement. The bund who wanted to solely represent the Jewish community went contrary to Lenin’s need for nationalistic relationship. In 1919 Jewish properties were seized and officials were dissolved from their positions in the political and social groups. Persecution of Rabbis took place in 1920 as well as being forced to resign and step down from duty. In 1921 according to a peace treaty signed numerous Jewish opted to migrate and move to Poland which was already overpopulated by Jews. The wars provided perfect ground for anti- Semitic revolution, with Jews often incriminated to side with the Germans hence persecution. During the cold war the official position of the Soviet Union towards Zionism was that they believed that it was a tool used by the Jews and Americans to promote racism. As Israel grew a close ally to the west fear grew; and during the cold war soviet Jews were suspected to be traitors. Communist leadership was closed down and synagogues were placed under police surveillance. Ordinary Jew soviets underwent hardships and suffering due to the constraints that they faced under the official and the anti-Semitic unions against them. None was given the opportunity to take part in any profession, any government position or attend any school. Most Jews opted and applied to immigrate back to Israel in the period of 1967 but many were declined the permission to leave, excuse being that they held vital information and had access to it that belonged to the Soviet Union. But since 1989 slowly the Russian government started to grant migration permit to the Jews as a result more and more Jews left the country and moved to Israel.

In the 20th century violence erupted forcing the Jews to flee from the Middle East once again arriving as refugees once again in Israel, France, and the United Kingdom. On November 30 1970 mobs in Aleppo propelled by the UN vote to partition the Palestine attack on the city’s Jews. The Jews had their synagogues burnt, their Hebrew manuscripts and prayer shawls all set ablaze. This was as a way to destroy the religious property and destroy their heritage. Throughout the period there was war between the Jews and the Muslim community. When Islam began in Arabia, Jews were there and so was the case when the first Muslims began to spread in Arabia. Jews were viewed as a protected second class ethnic group, and they were often persecuted. They were seen as people of no honour. Jews were perceived to be a weak and quite inferior community and this made their success in Palestine hard to believe. Being beaten by Jews in 1948 repeatedly was a huge humiliation to the Arabian nation and was simply not acceptable to them. By 1950 most of the Jews had migrated to Israel. While in Iraq Jew were able to take up positions in the political and social groups. But as the years progressed the people turned against them and soon they were overthrown persecuted by the Iraqis’.

The total number of Jews in America was 6.4 million. They occupied majorly in areas such as Canada, Argentina and Brazil. Their migration to America dates from 1492 due to expulsion from Spain. The vast majority came to America poor with little or nothing. Without Rabbis and teachers they had the Eastern European country the Jews had nothing to lose and they quickly integrated in America. The Jews population grew during 1950s and 1960s with several institutions such as synagogues and schools coming up. Generally in America Jews went through fewer problems as compared to other countries.

The history of the Jews in Australia started when the first fleet of convicts from Europe landed in the nation. The majority were the Ashkenazi many of them as refugees and Holocaust survivors who arrived after the Second World War. By 9101 it was estimated that a population of 15000 Jews were present in the nation. They constituted part of the group that liberated Australia from its colonialist nation and gaining of independence. Anti-Semitism was very rare in Australia as compared to other nations (Furze, 229). Following the First World War and the Second World War another group of Jews streamed in to the country. Due to pressure coming from the many Jews who kept streaming in, the country started persecuting them and granted a refugee status to any Jew who came in. In 1970 growth of the Diaspora community continued declining by 1980 the level had dropped to lower any other nation they migrated to.

In North Africa the largest population of immigrants of the Jewish community were women. Some came from Palestine; during the 20th century a large population of the Jewish community came into Africa and settled in the north in places such as morocco and Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia. Presently a few people of Jewish community that settled in Africa are still present and through intermarriage, several people especially from Ethiopia still claim to be of Jewish origin.

Presently in countries like Russia for example, the population of the Jews significantly low, they identify themselves as Jews in relation to ethnicity rather than religion. Since the dissolution of the USSR democratization has leads to freedom and the development of organizations; anti-Semitism was banned too. The second largest population is in the United States with large groups occupying states such as Philadelphia, Maryland and predominantly the suburbs of Baltimore. A small number exist in Australian nation since most of them migrated back to Israel. The largest number of Jewish population dwells in the Middle East.

References

Furze, Brian. Sociology in today’s world. 2nd ed. South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning Australia, 2012. Print.

Ehrlich, M. Avrum. Encyclopedia of the Jewish diaspora. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print.

Moshe, Danny, and Zohar Segev. Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish identity. Brighton [England: Sussex Academic Press, 2007. Print.