In a bustling district of Baghdad, staff are labouring diligently to revive the centuries-old shrine of a revered rabbi, searching for to revive the long-faded heritage of Iraq’s Jewish group.
Just some months in the past, the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Gaon was full of garbage. Its door was rusted, the home windows damaged, and the partitions blackened by a long time of neglect.
Now, marble tiles cowl the once-small grave, and at its centre stands a big tombstone inscribed with a verse, the rabbi’s identify, and the yr of his demise: 688. A silver menorah hangs on the wall behind it.
“It was a rubbish dump, and we weren’t allowed to revive it,” stated Khalida Elyahu, 62, the top of Iraq’s Jewish group.
Iraq’s Jewish group was as soon as among the many largest within the Center East, however as we speak has dwindled to only a handful of members.
Baghdad now has just one synagogue remaining, however there are not any rabbis.
The restoration of the shrine is being funded by the Jewish group, at an estimated value of $150,000.
The mission will deliver “a revival for our group, each inside and out of doors Iraq”, Elyahu stated.
With the help of Iraqi officers, she expressed hope to revive additional uncared for websites.
There’s little details about Rabbi Isaac. Throughout a go to to the tomb earlier this yr, Iraq’s Nationwide Safety Adviser Qasim al-Araji acknowledged that the rabbi had been a finance official.
Rabbi Isaac was a outstanding determine through the Gaonic interval, also referred to as the period of Babylonian academies for rabbis.
The title “Gaon” is prone to discuss with his function as the top of 1 such academy.
His identify was cited within the tenth century by one other rabbi, who recounted a narrative that’s not identified from some other supply, in line with Professor Simcha Gross of the College of Pennsylvania.
In response to the account, Rabbi Isaac led 90,000 Jews to fulfill Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Islamic caliph and a relative of the Prophet Muhammad, who’s revered by Shia Muslims as the primary imam, throughout considered one of his conquests in central Iraq.
“We’ve got no different proof for this occasion, and there are causes to be sceptical,” Gross famous.
Nothing else is understood about Rabbi Isaac, not even his spiritual views.
In response to biblical custom, Jews arrived in Iraq in 586 BC, taken as prisoners by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II, after he destroyed Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.
In Iraq, they compiled the Babylonian Talmud.
1000’s of years later, underneath Ottoman rule, Jews comprised 40 % of Baghdad’s inhabitants.
As in different Arab nations, the historical past of Iraq’s Jews shifted dramatically after the Palestinian Nakba, which means “disaster” in Arabic, and the founding of Israel in 1948. Quickly after, nearly all of Iraq’s 135,000 Jews went into exile.
Many years of battle and instability — Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, the United States-led invasion in 2003, and subsequent violence — additional diminished the group.
At this time, 50 synagogues and Jewish websites stay in Iraq, in line with Elyahu. Most are in ruins, with some repurposed as warehouses.