Just in time for Art Basel Miami Beach, the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU (JMOF-FIU) unveils the Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage exhibit on December 3, 2015. The exhibition, which runs through February 14, 2016, details the dramatic recovery of historic materials relating to the Jewish community in Iraq from a flooded basement in Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters, and the National Archives’ ongoing work in support of U.S. Government efforts to preserve these materials.
In both English and Arabic, the 2,000 square foot exhibition features 23 recovered items and a “behind the scenes” video of the fascinating yet painstaking preservation process. The entire collection includes more than 2,700 Jewish books and tens of thousands of documents in Hebrew, Arabic, Judeo-Arabic and English, dating from 1524 to the 1970s. A special website makes these historic materials freely available to all online: www.ija.archives.gov. This work was made possible through generous support from the U.S. Department of State.
The National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the Center for Jewish History were very helpful in providing key start-up support for the project.
On May 6, 2003, just days after the Coalition forces went into Baghdad, American soldiers entered Saddam Hussein’s flooded intelligence building. In the basement, in four feet of water, they found thousands of books and documents relating to the Jewish community of Iraq – materials that had belonged to synagogues and Jewish organizations in Baghdad.
The water-logged materials quickly became moldy in Baghdad’s intense heat and humidity. Seeking guidance, the Coalition Provisional Authority placed an urgent call to the nation’s foremost conservation experts at the National Archives. Just a week later, National Archives Director of Preservation Programs Doris Hamburg and Conservation Chief Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler arrived in Baghdad via military transport to assess the damage and make recommendations for preservation of the materials. Given limited treatment options in Baghdad, and with the agreement of Iraqi representatives, the materials were shipped to the United States for preservation and exhibition. Since then, these materials have been vacuum freeze-dried, preserved and digitized under the direction of the National Archives.
The Jews of Iraq have a rich past, extending back 2500 years to Babylonia. These materials provide a tangible link to this community that flourished there, but in the second half of the twentieth century dispersed throughout the world. Today, fewer than five Jews remain.
Highlights from the exhibition include: A Hebrew Bible with Commentaries from 1568 – one of the oldest books in the trove; A Babylonian Talmud from 1793; A Torah scroll fragment from Genesis – one of the 43 Torah scroll fragments found; A Zohar from 1815 – a text for the mystical and spiritual Jewish movement known as “Kabbalah”; An official 1917 letter to the Chief Rabbi regarding a request to Allow Jewish Prisoners to Attend Worship for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year); Materials from Jewish schools in Baghdad, including exam grades and a letter to the College Entrance Examination Board in Princeton regarding SAT scores; A Haggadah (Passover script) from 1902, hand lettered and decorated by an Iraqi Jewish youth; and a lunar calendar in both Hebrew and Arabic from the Jewish year 5732 (1971-1972) – one of the last examples of Hebrew printed items produced in Baghdad.
Discovery and Recovery is divided into six sections: Discovery-The dramatic story of how these materials were found, rescued and preserved is one worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. A short film captures these heroic efforts. The section includes actual metal foot lockers used to ship the documents to the United States; Text and Heritage-This section explores Iraqi Jewish history and tradition through recovered texts, including a Torah scroll fragment, a Hebrew Bible with Commentaries from 1568, and a Babylonian Talmud from 1793; Iraqi Jewish Life– Constancy and Change: Using recovered texts, this section explores the pattern of Jewish life in Iraq. Highlights include a Haggadah (Passover script), siddur (prayer book) and an illustrated lunar calendar in both Hebrew and Arabic (one of about 20 found, dating from 1959-1973); Personal and Communal Life-Selected correspondence and publications illustrate the range and complexity of Iraqi Jewish life in the 19th and 20th centuries. Original documents and facsimiles in flipbooks range from school primers to international business correspondence from the Sassoon family; After the Millennia-Iraqi Jewish life unraveled in the mid-20th century, with the rise of Nazism and proliferation of anti-Jewish propaganda. In June 1941, 180 Jews were killed and hundreds injured in an anti-Jewish attack in Baghdad. Persecution increased when Iraq entered the war against the new State of Israel in 1948. In 1950 and 1951, many Iraqi Jews were stripped of their citizenship and assets and the community fled the county en masse. This section includes the 1951 law freezing assets of Iraqi Jews;Preserving the Past– It is not surprising that the Coalition Forces turned to National Archives conservators for help. Learn about transformation of these materials from moldy, water-logged masses to a carefully preserved, enduring historic legacy.
This exhibition was created by the National Archives and Records Administration, with generous support from the U.S. Department of State. Local exhibition sponsors: Congregation Beth Jacob, Kenneth and Barbara Bloom, Elliot Stone and Bonnie Sockel-Stone, Isabel Bernfeld Anderson, and Nancy G. Pastroff. More information is available at www.archives.gov and www.ija.archives.gov.
For more information: 305-672-5044 or www.jewishmuseum.com or find the JMOF-FIU on Facebook @JewishMuseumofFlorida Twitter @JewishMuseumFL #JMOF20
