New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern IraqAlthough Iraqi Jews saw themselves as Iraqi patriots, their community—which had existed in Iraq for more than 2,500 years—was displaced following the establishment of the state of Israel. New Babylonians chronicles the lives of these Jews, their urban Arab culture, and their hopes for a democratic nation-state. It studies their ideas about Judaism, Islam, secularism, modernity, and reform, focusing on Iraqi Jews who internalized narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalisms and on those who turned to communism in the 1940s. As the book reveals, the ultimate displacement of this community was not the result of a perpetual persecution on the part of their Iraqi compatriots, but rather the outcome of misguided state policies during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sadly, from a dominant mood of coexistence, friendship, and partnership, the impossibility of Arab-Jewish coexistence became the prevailing narrative in the region—and the dominant narrative we have come to know today. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Nationalism and Patriotism | 15 |
The Effendia | 58 |
Friends Neighbors and Enemies | 100 |
Red Baghdad | 141 |
An End? | 183 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Al-Burhan Al-Hasid Al-Hawadith Al-Misbah Al-Sha‘b Al-Yaqdha Al-Zaman Anthony Eden anti-Jewish Arab Jews Arab nationalism Baghdad Baghdadi Jews Balbul Bar-Moshe Bashkin Basra Basri Batatu Be‘ikar British Cohen cultural Darwish elites Eliyahu emigration Enzo Sereni Farhud Foreign Office Golim u-ge’ulim Hebrew Henry Mack Hilla Hitpathut tarbutit Ibid Ibrahim ICP’s Iraq Iraq’s Iraqi Arab Iraqi Jewish Iraqi Jews Iraqi nation Iraqi society Islamic Israel Israeli Jewish communists Jewish community Jewish intellectuals Jewish Iraqi Jewish students Jewish women Kazzaz Khaduri Kinahan Cornwallis Baghdad leaders league league’s lived looting Me’ir Menashe modern Muslim Muslim and Christian nationalist neighborhoods neighbors Nuri October ofArab ofJewish ofJews ofthe organization Ottoman Palestine Palestinian Pan-Arab party patriotism police political propaganda Qur’an Rabbi religion religious Sa‘id Sadiq Sasson Sasun Sasun Dallal Sayyif secular Sha’ul Shi‘i social Somekh state’s story teachers tion Twena Wathba writers Ya‘qub Yahadut Yehudim Zilkha Zionist