Schumer And Toomey Work Against Iraqi Jewish Archives’ Return, State Department Ponders Options
A 1793 Talmud from the Iraqi Jewish Archive before its restoration. Image by U.S. National Archives
The Forward recently published an investigative series on the Iraqi Jewish Archive, a trove of items from Iraq’s exiled Jewish Community currently in the United States. Read all three parts: “The Last Relics Of Iraq’s Jewish Past Are In America. Should They Be Returned?.” “In Exile, Iraqi Jews Are Desperate To Reclaim Their Artifacts — But So Is Iraq” and “The Iraqi Jewish Archive Could Reshape Foreign Policy. But Its Future Is Uncertain.”
(JTA) — The State Department says it is working with Iraq to extend the stay of a trove of Jewish artifacts from the country, while a bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution recommending that the items not be returned as planned in September.
“We continue to work with the Government of Iraq and relevant stakeholder[s] to extend the exhibition in the U.S.,” a State Department official told JTA in an email on Thursday.
Last year, the State Department said that it would return the Iraqi Jewish Archive in September 2018, to the dismay of activists who argue that the collection of thousands of Jewish religious and personal items should be accessible to the Iraqi Jewish community, which fled the country amid anti-Semitic persecution.
On Wednesday, following discussions in the Senate, a group of lawmakers introduced a resolution recommending that the U.S. renegotiate the archive’s return and keep them in the United States.
The measure was introduced by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as a co-sponsor.
“These invaluable cultural treasures like a prayer book and Torah scrolls belong to the people and their descendants who were forced to leave them behind as they were exiled from Iraq. The State Department should make clear to the Iraqi government that the artifacts should continue to stay in the United States,” said Senate Minority Leader Schumer, who has been active in arguing for the archive not to be sent back.
Toomey noted that he had introduced a similar resolution along with Schumer and Blumenthal in 2014 that was unanimously passed by then Senate.
“It makes no sense for this material to return to Iraq when the vast majority of Iraqi Jews and their descendants live in the Diaspora,” he said in a statement.
In 2003, U.S. troops discovered the archive in the flooded basement of the Iraqi secret service in Baghdad and brought it back to the United States.
The items include books, religious texts, photographs and personal documents left behind by Jews who fled the country amid intense persecution by late dictator Saddam Hussein. Under an agreement with the government of Iraq, the archive was to eventually be sent back there.
The Iraqi Jewish Archive was found in the flooded basement of the Iraqi intelligence services in Baghdad in 2003. This photo shows items before they were restored by the U.S. (National Archives)
The U.S. government spent over $3 million to restore and digitize the archive, which has been exhibited across the country. The trove includes a Hebrew Bible with commentaries from 1568, a Babylonian Talmud from 1793 and an 1815 version of the Jewish mystical text Zohar.
In addition to saying the artifacts should be kept accessible to Iraqi Jews, activists also question whether Iraq would properly take care of the items were they to be sent back.
Iraq and proponents of returning the archive say it can serve as an educational tool for Iraqis about the history of Jews there and that it is part of the country’s patrimony.
Read the Forward’s series on the Iraqi Jewish Archive: “The Last Relics Of Iraq’s Jewish Past Are In America. Should They Be Returned?,” “In Exile, Iraqi Jews Are Desperate To Reclaim Their Artifacts — But So Is Iraq” and “The Iraqi Jewish Archive Could Reshape Foreign Policy. But Its Future Is Uncertain.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
