“When [Jews] were deported from Iraq and Mosul, it wasn’t just that they were sent away. They were erased from our history.”
The book is said to have made the Palestinian Authority president cry.
To Iraqi Jews and their descendants, the archive represents the rich communal life and history they were forced to leave behind.
A bipartisan group of senators is advocating for the archive to stay in the United States.
A bipartisan group of senators is discussing a bill to keep a trove of Iraqi Jewish artifacts in the United States.
“At the end of the day, 850,000 Jews are now completely gone from the Arab countries. The only thing left is our dignity.”
“When I go to the cemetery, in front of the tomb where all these destroyed Torahs are buried, I feel like I’m praying at the tomb of my ancestors.”
“They have no right to give it back, because it’s not theirs.”
I am an Iraqi-Israeli-American Jewish woman. I will not capitulate to xenophobes.
Emma Sky has witnessed the destruction of Iraqi communities firsthand. With ISIS sweeping through the country, she asks what the government will do to keep other minorities from joining its Jews in permanent exile.