Traditional shofar blowing in Iraq in 1998
(Video: Courtesy of Itzhak Carmeli, Rabbi Emad Levy)
Itzhak Carmeli, who frequently visits Jewish communities around the world, recently shared one of the last videos of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world found in Iraq.
The year is 1998 (and not 1988, as mistakenly said in the video), and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, having survived the First Gulf War in 1991, continued ruling Iraq with an iron fist. Only a few Jews remained in Baghdad at the time.
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Traditional shofar blowing in Iraq in 1998
(Photo: Courtesy of Itzhak Carmeli, Rabbi Emad Levy)
Four and a half years before the dictator was ousted, Jewish services were still held on Shabbat and holidays at the last remaining synagogue, the Taweig Synagogue, with Rabbi Emad Levy overseeing the Jewish life in the area.
During Rosh Hashanah, a UN official visiting Baghdad filmed the Rosh Hashanah service at the synagogue. The rare footage shows the final members of the community reciting traditional verses before the blowing of the shofar and the shofar blowing itself.
Rabbi Levy, who received threats on his life, managed to escape Baghdad and make Aliyah to Israel. Today, only three Jews remain in Baghdad — one woman and two men. Three years ago, one of the last surviving members of the Jewish community, Dr. Dhafer Fuad Eliyahu, a renowned surgeon in Iraq, died.
Hussein ruled Iraq from 1979 until 2003, when he was ousted by U.S. forces after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. He went into hiding following the fall of Baghdad but was captured in December of that year.
He was convicted of crimes against humanity for his role in the execution of 148 Shia residents of the town of Dujail in June 1982, following an assassination attempt on him during a visit there. The dictator was executed in December 2006.
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