For 2,500 years, Jews played a prominent role in Iraq. By 1940, the Iraqi Jewish community numbered 137,000 people. In Baghdad, they made up a quarter of the population. For centuries, Iraq was a major center of Jewish learning. The Babylonian Talmud was written there. According to a Muslim author, Iraqi Jews were leaders in virtually every field. Iraq's most famous musicians and composers were Jews. Business shut down on Saturdays because it was the Jewish Shabbat. Then in the 1930s came the rise of Nazism that permeated the Arab world. In 1941, a pogrom claimed the lives of hundreds of Jews. Jewish homes, shops, and businesses were destroyed. In 1948, Iraq joined a pan-Arab invasion of Israel. More than 120,000 Jews fled Iraq, mainly to Israel. A few thousand remained to protect religious and other properties. All communal documents and holy books were hidden in the only remaining synagogue. But in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein stole the entire archive in an admittedly deliberate act...(Read Full Post)