Posted By richards on November 14, 2013
A treasure-trove of Iraqi artefacts moved by the American army to the United States after the US-led invasion of the country in 2003 is at risk of not being sent back to Iraq because of mounting pressure on the Obama administration to hand it over to Jews of Iraqi origin.
Iraq has repeatedly demanded the return of the pieces, part of hundreds of thousands of illegally obtained cultural artefacts that were moved to the United States during its occupation of Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion.
The US army also captured millions of documents, including the archives of the former ruling Iraqi Baath Party, the states intelligence archives and records of meetings with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, which it transferred to the United States as part of what is called Iraqs absent heritage.
Items from the Iraqi Jewish collection were put on display last week at the National Archives in Washington in an exhibition that runs through 5 January. Called Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage, the exhibition has triggered a campaign by American Jews to pressure the Obama administration not to return the artefacts to Iraq.
On its website the US National Archives say that almost all the recovered documents relate to Jewish communal organisations in Baghdad, including the Iraqi chief rabbis office and Jewish hospitals and schools.
However, among the pieces on display are a Hebrew Bible printed in Venice in 1568, a Babylonian Talmud from 1793, a Torah scroll fragment including parts of the Book of Genesis, a Zohar (book of mysticism) from 1815 and other religious and community materials.
A lunar calendar in Hebrew and Arabic from 1972-73, one of the last examples of Hebrew items produced in Baghdad, is also part of the exhibition.
According to a story widely used by the American and Israeli media, the items were found in a flooded Baghdad basement in May 2003, just days after invading US forces captured Baghdad and ousted Saddam.
This story goes on to say that a group of US soldiers happened upon the Jewish documents while searching the headquarters of the mukhabarat, Saddams intelligence services, for evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
Nearly identical reports say that the documents, including books and records five centuries old detailing the life of Baghdads Jewish community, were found submerged under four feet of water in a buildings basement.
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Saving Iraq’s absent heritage
Category: Jewish American Heritage Month |
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