IRAQ - Jews Lost Over $34 Billion
In addition to the loss of its Jewish citizens, forensic accounting work reveals that assets, institutions and property seized from Jews in Iraq total over $34 billion by today’s valuation.
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC) sees as its mission the preservation of this history in the name of truth and justice.
The organization’s co-president, Sylvian Abitbol, explained: “To ignore the fact that the grand and impressive Jewish community in Iraq was persecuted, imprisoned, expelled and destroyed is not just to erase 2,500 years of Jewish life and culture; it is to deny reality. We compiled this Iraqi Jewish Community Report so that the Jews of Iraq will not be forgotten and their contributions to Iraq and that region are duly recorded.”
JJAC Executive Director Dr. Stanley Urman added that “the historic significance of the Iraqi Jewish community cannot be overstated. Over centuries, Babylonian Jews played a central role in Judaism, producing the Babylonian Talmud and influencing Jewish communities worldwide. The abrupt cancellation of this culture constitutes a tremendous loss to civilization.”
Not to be glib, but the same can hardly be said were the Palestinian Arabs to disappear from Gaza.
Like the aforementioned population transfers, the relocation of Iraq’s Jews, primarily to Israel, was entirely successful. They integrated into and became productive citizens of the Jewish state.
-www.israeltoday.co.il, 20 February 2025
Arno's Commentary
The history of the Jews in the land of Iraq (Babylonia) stretches back over 2,500 years. Jews were forcefully relocated from Jerusalem to Babylon, beginning in 597 BC. After 70 years of captivity, a proclamation was made by Cyrus, King of Persia: “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:23).
History shows that not all Jews returned to Israel. Many were established in the land and integrated with the locals.
Severe persecution, however, started in modern times. Wikipedia reports: “In 1941, the Farhud (‘violent dispossession’), a major pogrom, occurred in Baghdad, in which 200 Jews or more were murdered. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, persecution against Jews culminated in increased government oppression and cultural discrimination. The government, while maintaining a public policy of discrimination against Jews, simultaneously forbade Jews from emigrating to Israel out of concern for strengthening the nascent Israeli state … From 1950 to 1952, nearly the entire Iraqi Jewish population emptied out from Iraq to Israel through Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. Historians estimate that 120,000–130,000 Iraqi Jews reached Israel.”
Today, Iraq remains one of the most bitter enemies against the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
Those who are left still have the promise of Isaiah 41:8: “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” In due time, the remnant of Iraqi Jews will be brought to Israel.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
