Search full-text Fisher surname ancient currency import location renamed 1970s
Documentation

Exhibit Separation Form- Original Location Copy

Form for removing items from the collection for the physical exhibit

View Item
Archival Materials

Citizenship Correspondence between Iraqi Government and Jewish Community; Synagogue Financial Information

IJA Number: 2727 · Language: Arabic

These are documents relating to the Baghdadi Jewish community, many about Iraqi citizenship. Included are various correspondences between the Jewish community and the Iraqi government. Correspondence with the Secretary General of the Frozen Fund Administration regarding the revocation of Iraqi citizenship of employees at Jewish establishments and daily payment of workers; a letter with names and salaries of employees; a letter from the Secretariat for Monitoring and Managing the Funds of the Jews to the Jewish Hospital Council proclaiming Jewish Iraqi citizenship and permitting employers to pay the employees but freeze a percentage of their salary for the Secretariat. Correspondence with the Secretariat to Monitor and Manage the Funds of the Jews: proclaiming Iraqi Citizenship to the Directorate of Travel and Citizenship, and to the President of the Jewish Community verifying if certain people are having their Iraqi citizenship revoked; requesting the release of a Jewish community fund; the formation of a committee to manage the affairs of David Ezra Synagogue; inquires related to property; request to exempt the Jewish poor from paying tax on their belongings when leaving Iraq; a request to return a shop belonging to the Jewish community; paying the Jewish cemetery guard accumulated salaries; returning an endowed Jewish property; provisions to help the Jewish poor; releasing items belonging to Ḥevrah Ḳadishah (burial society) for Jewish burial; returning the endowed eye hospital and pharmacy; Information about Hebrew religious books in the storage of the Directorate; letters between the President of the Jewish Community and Iraqi government offices regarding exchanging information and answering inquiries, the heirs of Jewish deceased, names, Jewish hospital operations, property tax, lifting the "hand" from the Jewish community funds, and management of the Jewish community funds. Documents relating to Baghdadi Synagogues: an inventory from Mindili Synagogue; correspondence between the Committee on the Administration of Ezra Synagogue and the Directory of Rights and Commercial Matters regarding the members of Ezra Synagogue citizenship status; correspondence from the Jewish Lay Council and banks about opening a bank account for Ezra Synagogue; correspondence from the Lay Council to the Secretary General of the frozen funds regarding the name of the Ezra synagogue committee. Correspondence between the Jewish Lay Council to the General Secretariat regarding exporting 100 Jewish books to without paying for the silver cover; a reply from Municipality of Rights and Commercial Matters to permit the export of the books if it had no silver cover; the Jewish presidency’s reply that it is a family owned, there are not commercial items, and it is against the freedom of religion law. Correspondence from Rabbi Sassoon Khedouri: to the General Directorate of Import regarding Iraqi Jewish property taxes, the Jewish properties exempted from tax, hospitals, schools and orphanages; to the Chairman of the Property requesting a copy of plans and documents of properties belonging to the Jewish community; to the Director of Property Tax requesting a reduction or exemption of property tax for demolition or vacancy reasons.

View Item
Books

ספר קרנות צדיק

IJA Number: 1638 · Language: Hebrew

This is a book of Jewish ethics printed in Baghdad. The title page, however, lists the printing location as Bavel, the ancient name for Baghdad. It is the oldest complete Hebrew book printed in Baghdad in the collection.

View Item
Books

ספר חק לישראל

IJA Number: 370 · Language: Hebrew

This is a book of Jewish law printed in Baghdad. The title page, however, lists the printing location as Bavel, the ancient name for Baghdad.

View Item
Books

ספר קרנות צדיק

IJA Number: 1721 · Language: Hebrew

This is a book of Jewish ethics printed in Baghdad. The title page, however, lists the printing location as Bavel, the ancient name for Baghdad. It is the oldest complete Hebrew book printed in Baghdad in the collection

View Item
Archival Materials

Investment Plan Booklet, Ministry of Planning

IJA Number: 2082 · Language: Arabic

This is a booklet published by the Ministry of Planning titled "Summary of the Investment Plan for 1986 – Strictly Confidential.” Included are the financial allocations, total cost of the investment plan, comparison between the annual cost and disciplinary direct implementation projects, foreign currency, supplies of construction materials, manpower requirements, and financial exchange. All are with regard to the sectors of Iraqi government: Agriculture, Industrial, Transportation Education, and Chemical Industry; a descriptive table for each sector is included.

View Item
Archival Materials

Financial Records, Baghdadi Jewish Community

IJA Number: 3756 · Language: Arabic

These are financial documents from the Baghdadi Jewish community. Included are doctor's bills; utility bills; receipts from financial transactions; request to provide financial assistance to a hospitalized member of the Jewish community; financial and commercial records such as requests to transfer currency; and invoices from the Jewish hospitals in Baghdad.

View Item
Archival Materials

President of the Baghdadi Jewish Community, Personal and Communal Documents

IJA Number: 3077 · Language: Multiple Languages

These documents contain correspondence, mostly on a personal level, of the President of the Jewish Community in Baghdad. Included are requests for a telephone to be installed in a school, teacher labor issues, student transfers, receipts and invoices, thank you notes and condolences to members of the Jewish Diaspora in Europe, America, and the Middle East. The documents include an excerpt from the 1945 edition of the Biographical Encyclopedia of the World, featuring the president of the Jewish community of Baghdad, Sassoon Khedouri; a license to import one Chevrolet car from the U.S.; a wedding invitation; and several business cards of foreign dignitaries.

View Item
Archival Materials

Issues of the Iraqi Gazette, Some Include Articles Related to the Jewish Community

IJA Number: 2823 · Language: Arabic

These archival documents contain issues of the Iraqi Gazette (Al-Waqā’i‘ Al-‘Irāqiyah), the official newspaper of the Republic of Iraq. Issues are from 1949 through 1958 (numbers 292, 4104, 2698, 2938, 2939, 3779, 3455, 3261, 3080, 3018, 2997, 2971, 2965, 2953, 2951, 2945, 2944, 2942, 2817). Included in these issues are official documents about anti-Jewish legislation and financial recourse after citizenship is revoked. There are letters included about restoration of citizenship to the Iraqi Ambassador in Lebanon; legal decisions about the nationality law; and frozen funds of the Jewish community. Also included are import regulations and trademark registrations.

View Item
Archival Materials

Correspondence, Receipts, Budget Information from the Baghdadi Jewish Community

IJA Number: 3081 · Language: Multiple Languages

These are documents from the Baghdadi Jewish Community. They contain correspondence regarding marriages, divorces, civil disputes; the birthday celebrations of the Iraqi king, responses to inquires about the treatment of Iraqi Jews under Iraq’s citizenship laws, the history of Jews in Iraq, and the provision of Jewish artifacts to the Iraqi Museum. There are receipts for furniture stores and other vendors, invoices; budget allocations, deficits, and planning for various community organizations and institutions; ritual slaughtering administration, names of butchers with the numbers of animals slaughtered, names of community organization members, ledgers of payments for goods or fees, building plans, provisions for school children, concerns over hospital food distribution, blanket distribution to the poor, receptions, meetings, shipment orders, import and export of goods, the care of orphans, and a census on the number of synagogues in Baghdad in 1945 (40). There are copies of a printed text titled “Appeal to Save the Children.” Letters include: the President of the Jewish Community to the Controller of Foodstuffs in Baghdad thanking the Controller for the allotment of sugar and tea for the students at the Rahel Shamoon School; addressing complaints at the Meir Elias Hospital in Baghdad; purchasing blankets for the poor via the Poor Welfare Society; sending money rather than clothes from an importer in New York City to the poor in Baghdad since clothing costs have gone up.

View Item
Archival Materials

University of London Mathematic Exams

IJA Number: 1452 · Language: English

These are General Certificate of Education Mathematics exams administered by the University of London from the 1950s - 1970s. Some of the exams are notated by students attempting the examples.

View Item
Archival Materials

Egypt and Israel Peace Process Conference Report

IJA Number: 1923 · Language: Arabic

This is a report about a conference between Egypt and Israel concerning the Peace Process in the late 1970s. The report describes the conference in detail and contains the text of some speeches delivered at the conference by the Egyptian, Israeli, and American delegations.

View Item
Books

איליאדה ואודיסיאה: שירים נבחרים

IJA Number: 2453 · Language: Hebrew

This is a Hebrew translation by Saul Tchernichowsky of Homer's ancient Greek Epic Poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. It was likely used in a school.

View Item
Archival Materials

Endowed Property, Baghdadi Jewish Community

IJA Number: 2786 · Language: Arabic

This is a file from the President of Jewish Community about the Nouriel endowment. It includes a description of the Nouriel endowed property with an official copy of the registration, and a hand drawn sketch of the property’s location.

View Item
Archival Materials

Personal Letter between Siblings

IJA Number: 2260 · Language: Arabic

This document is a personal letter from a sister named Rafidah Jameel to her brother named Saad Altakriti requesting to send her a dress, flowers, and gloves with any person that is travelling to her location.

View Item
Archival Materials

Correspondence between President of the Baghdadi Jewish Community and the Iraqi Government about Members who Abrogated Citizenship

IJA Number: 2847 · Language: Arabic

This item contains correspondence between the Iraqi government and the President of the Baghdadi Jewish community concerning information about members of the Iraqi Jewish community who possibly abrogated their Iraqi citizenship and traveled abroad. Some of the documents are requests from the government for certain individuals to appear before the Office of Citizenship to provide information concerning their identity, location of residence, and nationality.

View Item
Document

The Iraqi Jewish Archive Preservation Report

Date: October 2, 2003

Rare, historic and modern books, documents and parchment scrolls pertaining to the Iraqi Jewish community were found in the flooded basement of the Iraqi Intelligence (Mukhabahrat) headquarters in Baghdad in early May 2003. Upon removal from the basement, the wet materials (known as the Iraqi Jewish Archive) were packed into sacks and transported to a nearby location where they were partially dried. Dr. Harold Rhode, expert in Middle Eastern and Islamic Affairs, Department of Net Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense, provided a general review and initial sorting of the contents during the retrieval process, after which the materials were placed in 27 metal trunks. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) arranged for the materials to be frozen, which served to stabilize the condition and eliminate further mold growth.
At the request of the Coalition Provisional Authority, conservators from the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) traveled to Baghdad June 20-23 to assess the condition of the materials and develop recommendations for their preservation. The following report outlines the preservation action plan and funding requirements for preserving this important collection.

View Item