The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Centre: designed like a traditional Jewish villa
Sami Dallal, 19, had to make a decision: stay for an interrogation by the antisemitic and murderously minded Ba’ath police, or, with his remaining family, make a break for Tehran? Today at the age of 67, Dallal tells me his story at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, an attractive, modern museum in the central Israeli city of Or Yehuda (meaning the Light of Yehuda). Running parallel to one of Ben-Gurion Airport’s runways, jets were taking off every few minutes, at the same place where most Iraqi Jewish refugees, destitute, arrived in Israel in an exodus that began in 1948, peaked in 1951, and ended in the early ’70s.
The Babylonian Jewry Center is a hidden gem, unknown even to many Israelis. Established in 1973, the museum is laid out as an Iraqi villa like the ones in which wealthy Iraqi Jews once lived. The design is appropriate. Far from feeling like a memorial to what was, the center is a place vibrating with the life of Jews who lived in Iraq for 2,600 years.
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in regard to Iraq, here is Adi Cohen's write-up on the Farhud on its anniversary in Hebrew. You may already have seen this in English.
ReplyDeletehttps://besacenter.org/he/perspective-papers-he/%d7%a9%d7%91%d7%a2%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%95%d7%a9%d7%a9-%d7%a9%d7%a0%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%9c%d7%a4%d7%a8%d7%94%d7%95%d7%93/
Also by Dr Adi Cohen is this article in Hebrew arguing that Israel must demand restitution or compensation for Jewish property left behind in Arab lands.
https://besacenter.org/he/perspective-papers-he/%d7%99%d7%a9%d7%a8%d7%90%d7%9c-%d7%97%d7%99%d7%99%d7%91%d7%aa-%d7%9c%d7%93%d7%a8%d7%95%d7%a9-%d7%90%d7%aa-%d7%a8%d7%9b%d7%95%d7%a9-%d7%99%d7%94%d7%95%d7%93%d7%99-%d7%90%d7%a8%d7%a6%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%a2/
Iraqi Jewish archives
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jewishledger.com/2021/02/the-iraqi-jewish-archives-lost-and-foundand-lost/