Inside Baghdad's First Museum Dedicated to Iraqi Jewish History

Iraq's first museum dedicated to Jewish history has opened in Baghdad, in the restored building of the historic Shamash Jewish School on Al-Rashid Street.

The Shamash Museum opened October 22 and drew more than 1,000 visitors on its first day, according to local media reports. Its displays include official documents, old school records and academic certificates, family photographs, traditional clothing, household items and religious artifacts, with screens playing recorded interviews with community members.

The Shamash School was founded by Baghdad's Jewish community in 1928 and had some 900 students by 1939. The school left the building in 1951 and continued operating elsewhere until about 1973. The restoration was facilitated by Iraq's Administrative Committee for Jews, which oversees the remaining community's affairs and communal property and also helped restore Baghdad's shrine of Rabbi Isaac Gaon last year, according to local Iraqi media.

Iraq's Jewish history stretches back more than 2,500 years to the Babylonian exile, and Jews once made up nearly a quarter of Baghdad's residents. Before the 1941 Farhud pogrom, the community numbered an estimated 100,000 to 150,000. Some 120,000 Iraqi Jews left for Israel in 1950 and 1951. Today, only an estimated four to six Jews remain in Baghdad, with about 50 Jewish families reportedly living in Iraqi Kurdistan.

JIMENA, an organization representing Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, welcomed the restoration while questioning whether descendants of Iraqi Jews will be able to visit and reconnect with their heritage. Israel's Foreign Ministry shared footage of the museum through its official Arabic-language account.

(Historic photo: Students at the Shamash Jewish High School, Baghdad, 1930s, public domain. The museum opened October 22.)