Jews of Iraq Conference

This major international conference took place between 16 and 18 September 2019. Organised by The British Institute for the Study of Iraq in collaboration with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago and the Department of History, Religions and Philosophies at SOAS.

The Conference aimed to evaluate the many contributions of the Jewish community in Iraq within the spheres of the arts and culture, social policy, education, government and the economy in the early modern and modern period. Iraqi Jews constituted one of the world’s oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities and were in Iraq for over 2,500 years. There is a widening academic interest in the history and contributions of the Jewish community as well as growing interest in Jewish history in contemporary Iraq. This Conference brought together UK, Iraqi and international scholars interested in exploring and researching the contributions of this important community in modern Iraq.

The proceedings will be published by the University of Edinburgh Press.

You can view the full Conference Programme here.

Recordings of the presentations can be found below: 

Day 1

Memoires, Memories and Personal Histories

• Professor Avi Shlaim
• Dr David Basson 
• Ms Linda Menuhin Abdel Aziz
• Professor Sami Zubaida
• Panel Discussion (Chaired by Professor Ella Shohat)

Day 2

Panel 1: Jews in Iraqi Society; Sociological and Cultural Aspects

• Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite and Professor Orit Bashkin on a Historical Overview
• Professor Geoffrey Khan on The Aramaic-Speaking Jewish Communities of Northern Iraq
• Dr Sara Farhan on Jewish Medical Professionals in Hashemite Iraq: The Making and Unmaking of State-Intermediaries
• Mr Pelle Valentin Olsen on Iraqi Jews and the Production and Consumption of Leisure
• Panel Discussion (Chaired by Professor Orit Bashkin)

Panel 2: Ottoman Iraq and its Jews – Early Experiments with Modernity

• Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite on Empire and the Ocean: Iraqi Jews in India, China and Back Home
• Dr Annie Greene on The Political Roots of the Iraqi Statesman Sassoon Efendi Hasqail
• Dr Lital Levy on Literary Translation and Iraqi Jewish Modernity: Judeo-Arabic Fiction Published in India
• Dr Yuval Evri on Between Al-Andalus and Baghdad: Tracing Iraqi-Jewish Literary Visions in the Turn of the Twentieth Century
• Panel Discussion (Chaired by Professor Zvi Ben-Dor Benite)

Panel 3: The Hashemite Period: New Roles for Iraqi Jews

• Mr Emile Cohen on Iraqi Jewish Education and Impact on Iraqi Society
• Ms Hanaw Mohammed Taqi Mohammed Amin on Urban Jewish Cultural Heritage 
• Dr Sasha R. Goldstein-Sabbah on Baghdad Transnational Networks in the Hashemite Period 
• Professor Orit Bashkin on When Jews Marched for Hussain – Jews in Southern Iraq
• Panel Discussion (Chaired by Professor Joseph Sassoon)

Day 3

Panel 1: Music, Cinema, and Performance: Cultural Considerations

• Dr Dafna Dori on Salih al-Kuwayti as a Modern Iraqi Composer
• Dr Liliana Carrizo on Intermusicality and Musical Remembrance: The Convergence of Muslim-Jewish Soundscapes in the Private Songs of Iraqi Jews
• Dr Sara Manasseh on Musical Life in Baghdad c. 1910-1950: Changing Attitudes towards Iraqi Jewish Women as Performers and Participants
• Dr Yaron Shemer on Home, Nostalgia, and Post-Memory in the Films of Second and Third Generation Iraqi-Jewish Immigrants
• Panel Discussion (Chaired by Professor Ella Shohat)

Panel 2: Representing the Past: Archival, Literary and Culinary Dimensions

• Dr Daniel Monterescu and Dr Joel R. Hart on The Diasporic Social Life of Amba: Culinary Schismogenesis among Iraqi Jews in London and Israel 
• Dr Hana Morgenstern on Fire in the Camp: Committed Arab Literature and the Transit Camp Narratives
• Dr Sigal Goorgi on The Culture and Identity of the Iraqi Jews as Reflected in their Literary Works
• Panel Discussion (Chaired by Professor Joseph Sassoon and Professor Ella Shohat)

Panel 3: Painful Dislocation, Exile and the Future

• Mr Khairuldeen Al Makhzoomi on The Forgotten Minorities: The History of Iraqi Jews from 1948-1971
• Dr Sa’ad Salloum on Is there any Future for the Existence of a Jewish Minority in Iraq? (presented by Mr Edwin Shuker)
• Poetry by Ms Makarem Ibrahim

 Conference Steering Committee: 

• Joan Porter MacIver (BISI Vice-Chair/Conference Coordinator)
• Orit Bashkin (University of Chicago)
• Zvi Ben-Dor Benite (New York University)
• Daniel Lowe (British Library)
• Glen Rangwala (Cambridge University)
• Joseph Sassoon (Georgetown University)
• Ellah Shohat (New York University)
• Ali Khadr (BISI Executive Officer) 

We welcome support from trusts, companies, and individuals. Any and all donations will be gratefully welcomed and you can make a donation here.