Joseph Dabby, who was jailed three times in Baghdad for thecrime of being a Jew, did not wish for war, but he fervently hopes that U.S.troops will free his native land.
Now the president of Kahal Joseph Congregation, Dabby isamong approximately 3,000 Jews of Iraqi origin and descent in Los Angeles, whoare watching the war’s progress with a mixture of anxiety and hope.
“We have deep roots in Iraq, going back more than 2,500years, and belonging to the oldest Diaspora community, with a very strong Jewishtradition,” observed Dr. Eliezer Chammou, a geography professor.
Rabbi Haim Ovadia, spiritual leader of Kahal Joseph, said,”I feel sad, because no one wants war, but it is necessary to get rid of thisevil, this Saddam Hussein. No one can speak against him, and even criticizingthe color of his suit can lead to execution.”
What was once a thriving and influential community of130,000 Jews in the 1940s has been reduced to less than 50 people, and no onein Los Angeles has been able to contact them for some time.
“Even in the best of days, you could only communicate withthe remaining Jews through a third country,” Dabby said.
Many in the Iraqi community here expressed pity for theMuslims who were once their friends and neighbors.
“I’ve seen how they tortured young Iraqi dissidents, whocouldn’t trust their own families, and how frustrated they were that theAmericans didn’t finish the job in 1991,” said Dabby, 57, a property developer.
Dr. Lev Hakak, professor of Jewish studies and literature atUCLA, was born in Israel to parents who were part of the great exodus ofapproximately 110,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel in 1951-52. They were forced toleave behind all their property and assets.
His father was an educator and had “some terrible memoriesand some fond memories” of his native land.
The most terrible recollections were of June 1941, when ashort-lived pro-Nazi revolt produced bloody anti-Jewish riots.
The fond memories included times when “Jews and Muslimslived in friendship and peace. Jews were in high government positions and wefelt part of the political and intellectual life,” Hakak said. “I hope it willhappen again and that Israel and Iraq will live in peace.”
A similar hope was expressed by the 37-year-old Ovadia. “Idon’t like it when people say that all Arabs and Muslims are bad,” he said. “Ihope they decapitate the leaders, but that the Iraqi people, who have beenbrainwashed, can live in a democratic country.”
Although Iraqi Jews in Los Angeles — the largest enclave ofits kind in the United States — belong to various synagogues, the center oftheir religious life is Kahal Joseph on the Westside.
According to Ovadia, the Sephardic congregation consists ofapproximately 400 families. Most come from Iraq, but many are descended fromfamilies who had emigrated from Iraq to India, China, Singapore and Burma inthe early 1900s.
The past is etched deeply into their collective memory.
“We come from the birthplace of Judaism,” Chammouproclaimed proudly. “The patriarch Abraham was born in Ur, along the bank ofthe Euphrates River, in southern Iraq.”
The Jewish community dates back at least to the FirstBabylonian Exile in 586 B.C.E. Some cite the even more ancient date of 732B.C.E., when the Israelite tribes of Samaria were expelled by the Assyrians.
“The community never assimilated; produced great scholars,rabbis and learned books; and for some 800 years, from 200-1038 C.E.,represented the intellectual center of the Jewish world,” Hakak said.
In the 19th century, Baghdad Jewry enjoyed an intellectualrenaissance under the leadership of the great preacher and kabbalist RabbiYosef Hayyim.
In his youth, Chammou recalled, “everybody had a chance tostudy in community-supported religious schools.”
Chammou served as Middle East librarian at UCLA for 22years, and he is now an adjunct professor at West Los Angeles College. In theupcoming spring semester, he will teach an evening course on “Jewish Roots inIraq” at the University of Judaism, and a UCLA Extension class on “Lands andPeoples of the Middle East.”
