The cultural role of the Iraqi Jews in the nineteenth century

Abstract

The Jews existence in Iraq was related with three human migration waves to Iraq beginning from the third century B.C. and the subsequent periods. The Jews lived in Iraq in an atmosphere of religious tolerance and freedom to practice their rituals and their religious institutions in addition to practicing many economic activities. Ottomans granted freedom to the religious minorities including the Jewish in terms of establishing their educational institutions and the core of these institutions was the inauguration AlAlyans school for boys in Baghdad in 1864 and this was followed by opening several Jewish schools in the Iraqi provinces. With the increase of the number of graduates these schools and the cultural awareness of those school graduates a number of intellectuals emerged who had their own contribution including issuing a number of newspapers and some of them tended to establish several Jewish press houses, which had an important role in terms of providing the Iraqi Library with a big number of books.