Israelis Born in Iraq Plan Visit to Area

Anti-Jewish violence that erupted with the creation of Israel in 1948 put an end to centuries of relatively peaceful Jewish life in Iraq. Most Jews left for Israel, unable to even think about returning to visit until the U.S.-led assault toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Now the Mosul Jewry Heritage Center in the Israeli port city of Haifa is organizing tours to northern Iraq, where Kurds, traditionally friendly to Jews, are in control, said Aharon Efroni, chairman of the center. One purpose is to visit the graves of Jews, he said.

The ultimate goal is to visit the city of Mosul, about 75 miles south of the Turkish-Iraqi border, where many taking part in the trip are from. But Efroni said that might not be possible because of the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

The trip was originally limited to 10 people, but many more expressed interest, he said, so there will be at least two groups going in the spring. If all goes well, there will be more trips in the future, he said.

Jewish communities, with synagogues, yeshivas, and charitable organizations, once thrived in Baghdad, Mosul and other Iraqi cities, according to the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, outside Tel Aviv.

Fleeing the violence, about 120,000 Iraqi Jews came to Israel, most of them in a series of airlifts in 1951, according to the World Zionist Organization.

The group plans to fly to Turkey, then take a bus into Iraq through Kurdish-controlled areas, Efroni said. Once inside Iraq, a Kurdish guide will meet the group, he said.

Since the end of the first Gulf war in 1991, many Israelis who were born in Iraq began going back to the country because its Kurdish-controlled areas were relatively autonomous and friendly to Israeli visitors, said Moti Zaken, a former Arab affairs adviser to the Israeli prime minister's office.

Like other Israeli immigrants, Jews from Iraq feel bonds with their former homeland. This is especially true for Israelis who came from Kurdistan, now part of Iraq, Zaken said.

"Relatively, Jews had good relationships with the Kurds and Muslims there," he said. "Therefore, they have some good memories about the culture."

Zaken said Israelis used to go to Turkey and look across its southern border to Iraq, "just to see and smell their homeland."

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