Iraq's Jewish population dwindles below 50
by J. Freyja Helgeson
Features | 9/2/03
Posted online at 9:01 AM EST on 9/2/03
When one thinks of Jews in the Middle East, Israel comes to mind.
And why not, when the Israeli Jewish community numbers roughly five million in a country that spans merely 7,992 square miles? Due to immigration patterns and waves of anti-Jewish sentiment, the Jewish population of many other Middle Eastern nations pales in comparison to that of Israel.
For example, Beth Hatefutsoth, the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, estimates that a mere 100 Jews live in Iraq, which covers 168,000 square miles and has a total population of 23 million. Today, in Baghdad, just 35 Jews remain in what was once a bustling community of merchants, traders, and bankers.
Iraq is not the only Middle Eastern country with a Jewish population that accounts for roughly zero percent of the total population. The Justice was able to catch up with some Brandeis students from Jordan who, before coming to study in the United States, had never met a Jew.
Though the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty in 1994 has heralded a steady improvement in the official attitude toward Jews in the country, Munther Samawi '04 said that "for most Jews in Jordan are business people from America or Europe; there are no real communities." Samawi recalls meeting only one Jew in Jordan: "I was very young, and the [Jewish] boy did not seem to fit in well with the other boys in my cousin's neighborhood."
Hazem Abuhod '04, had "met only a handful of Jews before coming to the states." He attended his first two years of university schooling in Lebanon, but eventually transferred to a school in New York and completed his undergraduate degree at Northeastern University. He desired a degree from an American school because of the respect he said it would garner in the Jordanian workplace.
By living in the U.S., Abuhod says he has gained much more than a good education; he enjoys the diversity that he encounters daily on the Brandeis campus. He admits, "Going back to Jordan for the summer was wonderful, but also a bit frustrating because of the lack of diversity in the population there."
And why not, when the Israeli Jewish community numbers roughly five million in a country that spans merely 7,992 square miles? Due to immigration patterns and waves of anti-Jewish sentiment, the Jewish population of many other Middle Eastern nations pales in comparison to that of Israel.
For example, Beth Hatefutsoth, the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, estimates that a mere 100 Jews live in Iraq, which covers 168,000 square miles and has a total population of 23 million. Today, in Baghdad, just 35 Jews remain in what was once a bustling community of merchants, traders, and bankers.
Iraq is not the only Middle Eastern country with a Jewish population that accounts for roughly zero percent of the total population. The Justice was able to catch up with some Brandeis students from Jordan who, before coming to study in the United States, had never met a Jew.
Though the signing of the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty in 1994 has heralded a steady improvement in the official attitude toward Jews in the country, Munther Samawi '04 said that "for most Jews in Jordan are business people from America or Europe; there are no real communities." Samawi recalls meeting only one Jew in Jordan: "I was very young, and the [Jewish] boy did not seem to fit in well with the other boys in my cousin's neighborhood."
Hazem Abuhod '04, had "met only a handful of Jews before coming to the states." He attended his first two years of university schooling in Lebanon, but eventually transferred to a school in New York and completed his undergraduate degree at Northeastern University. He desired a degree from an American school because of the respect he said it would garner in the Jordanian workplace.
By living in the U.S., Abuhod says he has gained much more than a good education; he enjoys the diversity that he encounters daily on the Brandeis campus. He admits, "Going back to Jordan for the summer was wonderful, but also a bit frustrating because of the lack of diversity in the population there."
