Rescue or Return

The Fate of the Iraqi Jewish Archive

Bibliographic Data

ID4282953
AuthorsBruce P Montgomery (University of Colorado Boulder, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume20
Issue2
Pages175-200
Publication date2013-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739113000040
OpenAlexW2313756895
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited4

Shortly following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, an American mobile exploitation team was diverted from its mission in hunting for weapons for mass destruction to search for an ancient Talmud in the basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police (Mukhabarat) headquarters in Baghdad. Instead of finding the ancient holy book, the soldiers rescued from the basement flooded with several feet of fetid water an invaluable archive of disparate individual and communal documents and books relating to one of the most ancient Jewish communities in the world. The seizure of Jewish cultural materials by the Mukhabarat recalled similar looting by the Nazis during World War II. The materials were spirited out of Iraq to the United States with a vague assurance of their return after being restored. Several years after their arrival in the United States for conservation, the Iraqi Jewish archive has become contested cultural property between Jewish groups and the Iraqi Jewish diaspora on the one hand and Iraqi cultural officials on the other. This article argues that the archive comprises the cultural property and heritage of the Iraqi Jewish diaspora

Ancient history · Archaeology · Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Diaspora · Judaism · Looting · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Talmud · Archaeological Research and Protection · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law

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