Disclosure of the details of transferring the archive of Iraqi Jews to the United States

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[size=52]Disclosure of the details of transferring the archive of Iraqi Jews to the United States[/size]

[size=45]Translated by: Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]The American newspaper, (South Florida), dealt with the circumstances of transferring the archive of Iraqi Jews to the United States, which is currently kept inside the National Archives building in Washington after its restoration, noting that officials at the Babylonian Jewish Heritage Center said that this archive belongs to Iraqi Jews who immigrated from Iraq and they have the right to keep it. with it.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper quoted Harold Rudd, a historian specializing in the history of Jews and Islam in the Middle East, who was speaking to a group of Iraqi Jews at the Jewish Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, near Ben Gurion Airport, that he had a central role in saving the archive from damage. This was during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.[/size]
[size=45]Addressing the audience, the historian said, "This is your legacy, which contains your letters, your marriage certificates, your official paper documents, your correspondence, and copies of your holy books. It is your legacy that you have the right to keep."[/size]
[size=45]The historian, Rudd, had worked as a Pentagon expert on religious matters for 28 years. In 2003, he joined the US forces with their initial stages of entering Baghdad as an expert in religious and Islamic affairs with the US forces.[/size]
[size=45]Rudd says that he received a phone call at the time from the leader of the Iraqi opposition to the former regime, Ahmed Chalabi, telling him that a secret Jewish archive had been found in the basement of the Iraqi intelligence building and that he should come as soon as possible.[/size]
[size=45]Rod added, “The building was half destroyed, and we entered the basement where the archives were, and water covered us up to our midsections, and I asked the American forces to help save the archive because the Americans had no interest in such matters, and I told them that I am a historian and I know the value of these books, and they told me to do what you see fit.” .”[/size]
[size=45]He says, after two days, the water was withdrawn and the flooded books and documents were taken out. A group of Iraqi workers who work for daily wages helped us in that. We started putting the books and documents and spreading them on the ground and exposing them to the sun to dry. The process of saving the archive and removing it from the basement took about six and a half weeks of exhausting work.[/size]
[size=45]Historian Rudd indicates that he requested contact with senior American leaders such as Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the importance of this issue related to saving and restoring the archives, indicating that American officials expressed their willingness to harness the best technological equipment they have to restore these documents. And the files, and all the archives were hurriedly transported and carried on a plane that transported them to the Document Recovery and Restoration Laboratory in Houston.[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the archive includes thousands of books and scrolls, texts from the Torah, and documents, including texts and manuscripts dating back to the fourteenth century.[/size]
[size=45]Lily Shore, director of the Center for the Babylonian Jewish Legacy, told the South Florida newspaper, “The archive is a vast sea of ​​information that sheds light on every aspect of the lives of Iraqi Jews that they lived in the country. Until this archive came out, everything we knew about their lives It is just memories, but these texts and documents that we have now contain abundant information about the daily life situation of the Jews in Iraq, and what are their interests and activities.”[/size]
[size=45]The director of the Jewish Heritage Center, Shor, states that the archive sheds light on the problems that the Jews were exposed to, and among them were letters from Jewish community leaders to political figures asking them for help in matters related to their civil rights and economic concerns, noting that the archive also contains documents showing Violence suffered by the Jews in 1948, including imprisonment and confiscation of property.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper states that the fate of the Jewish archive is not clear, as it is currently in the National Archives Center in Washington, and that the Iraqi government's demand to return it has put the fate of this archive at stake.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper quotes Shore as saying, “The Iraqis claim that these records are related to their own heritage and not to families and members of the Jews. This is unacceptable, we cannot see these records being transferred back to Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper says that the director of the center, Shor, spent a period of time investigating family records in the archives and that she copied copies of documents related to certain Jewish families and delivered them to them as much as possible.[/size]
[size=45]The newspaper quoted the historian, Rod, as saying, “The children and grandchildren of the Jews who possessed these documents are all now living in Israel. This is their heritage and history, not the legacy of Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]About: American newspaper (South Florida).[/size]
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