Jewish, Yahudic (Israel)

Iraqi Jews are the descendants of the Babylonian Jewish community, almost all of whom were airlifted to Israel in 1950-1951 after the Farhud pogrom of 1941 and the persecution that followed 1948, leaving behind their citizenship and property. Many spent years in transit camps around Or Yehuda before settling in Ramat Gan, Givatayim and the Tel Aviv suburbs, and today some 200,000 Israelis were born in Iraq or have an Iraqi-born father, with perhaps twice as many counting later generations. Most are Israel-born and speak Hebrew, while the Judeo-Iraqi Arabic of Baghdad survives mainly among the elderly. Families still keep the Sabbath with tbit, rice-stuffed chicken cooked overnight, and pray in the Babylonian rite of the Ben Ish Hai, and the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda preserves a recreated Baghdad alley and synagogue.