Les Juifs de Mossoul (Arel)

The Jews of Mosul, in northern Iraq, constituted one of the oldest communities of Mesopotamia, whose presence is inscribed in the long Jewish history of the region. Some of them spoke Neo-Aramaic dialects (Suret), while also practicing Arabic, and the community preserved liturgical traditions specific to Iraqi Judaism. Merchants, craftsmen, and scholars, its members were organized around their synagogues and institutions. After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the mass departures of Iraq's Jews in the early 1950s, the community of Mosul emigrated almost entirely, primarily to Israel.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World — Brill
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan