Baghdad’s Jewish community almost extinct

Less than 65 years ago, some 150,000 Jews called Iraq home, heirs to a history that dated back at least 2,500 years. But as of 2009, the most recent information available, there were just eight Jews remaining in Baghdad, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

That figure is down from 20 in 2003 due to deaths from old age, and sectarian violence and emigration, according to cable released by whistleblower website Wikileaks, Agence France-Presse reported.

A woman who spoke with a US embassy staff member in October 2009 said “there are now eight remaining members of the Iraqi Jewish community in Baghdad,” according to the cable. “She stated that the community had numbered 20 persons in 2003, but that the number has declined as a result of old age, emigration, and sectarian violence.”

It said the woman, a dentist, was “one of the last remaining Jews in Iraq,” and was interested in emigrating to the Netherlands, where two of her brothers lived.