Robert Shasha Collection of Iraqi Jewish Oral Histories circa 1900, 1930s-2007 2003-2007

• Main Author: Shasha, Robert
• Format: Audio
• Language: English; Hebrew
• Subjects: Halahmy; Oded; 1938-; Hakak; Balfour; 1948-; Herzl; Herdoon; Saeed; Michael; Sami; Morad; Tamar; Shasha; Dennis Elliott; Robert; American Sephardi Federation; Jews; Iraqi; Zionism; Babylon; Canada; Elliott; sami
• Online Access: http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=3234034&custom_att_2=simple_viewer

This collection contains oral history materials collected by Tamar Morad, Robert Shasha, and Dennis Shasha, in connection with the writing and compilation of the book Iraq's Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), including approximately 60 audio recordings, with at least one third accompanied by transcripts; a few transcripts or narratives without recordings; and a small amount of related biographical material, including memoirs and other writings, one family history, and photographs (Series II). The interviewees and their families represent a range of professions, including international merchants and bankers, as well as rabbis, doctors, politicians, intellectuals, musicians, poets, and artists. The materials convey personal accounts of Jewish life in Iraq from approximately the 1920s to the early 1980s, as well as Iraqi Jewish experiences of emigration, transit journeys, and new lives in the diaspora, in locations including Iran, India, Japan, China, Israel, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. A small amount of material (correspondence and statements) related to a rally held in New York City in 1969 after 53 Iraqis, including Iraqi Jews, were executed, can be found in the following collection held by the American Jewish Historical Society, at the Center for Jewish History: Records of the Synagogue Council of America (I-68), Box 24, Folder 17. Two commercial CDs were transferred to the American Sephardi Federation Library: 1) The Forgotten Refugees (The David Project, 2004); and 2) Rivers of Babylon (musical group), Treasures: Songs of Praise in the Iraqi-Jewish Tradition (Sara Menasseh, 2002). The History of the Jews in Iraq (in brief outline)