Iraqi authorities have not officially announced the museum’s inauguration but the opening has still attracted attention both inside and outside the country.
An ornate display (Photo-Syriac Press/YouTube)[Missing Credit]
Israel’s Foreign Ministry shared footage through its official Arabic-language account on X.
The post stated: “Opening of a Jewish Museum in Baghdad, the first of its kind in the building of the Jewish Shamash Secondary School located on Al-Rashid Street.”
It added that the footage showed “images of Jewish lifestyle patterns and photos of Jewish families, in addition to academic certificates for students at Shamash School”.
The account also highlighted the school’s founder, Jacob Shamash, whose portrait features on one of the museum’s walls, and reported that more than 1,000 people had visited on the first day.
The school itself was once a significant educational institution. More than 900 pupils attended at its peak in 1939, before it moved to another building in 1951, continuing its work under the Shamash Secondary School name.
The museum charts the history of Iraq's Jews (Photo-Syriac Press/YouTube)[Missing Credit]
Reaction to the opening included expressions of support for efforts to preserve the history of Iraq’s Jews.
A post shared by a visitor on October 22, described the museum on X as a “good initiative for a community that lived for more than 2,500 years in Mesopotamia”.
The museum is at the old Shamash School (Photo-Syriac Press/YouTube)[Missing Credit]
Mesopotamia corresponds to an area covering part of modern day Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
The museum’s opening comes after decades of decline for Iraq’s Jewish community.
Some reports claim that the number of Jews in the country may now be less than ten.
Visitors study the cabinets (Syriac Press/YouTube)[Missing Credit]
The community’s roots stretch back to the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE, when Jews were taken from Jerusalem following the destruction of the First Temple.
For centuries, Iraqi Jews played an important role in the country’s religious, cultural, educational and commercial life.
By the early 20th century, they represented almost a quarter of Baghdad’s population.
1,000 people visited the museum on the first day (Photo-Syriac Press/YouTube)[Missing Credit]
That presence was devastated by antisemitic violence, particularly the Farhud pogrom of June 1941, when Jewish residents of Baghdad were attacked and killed. Subsequent persecution and restrictions contributed to the mass departure of Iraqi Jews, many of whom left for Israel in airlifts organised in 1950 and 1951.
The loss of the community’s heritage has been highlighted by Justice for Jews from Arab Countries (JJAC), which documents the history and property left behind by Jewish communities across the Middle East and North Africa.
Sylvain Abitbol, the organisation’s co-president, told JNS: “The grand and impressive Jewish community in Iraq was persecuted, imprisoned, expelled and ultimately destroyed.”
He warned against overlooking the community’s history, adding: “To ignore this fact is to erase 2,500 years of Jewish life and culture. We compiled this report so that the Jews of Iraq will not be forgotten and their contributions to the region are duly recorded.”
The museum's entrance (Photo- Israeli Foreign Ministry/X)[Missing Credit]
Explaining the purpose of JJAC’s work, he said: “We compiled this report so that the Jews of Iraq will not be forgotten and their contributions to the region are duly recorded.”
A report published by the organisation in February 2025 estimated that Iraqi Jews had been forced to leave assets worth around £25 billion in today’s currency.
Khalida Elyahu, 62, head of Iraq’s Jewish community, told AFP during the restoration in May 2025 that the site had previously been neglected and “was a garbage dump”.
The restoration, reportedly costing approximately $150,000, was funded by Jews of Iraqi descent living abroad, according to reports.
The Shamash Museum now provides a dedicated space for photographs, documents and artefacts that recall a community whose history spans more than two millennia.
