Saddam Hussein's secret Jewish archive

Arutz Sheva ^ | 27/8/23 | Shimon Cohen

[Eleutheria5]

A special lecture will be held at the Babylon Jewish Heritage Center this week that will reveal an archive of Iraqi Jews that was found by US Army soldiers in the basements of Saddam Hussein's intelligence building. The one who will tell about the findings is the one who was among the archivists, Dr. Harold Rudd, a consultant to the US Department of Defense who was sent together with the US task force to the basements that were hit by an American bomb.

In an interview with Israel National News, Dr. Rudd talks about the rescue operation and the findings that were discovered and recovered by him: "I worked at the Pentagon for 28 years, and for about 11-12 years, I worked on the Iraqi issue," he says. Due to the professional context, Dr. Rudd came to Baghdad with the American forces, and due to his long-standing friendship with the head of the Iraqi opposition, who also entered Baghdad with the American forces, he learned about the Jewish archive that was waiting in the depths of the Iraqi intelligence building.

.....

When the information reached the head of the Iraqi opposition, he hurried to contact Rudd, who immediately arrived at the intelligence building that was bombed by the Americans with a half-ton missile that reached the basement floor where the Jewish archive was located. The missile penetrated the building but miraculously did not explode, though it did destroy the plumbing system, which began to flood the basement floor.

"I worked for 6.5 weeks to get out the certificates, the holy books, and one Torah scroll. The water reached up to my waist in the basement. It was very difficult to get in there. At first, the Americans were not interested in it. ...." .....

[PghBaldy]

Thank you for posting this.

[EinNYC]

Wow. Thanks for bringing this to light.

[Wallace T.]

The Jewish community in Iraq dates back to the Babylonian exile. While many Jews returned to their country, as outlined in the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, some remained in Babylon. In fact, the Babylonian Talmud is considered authoritative among Jews to this day. The antiquity of the items found would be extremely interesting to Biblical scholars. There is the Center for the Study of New Testament manuscripts in Plano, Texas, that I am sure would be interested in what might be found there.

[Mean Daddy]

There are Jews living in Iran today.

[Verginius Rufus]

Acts 2.5-10 in the New Testament says that Jews from every nation were in Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost and mentions Parthians, Medes, Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia among them. Parthia, Media and Elam are in what is now Iran while Mesopotamia mostly corresponds to modern Iraq.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

[Wuli]

Not surprised (1) because Baghdad - at the height of Babylonian capitivty and even after - had some of the top Jewish writers and thinkers, and later had some very well known Jewish writers for hundreds of years, and (2) of course Saddam wanted to steal and suppress that Jewish history, because selling himself to his subjects included selling himself as a “good Muslim”.

[Eleutheria5]

He was an Alawite, which to both Shiites, Sunnis and Suffis meant that he was no sort of Muslim at all, and as a National Socialist Baathist, he suppressed Muslims left and right, gas a Kurdish village here, imprison a Shiite cleric or ten there. What he wanted with these writings remains a mystery to me, unless he was trying to use them for some mumbo jumbo-type magic to keep himself in power. Hitler used to have an astrologer, until he killed him. Nazis are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

[Wuli]

“He was an Alawite, which to both Shiites, Sunnis and Suffis meant that he was no sort of Muslim at all, and as a National Socialist Baathist, he suppressed Muslims left and right, gas a Kurdish village here, imprison a Shiite cleric or ten there.”

All true, however none of that reduced how much he had to sell himself to the general public as a “good Muslim” and all the more so because he was an Alawite and not a Sunni or Shia. Besides suppressing Jews in Iraq he also had to lift the “Muslim” banner against Israel - to prove himself to Sunni and Shia backers of “the Palestinians”.