The Jews of Iraq constituted one of the oldest and most deeply rooted Jewish communities in the world. But in the early 1950s most of them left for Israel, under circumstances that remain the subject of heated controversy.

Iraqi Jews: A History examines the role of this community, highlighting the critical years of the late 1940s - after the establishment of the state of Israel - when deep rifts began to appear Iraqi society. The sad sequence of events that finally led to the mass exodus of Jews in the 1950s was marked by dishonesty on all sides.

An honest, impartial and well-documented account of a formerly well-integrated and vibrant community, Iraqi Jews: A History is a landmark in the political and social history of the Middle East.

Iraqi Jews highlights the links and contributions of the Jewish community to Iraqi society--its emergence in the early 1920s in Iraq, the critical years of the late 1940s, when rifts began to appear with the establishment of the state of Israel, and the events--marked by corruption on both sides--that finally led to the mass exodus of the Jews in the 1950s.