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JERUSALEM (AP) -
A group of Israeli Jews who were born in Iraq are
planning a spring trip to the Kurdish-controlled
zone, but the continuing conflict could keep them
from visiting the city where many of them once
lived, an organizer said Wednesday.
Anti-Jewish violence that erupted with the creation
of Israel in 1948 put an end to centuries of
relatively peaceful Jewish life in Iraq. Most Jews
left for Israel, unable to even think about
returning to visit until the U.S.-led assault
toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Now the Mosul Jewry Heritage Center in the Israeli
port city of Haifa is organizing tours to northern
Iraq, where Kurds, traditionally friendly to Jews,
are in control, said Aharon Efroni, chairman of the
center. One purpose is to visit the graves of Jews,
he said.
The ultimate goal is to visit the city of Mosul,
about 75 miles south of the Turkish-Iraqi border,
where many taking part in the trip are from. But
Efroni said that might not be possible because of
the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
The trip was originally limited to 10 people, but
many more expressed interest, he said, so there will
be at least two groups going in the spring. If all
goes well, there will be more trips in the future,
he said.
Jewish communities, with synagogues, yeshivas, and
charitable organizations, once thrived in Baghdad,
Mosul and other Iraqi cities, according to the
Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda,
outside Tel Aviv.
Fleeing the violence, about 120,000 Iraqi Jews came
to Israel, most of them in a series of airlifts in
1951, according to the World Zionist Organization.
The group plans to fly to Turkey, then take a bus
into Iraq through Kurdish-controlled areas, Efroni
said. Once inside Iraq, a Kurdish guide will meet
the group, he said.
Since the end of the first Gulf war in 1991, many
Israelis who were born in Iraq began going back to
the country because its Kurdish-controlled areas
were relatively autonomous and friendly to Israeli
visitors, said Moti Zaken, a former Arab affairs
adviser to the Israeli prime minister's office.
Like other Israeli immigrants, Jews from Iraq feel
bonds with their former homeland. This is especially
true for Israelis who came from Kurdistan, now part
of Iraq, Zaken said.
``Relatively, Jews had good relationships with the
Kurds and Muslims there,'' he said. ``Therefore,
they have some good memories about the culture.''
Zaken said Israelis used to go to Turkey and look
across its southern border to Iraq, ``just to see
and smell their homeland.''
AP
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