Shafaq News- Baghdad
The opening of Baghdad's first Jewish heritage museum has drawn Israeli media attention, with Iraqi authorities yet to officially announce its inauguration.
According to The Times of Israel, the Shamash Museum opened in recent days in a building that once housed a school serving Iraq's Jewish community. The newspaper based its report on photographs and social media posts shared by Iraqis.
Footage shows a sign reading “Shamash Museum” at the entrance, alongside Jewish religious artifacts, historical documents and recorded interviews with Iraqi Jews, apparently filmed abroad.
The newspaper also reported that Iraqi authorities last year allowed the restoration of the tomb complex of Rabbi Isaac Gaon, a prominent Iraqi Jewish religious figure, funded by Iraqi Jews living abroad.
Iraq was home to around 90,000 Jews in the early 20th century, accounting for nearly a quarter of Baghdad's population, according to the report.
The Times of Israel estimated that only five or six elderly Jews remain in Iraq today.