Farhud - Muslim tolerance in Iraq (1941)

Farhud refers to the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1-2, 1941 during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The riots occurred in a power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Nazi government of Rashid Ali while the city was in a state of instability. Before British and Transjordanian forces arrived, around 175 Jews had been killed and 1,000 injured. Looting of Jewish property took place and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed. By 1951, 110,000 Jews - 80% of Iraqi Jewry - had emigrated from the country, most to Israel. The Farhud has been called the "forgotten pogrom of the Holocaust" and "the beginning of the end of the Jewish community of Iraq", a community that had existed for 2,600 years.










Aftermath

As a result of Farhud, about 180 Jews were killed and about 240 were wounded, 586 Jewish-owned businesses were looted and 99 Jewish houses were destroyed. Eight assailants, including army officers and police, were condemned to death after the violence by the Iraqi government. Other accounts set the estimates higher: Nearly 200 Jews were slaughtered, more than 2000 injured; some 900 Jewish homes were destroyed and looted, as were hundreds of Jewish-owned shops. Bernard Lewis places the casualty figures higher, citing what he describes as "official" statistics of 600 Jews killed and 240 injured; according to Lewis, "Unofficial estimates were much higher."

In some accounts the Farhud marked the turning point for Iraq’s Jews who, following this event, were targeted for violence, persecution, boycotts, confiscations, and near complete expulsion in 1951.

It is estimated that in 2003, the Iraqi Jewish population numbered less than 100.

In 2008 it is estimated that the number is down 7 people.