The Jews of Mosul and Ezra Laniado’s memorial

Iraq's second city Mosul was once home to an ancient Jewish community whose history coincided in part with that of Baghdadis who were the majority of Iraqi Jews, but also differed significantly. This article compares experiences in the first half of the twentieth century, drawing on a key but little-known source, Ezra Laniado's Yehude Mosul (1981) which used extensive oral history interviews conducted in the 1970s with surviving community members, including eyewitness accounts of crucial events. Those narratives are often at variance with those of Baghdadi Jews. Laniado's work can make an essential contribution to re-evaluating the history of Iraqi Jews by integrating that of communities from the north. There are understandable reasons for the relative neglect of Mosul's Jewish community in English language histories of Iraq's Jews, but taking them more into account raises wider questions of representation. Including more marginalized Jews from outside Baghdad who had complex relationships with multiple other groups might require rethinking existing perspectives and adding nuance. A critical discussion of Laniado's memorial to his community explores possible reasons why it has been largely overlooked despite being such a unique source.