Religion News Service reported yesterday on the growing controversy over what the United States should do with a trove of Jewish documents, books and scrolls found in 2003 by U.S. troops in Iraq. The items (now known as the Iraqi Jewish Archive) were discovered in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad intelligence headquarters. They were rescued and taken back to the United States for preservation and restoration pursuant to an August 2003 Agreement (
full text) between the Coalition Provisional Authority and the National Archives. That Agreement called for the return of physical custody of the documents to the Coalition Provisional Authority or its designee once preservation work was completed and a public exhibition of the collection was held. (Art. I, Par. 4). A 2011 agreement between the State Department and the National Archives (
full text) indicates that the Coalition Provisional Authority designated the Iraqi Ministry of Culture as the agency responsible for the documents.
The State Department says these agreements call for the U.S. to return the collection (some of which are
now on display in the National Archives Building in Washington) to Iraq in the Summer of 2014. Groups in the Jewish community and members of Congress are questioning the State Department's plans. A
website set up by groups representing Middle Eastern and North African Jews argues:
There is no justification, nor logic, in sending these Jewish archives back to Iraq, a place that has virtually no Jews, no interest in Jewish heritage and no accessibility to Jewish scholars or the descendants of those who once possessed them.
A bi-partisan letter to Secretary of State Kerry (
full text) signed by 47 members of Congress last month argues that the collection should be returned to the descendants of the Iraqi Jewish community outside of Iraq. It is estimated that there are only 5 Jews left in Iraq today.
