To mark ten years of protecting heritage in conflict zones, ALIPH has released their new publication ‘ALIPH: Heritage Reborn’ looking back on the projects it has supported around the world. As part of the Mosul Mosaic, one of these projects concerns a heritage that cannot be rebuilt with stone: the memory of Mosul’s Jewish community.
The Moslawi Jewish community is one of several communities whose presence shaped the city. But, from the second half of the 20th century onwards, the community was forced from the city for social, political, and economic reasons. As the community dispersed around the world, their traditions, neighbourhoods and stories risked being lost with them.
Between 2021 and 2023, with ALIPH’s support and in partnership with the “Pasts in the Present” programme at the University of Paris Nanterre, we set out to bring that history back into view by recording video interviews with people connected to the community.
The testimonies describe daily life in the Jewish quarter, education and professions, religious festivals, relationships with Muslim and Christian neighbours, and the context of their departures. Photographs and documents were collected and digitized, and the 1834 Ottoman registry of Mosul’s Jewish population was translated and edited.
As Heritage of War and Peace, we are working to make these stories preserve and share these memories. You can read Maurice Nabi’s testimony, who left Mosul in 1951, now on our website. And, with your continued support, we can continue to share these crucial stories with the world. As Maurice explained:
“It’s important that the memory of Mosul’s Jews does not disappear. That people remember who they were, what their living conditions were like, how they contributed to education, how excellent the Jewish community was.”
Mosul cannot be rebuilt without remembering all of the communities who made it. We are grateful to ALIPH for its support and for recognizing the project in this publication, and above all to the members of the community and their families who shared their stories with us.