Ex-Israel envoy publishes new list of Baghdadi Jewry surnames

"Although many books have been published about various aspects of Baghdadi Jewry and its rich heritage, none contain a systematically-researched list of surnames."

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
An Iraqi walks past a traditional house in Basra. In 1940, Jews of Iraq suffered an unprecedented pogrom that affect communities in Baghdad, Basra and elsewhere. (photo credit: REUTERS)
An Iraqi walks past a traditional house in Basra. In 1940, Jews of Iraq suffered an unprecedented pogrom that affect communities in Baghdad, Basra and elsewhere.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Jacob Rosen, one of Israel’s most prominent former ambassadors and a specialist in Arab affairs, in August published a highly researched list of Baghdad Jewry surnames from 1874-2001.
“Although many books have been published about various aspects of Baghdadi Jewry and its rich heritage, none contain a systematically researched list of surnames. Partial lists do exist, but only in Hebrew,” he wrote on the Avotaynu Online website, which covers “the origins of and migrations of the Jewish people.”
“As I did in my recently published indexes of Cairo and Damascus Jewish surnames, I built the Baghdadi index by scouring the following eclectic collection of sources in the archives, in published works and in social media,” he added.
Rosen, who served as ambassador to Jordan, extracted Baghdadi Jewish surnames from lists of exemptions from Ottoman military service in 1892-1899, the 1951 register of Baghdadi Jews whose Iraqi nationality was withdrawn, the Iraqi Jewish Archive (IJA) and a list of Baghdadi Jewish burials from 1949-2015.
“As with most Jewish communities in the pre-1948 Arab world, the surnames of Baghdad’s Jewish community have not been comprehensively indexed until now,” he wrote. “The community, which numbered some 77,000 members in 1947, declined by more than 90% in only four years due to mass emigration, mainly to Israel. Emigration continued during the following decades, with a peak in the early 1970s. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Baghdad.”
“In the rush to depart, most Jewish communities’ vital records were left behind,” Rosen wrote. “These records were obtained by the local authorities and remain inaccessible to this day.”
He also relied on a number of books: A History of the Jews in Baghdad by David Solomon Sassoon and Dictionary of the Baghdadi Jewish Dialect (in Hebrew) by Gila Yona-Sweary.
“In many cases, I could verify whether a certain surname is Baghdadi by simply posting a question,” Rosen wrote. “I also found that the ability to search prior posts within the group, and the willingness of participants to respond to questions, enabled me to turn this wonderful social-networking resource into a robust tool for future research.”
Among the Baghdad Jewry surnames Rosen found are: Abbada, Abd Alaziz, Abd Alnabi Abd Alrazzaq, Abu Almilh, Abu Alnil, Baba, Babai, Babi, Bakshi, Chaichi, Chitiat/Jitiat, Dabbas, Dabbi, Dabura, Daga, Dahan and Dahud.
The complete list of surnames can be found on the Avotaynu Online website.


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