WHY THE NINE JEWS OF BAGHDAD STAY IN BAGHDAD

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 05 BAGHDAD 001454

SIPDIS

FOR DRL -- SPECIAL ENVOY GREGG J. RICKMAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2018
TAGS: PHUM KIRF PREF PGOV IS NL UK IZ
SUBJECT: WHY THE NINE JEWS OF BAGHDAD STAY IN BAGHDAD

REF: 2007 BAGHDAD 2682

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Ellen Germain for reasons 1.4
(b,d).


1. (S) SUMMARY: Despite the insecurity they face, and the
necessity of hiding their identity, the nine Jews living in
Baghdad appear set to stay here. Several are simply too old
to leave, while others fear the unknown challenges of a new
land more than they fear the more familiar, if deadly, perils
of their own country. One of Baghdad's last remaining Jews,
Khalida Fouad Liahu Moualim (strictly protect),told poloff,
during conversations that spanned ten months, that the Jewish
community in Baghdad continues to suffer from a pervasive
sense of fear, but that each member has found a way to
survive, endure, and remain. Moualim said that some original
documents of the Iraqi Jewish community still remain in a
former Jewish community center and that many of the
community's sacred Torah scrolls are in various locations
throughout Baghdad; and noted that she would like USG help in
entrusting the scrolls to the expatriate Iraqi Jewish
community until the security situation has sufficiently
improved to allow Iraq's Jews to return. In the meantime,
the Jews of Iraq do not appear likely to share in Iraq's
future as a nation; they have no children, and cannot
contribute culturally or even materially while unable to
participate freely in Iraq's public life. They remain in
Iraq, but not of it, hiding at the center of a country whose
majority may, one day, welcome them again, but does not
accept them at present. It seems unlikely that this fact of
Baghdad life will change soon, and so these nine individuals
may author the last chapter to the story of an ancient people
in an ancient land. END SUMMARY.

--------------
A SINGLE SOURCE
--------------


2. (S) Poloffs have only met with one member of Baghdad's
historic Jewish community -- Khalida Fouad Liahu Moualim
(strictly protect)(reftel) -- despite continual efforts, over
a period of ten months, to meet with other members. Moualim
was unable to introduce Embassy officers to any of her
co-religionists. She said that she never told any of the
other Jews in Baghdad that she has continually met with
Embassy officers since August 2007. She worried that several
of them would try to prevent her from traveling to the
International Zone; others would fear for their own lives and
might cut all contact with Moualim; and still others would
put Moualim's life in jeopardy through their indiscretion, or
their attempts to blackmail her with threats to inform
terrorists about her contact with the Coalition. Nor did
Moualim inform any of her co-religionists about her regular,
risky visits to Saddam Hussein's former Palace, which
currently houses the Embassy, where she has taken part in
religious services with Jewish Embassy officers and military
officers.


3. (S) At religious services and on other occasions, Moualim
met repeatedly with a number of Embassy political, economic,
and military officers, earning their trust over time. She
reported reliably about local developments in Baghdad,
sharing stories of violence and reconstruction in her
neighborhood in the Rusafa district. She relayed details
about the Jewish community that matched those reported to
post from other sources, including Christians in Baghdad and
the expatriate Iraqi Jewish community in the U.S., Britain,
and Israel. She proved to be a reliable source of
information and a generous conduit of support for her
community in Baghdad.


4. (S) She, in turn, appeared to relish the opportunity to
pray with others, as she said that none of the other Iraqi
Jews will risk visiting Baghdad's only remaining synagogue.
After one of her first Shabbat services, she told Embassy
officers, "This is the first time I haven't prayed alone in
three years." During Passover in April 2008, she delivered
matzah to four others. One of them reportedly told her,
"This is the first time I've truly celebrated Eid (Passover)
in more than 20 years." She said that she has shared with
other members of her community numerous other donations sent
to them from the U.S., including religious implements and
commercial products difficult to find in Baghdad markets.

--------------
CONTINUING THREATS AND INSECURITY
--------------


5. (S) Moualim has also reported, over the course of the
winter of 2007 - 2008, a series of challenges that she and
her family experienced in their Rusafa neighborhood. In

BAGHDAD 00001454 002 OF 005


December, one of her neighbors was brutally murdered and
beheaded in his home, leaving behind five children; in
January, a water main burst and completely flooded her whole
street; in April, two mortars landed right near her home.
While these experiences reflected a reality shared by the
majority of Baghdad residents, some incidents significantly
increased Moualim's consciousness of her minority status.
Moualim recently visited her brother in the hospital where he
works as an orthopedist (reftel),and heard from one of his
patients: "Your brother is a good doctor, but we're sorry
he's Jewish." (NOTE: Moualim said that she does not know how
the patient knew he is Jewish. END NOTE.) On April 20, one
of her brother's close colleagues, a 30-year-old female
surgeon named Rada Fayah, was raped and murdered in her home.
The perpetrators also killed Fayah's mother, whom they then
proceeded to cut into three pieces. Moualim told poloff that
she and her brother considered this attack to be sectarian in
nature, since Fayah is Sunni and her father reportedly served
as an officer in the former regime. Fayah worked at Abn'Al
Haythan hospital in the Babil neighborhood of Karada
district, which is located down the street from the orphanage
where Moualim currently works, and is also very near to her
brother's hospital, Al Wassity. She said that vicious
attacks like this serve as a chilling reminder that sectarian
violence may flare at any moment, with mortal consequences.


6. (S) Moualim made clear, over the course of many months of
discussions, that the Jews of Baghdad still live under a
cloud of fear and suspicion. She said that her two surviving
relatives -- her brother and her mother -- would never risk
their lives by traveling into the International Zone, nor
would any of the other Jews of Baghdad. All of them, Moualim
said, concealed their identity on a regular basis; they
rarely admitted their identity to strangers, and most of them
carried falsified identity documents -- she cited her brother
as a stubborn exception. "You can get anything with money,"
she explained. "I got my new passport in two days." Indeed,
Moualim traveled around Baghdad with her passport because it
does not reveal her religion, as her identity card does
(reftel). She perceived threats in all directions. She did
not trust the local national employees in the Embassy, and
even asked, at one point, whether the Embassy's Peruvian
guards might have connections to ordinary Baghdadis and could
mistakenly reveal her religious identity.

--------------
SO WHY DON'T THEY LEAVE BAGHDAD?
--------------


7. (S) Despite the tense environment that they must endure
in Baghdad, Moualim and her small community chose to remain
in Baghdad. Her reasons were complex. Well aware that she
could immediately emigrate to Israel -- since Israel's "law
of return" would entitle her to immediate citizenship -- she
said that she was not ready yet to begin a new life in
Israel, and she appeared extremely reluctant to leave her
mother, who is very ill. She also asked Embassy officers if
she might qualify for refugee status in the U.S.; when
informed that she had a strong case to claim asylum, she
explained that she was not ready to proceed with the
application process. She expressed the strongest desire to
emigrate to Holland, where two of her brothers live.

--------------
THE DUTCH DEMUR
--------------


8. (S) Poloffs learned from the Dutch Embassy in Baghdad that
their Embassy in Amman handled Iraqi refugee issues. On
December 4, 2007, poloff met with Bianca Zylfui, chief of the
consular section in the Dutch Embassy in Amman. Zylfui said
that every year the Netherlands admits 500 members of
vulnerable minority communities from around the world. Only
a few Iraqis, she said, figure among this group. If
Moualim's family is vulnerable, she asked, why are they still
in Baghdad? She said that, before proceeding, she would need
to find out if UNHCR could process Moualim's case quickly,
and added that Moualim would need help getting into Jordan.
Even once they arrived in Jordan, and if UNHCR approved their
application, Zylfui said the Dutch government might not
accept them. If the refugee procedure did not succeed, she
added, then Moualim's brothers could petition for the rest of
the family to receive immigrant visas. "Both routes are very
difficult and there is no guarantee, once they leave Iraq,
that they will accepted" by the Dutch government, Zylfui
warned. If the U.S. Embassy described the situation of the
Baghdad Jews in writing, she said, then she would pass our
message on to The Hague. END NOTE.


9. (S) When informed in December 2007 about the risks and
challenges involved in attempting to emigrate to Holland,

BAGHDAD 00001454 003 OF 005


Moualim asked for time to think about it, and to discuss the
issue with her mother and brother. Two months later, in
February, Moualim had finally broached the topic with her
family, and was disappointed to report that her mother could
not and her brother would not travel with her. She remained
uncertain as to whether or not she was willing to leave
without them. Finally, on May 1, Moualim told poloff that
she had decided she is willing to leave Iraq for Holland even
without her mother and brother; she was not ready, however,
she said, to go to Israel or the U.S. without them.


10. (S) Moualim also provided her opinion as to why the
other eight members of the community have remained in Baghdad:

-- Her mother, Violet Shaul Touayik, is 83 years old and
suffers from "heart failure;" specifically, she has left
ventricular failure. "She can't walk now, and she can't
travel." She also suffers from depression, Moualim said.
She will not leave the house and she will not see her
friends.

-- Thafer Fouade Liahu Moualim, Moualim's brother (45 years
old),told Moualim that he knows he can go to Israel whenever
he is ready, but he does not want to leave now. Moualim said
that he believes it will be difficult to start a new life,
and he does not want to take his medical exams again. He
wants to depend on himself, Moualim explained, not people in
a new country. She said that she remains perplexed that her
brother works in Sadrist-led hospital. "Because he works
hard and does free operations, they love him," she explained.
He "works twice as hard as his colleagues."

-- Marcel Menahim Daniel, whom Moualim and expatriate Iraqi
Jews described as the "matriarch" of the community, will not
leave because she feels responsible for the other Jews and
their collective property and documents. Also, Moualim said,
she believes that Daniel is over 80 years old, and very
fearful of the violence in Baghdad; Moualim indicated that
Daniel has not left her home in several years.

-- Naji Jebraeel, 72 years old, suffers from diabetes and
hypertension. When Moualim asked Jebraeel why he has
remained in Baghdad, he replied, "I am old, and no one will
take care of me. I am happy here, and Mohamed takes care of
me. I do not have enough years left to make a new life."
(NOTE: See below for more information about Mohamed. END
NOTE.)

-- Samir Naeem, in his late forties, has been to prison six
times, according to Moualim, for forging bank documents,
among other crimes. He owns many properties and would not be
able to operate these properties from outside Iraq, Moualim
said.

-- Amer Berchan, who is about 40 years old, and has family in
the United Kingdom, appears relatively "happy in his life,"
Moualim said. He lives with his uncle, Sami Berchan, and
most people outside the Jewish community know him as Amer
Al-Musawi -- the name on his identity card. "He is a Jew in
religion, but on paper he is a Muslim." Moualim said that
she believes he is not trustworthy.

-- Sami Berchan, about 65 years old, is Amer Berchan's uncle,
and owns several properties in Baghdad, according to Moualim
("as well as many identity cards"). Moualim did not know why
he has stayed in Baghdad, but suggested that his nephew and
his business interests keep him tied to the city.

-- Emad Levi, about 40 years old, is a successful
businessman, Moualim said, who once worked for the Coalition.
She believes he was fired when Coalition members discovered
that "he didn't translate honestly." She cannot trust or
depend on him, Moualim said, adding, though, that he is "not
as bad as Amer and Sami."

The four Jewish men in their forties are not married, Moualim
explained, "because there are no Jewish women."

--------------
THE FUTURE OF COMMUNAL POSSESSIONS
--------------


11. (S) Marcel Daniel controls most of the community's
remaining capital and property, Maoulim explained, and
preserves its official documents in a room in a building that
once served as a Jewish community center. The official
documents comprise birth, marriage, divorce, and property
records. The property appears to include a few homes and
offices owned by Iraqi Jews who fled over the course of the
past 60 years. Daniel provides money to community members on
a regular basis, and also supplies extra cash for special

BAGHDAD 00001454 004 OF 005


circumstances and needs, such as medical expenses. "We can
trust Marcel (Daniel)," Moualim said, "She's a good woman.
Others will steal." Moualim said that Daniel trusts her
because she has never made any false claims, where others
have done so. Moualim described Daniel as an imposing
figure, and said that she was "afraid" to ask Daniel what she
would like to happen to the community's documents and
property after she passes away. Moualim said that Daniel has
implied that she, Moualim, will take care of the property,
but Moualim said that she does not know if she could handle
this responsibility. Moualim said that when Daniel dies,
Moualim will seek help from the USG to preserve and protect
the original documents of the Iraqi Jewish community.


12. (S) Moualim also described other communal areas,
including a Jewish cemetery that the community was able to
restore after 2003, but which the Sadrists controlled during
the summer of 2007. She claimed that the Kindi Hospital in
Karkh district was built on top of a Jewish cemetery.
Baghdad Jews used another major cemetery, in Adhamiya
district, from 1924 to 1978. She said that Baghdad residents
now use most of the city's synagogues for other purposes, and
that the same has happened in Basra, Maysan, Amara, Karbala,
and Hilla. She noted, as well, that the tomb of Bibical
Prophet Ezekiel is outside Hilla.


13. (S) She said that many of the community's sacred Torah
scrolls remain in Iraq -- in the former secret police
building (mukhabarat); in the Baghdad Museum (which she
referred to as the "Iraq Museum"); in the one remaining
synagogue (where she counted 13 remaining scrolls); and in a
school in Mustansiya Street in Rusafa, which she described as
"like a museum." She said that she believes that six of the
scrolls in the Baghdad Museum may have originally come from
her synagogue. "Religious Muslims respect the Torah," she
noted, including "the New and Old Testament. They don't like
the Jews but they do respect the Torah."


14. (S) Moualim said that she hopes the Jews of Iraq may
return to Iraq one day, and that she would like the USG to
help entrust their sacred Torah scrolls to the expatriate
Iraqi Jewish community until the security situation has
sufficiently improved to allow Iraq's Jews to return with the
scrolls. On May 5, she wrote a letter to the Ambassador to
this effect:

"To His Excellency the US Ambassador in Iraq,

"I'm an Iraqi citizen (Khalida Fuad Liahu). On my own behalf
and that of the Jewish community in Iraq, I ask for your help
with the transfer of the Torah scrolls which are currently
unused (by Iraqi Jews) and held by the Iraqi museum and the
Iraqi intelligence to a safe place outside my country Iraq
for use by Iraqi Jews around the world, to be returned to
Iraq with the return of Iraqi Jews to their country when
security has completely stabilized.

"Our faith in the importance of these sacred manuscripts as a
human heritage of our brothers Muslims, Christians and Jews
alike is what led us to appeal to you to preserve them for
the service of the civilization and history of this ancient
country.

"Finally, please accept our wishes of peace to you, your
country and to the friendly American people."

--------------
THREE NON-JEWS RISK THEIR LIVES TO HELP
--------------


15. (S) Hussam Sadi Hassan Al Musawi, an engineer and a Shia
who lives in the International Zone, has cared for Moualim
and the Jews of Baghdad for several years. He has donated
money and innumerable services, delivered food and other
necessities, and facilitated Moualim's travel into and out of
the International Zone. During all of Moualim's visits to
the Embassy, Musawi and his family hosted her at their home
so that she would not have to travel back through Baghdad
after dark. Most recently, he transported matzah through
checkpoints in Baghdad, at great risk to his own life, in
order to distribute them to Jewish homes. Moualim explained
that, in one instance, when an Iraqi Police officer said he
planned to search the trunk containing the matzah boxes (with
Hebrew lettering),Musawi calmly joked that the policeman
would find explosives there. "I put mortars there to explode
in the IZ," he said. His ruse succeeded, Moualim said, as he
made the policeman laugh and persuaded him that he had no
need to search the car. When Moualim's husband was
kidnapped, her friends told her and her brother and mother
not to leave their home. Musawi took care of them all during
this trying period; he brought them "everything" they needed,

BAGHDAD 00001454 005 OF 005


Moualim said -- "even small things, like soap, garbage bags,
rice."


15. (S) Another Shia man, whom Moualim referred to only as
Mohamed, has for more than 10 years cared for and protected
the synagogue. He has also helped to care for several
elderly members of the community.


16. (S) Bassam Attah Razuki, Moualim's Christian neighbor,
has helped her for many years to navigate around Baghdad,
accompanying her in order to offer protection. He has been a
friend to Moualim and her family for many years, and has
taken risks in order to help and support them.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


17. (S) Despite the insecurity they face, and the necessity
of hiding their identity, the nine Jews living in Baghdad
appear set to remain here. Several are simply too old to
leave, while others fear the unknown challenges of a new land
more than they fear the more familiar, if deadly, perils of
their own country. Unfortunately, when Daniel dies, the
community may completely disintegrate. As things stand, the
Jews of Baghdad currently form a "community" in name only.
They share access to what remains of the Iraqi Jewish
community's material wealth, but they do not share communal
rites. They share an ancient past, but they do not share a
future. Nor do they seem likely to share in Iraq's future as
a nation; they have no children, and cannot contribute
culturally or even materially while unable to participate
freely in Iraq's public life. They remain in Iraq, but not
of it, hiding at the center of a country whose majority may,
one day, welcome them again, but does not accept them at
present. It seems unlikely that this fact of Baghdad life
will change soon, and so these nine individuals may author
the last chapter to the story of an ancient people in an
ancient land.
CROCKER