Nadler praises agreement allowing U.S. to keep Jewish archives recovered in Iraq
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler was one of several elected officials praising a recent agreement allowing treasured Jewish archives that U.S. troops recovered from Saddam Hussein’s basement during the Iraq War to remain here in the US indefinitely.
The items, including thousands of books, historical documents, and religious materials that were either seized from the Jewish community by the Iraqi government over the decades or left behind when Jews fled Iraq, were found in Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters by US forces in 2003. The items, which were found under four feet of water in the basement, were transported to America for restoration and safekeeping.
Recovered were a variety of items, everything from Torahs, to children’s report cards, to family vacation photos. The historic treasure trove also includes a 16th Century Bible and a 1793 Babylonian Talmud
PBS reported earlier this month that the National Archives was granted temporary custody of the Iraqi Jewish Archive in August of 2003, under an agreement with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the temporary government set up in Iraq at that time. The CPA later handed over its part of the agreement to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, PBS reported. The ministry allowed the items to be shipped to the US for preservation work on the condition that they be returned when the restoration was completed.