John Erlich—By the Waters of Babylon: Jews and Music in Iraq

In 1947, Baghdad’s Jewish community of 90,000 comprised about 25% of the city’s population, and Iraq’s 130,000 Jews comprised almost 3% of the total population (higher than the Jewish population in the USA today). From 1948 to 1951, nearly the entire Jewish population of Iraq emigrated; by 1960, there were fewer than 3,000 Jews in Iraq (and fewer than 10 Jews today). This presentation, with performed musical examples, will describe the place of Iraqi Jews within the larger Iraqi culture, the function of music in Iraqi Jewish life, and the role played by Jews in Iraqi music.

In person in Berkeley or on Zoom.