ABSTRACT
The main source of information about the Jewish community in Baghdad and Iraq in the second half of the nineteenth century can be found in Jewish newspapers published in Bombay and Calcutta in the Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic.
These newspapers also constituted means of communication whereby Iraqi Jews passed on information to their relatives and acquaintances in the Far East. The newspapers had a large readership among Iraqi Jews in the Far East, in Iraq and in the Holy Land, and to a lesser extent in other countries, such as England.
The information found in these newspapers is on almost every subject: education (traditional and modern), economy (poverty, crafts and commerce), religion (conversion to Islam, observance of Sabbath, synagogues), spiritual and lay leadership, community organization and institutions, social contacts with Muslims, crimes, disasters, and more.
The chapter presents sources on three subjects in Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic published in these newspapers transliterated and translated into English: emigration to Baghdad in the nineteenth century; the first vocational school for Jewish girls in Baghdad; and the Jewish Boys’ School Band in Baghdad.
