Exhibition Review: Iraqi Jewish Documents at the National Archives

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Edward Rothstein

An 1815 copy of the mystical Zohar is part of the "Discovery and Recovery" show at the National Archives.

WASHINGTON, DC---They are ragged, warped, torn, stained. And that is after extensive restoration. This new exhibition, “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage,” presents just 24 artifacts (and some reproductions) selected from 2,700 volumes and tens of thousands of documents the American military found submerged in four feet of fetid water in the Mukhabarat, Iraq’s intelligence building. Those items, which had been collected by the Iraqi office investigating Israel and the Jews, span five centuries of Jewish life in Iraq. It took weeks for the American team to gather them, set them out to dry and ship them — in disarray and black with mold — to the National Archives. Much still awaits being restored and digitized at the archives’ laboratories in College Park, Md. [link]

National Archives: “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage,” (Ends Jan. 5); Constitution Ave. NW [between 7th & 9th St.], Washington, DC; 866-272-6272; archives.gov