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ISRAEL · 32.0°N 34.9°E · CITY

Or Yehuda (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)

Saqiya / Kafr 'Ana landsBritish Mandate · to 1948Israel · 1948-present

A 1950 ma'abara (transit camp) that absorbed Iraqi Jews after Operation Ezra & Nehemiah, grown into a living Mizrahi city whose Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center anchors Iraqi-Jewish memory.

Modern locality anchor

Or Yehuda (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)

Israel · City · 32.0°N 34.9°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

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Where is Or Yehuda (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Or Yehuda (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)?

1950–1960

Ma'abara transit camp absorbing Iraqi aliyah (~123,500 Iraqi Jews reached Israel by 1952 under Operation Ezra & Nehemiah)

1960–present

Living Mizrahi city; Heritage Center museum from 1988

Today

Today

Living Mizrahi city; the museum anchors Iraqi-Jewish memory, linking Baghdad to the Babylonian Talmud heritage of Sura, Pumbedita, and Nehardea.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Or Yehuda (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center) sound like?

Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Judeo-Arabic

Judeo-Arabic is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Or Yehuda (Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)

Living Mizrahi city; the museum anchors Iraqi-Jewish memory, linking Baghdad to the Babylonian Talmud heritage of Sura, Pumbedita, and Nehardea.

  • Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center

    museum · museum

    Museum of Iraqi-Jewish heritage, established 1988.

In Israel & the diaspora

The community's story continued elsewhere — these places carry it now.

BaghdadBasraMosulLod (Lydda)Jerusalem

KEEP GOING

Related places & stories

Baghdad

Iraq

From the Abbasid geonic capital to a city one-quarter-to-one-third Jewish by 1917 - home of the Ben Ish Chai - ended by the 1-2 June 1941 Farhud (official investigation toll: 179 killed; later accounts such as Edwin Black's claim up to ~600) and the 1950-52 Ezra & Nehemiah exodus; today effectively zero.

Open the place story

Basra

Iraq

The port of the Indian-Ocean trading network to India and beyond - a Judeo-Arabic community that shared the Farhud-era persecution and 1950s exodus.

Open the place story

Mosul

Iraq

An ancient community with Nineveh-plains village links and Nabi Yunus (Jonah's tomb) pilgrimage; post-1950s exodus left traces later damaged in the ISIS era (2014-17).

Open the place story
Guided story · 6 stopsFrom Baghdad to Ramat GanIn 1951, nearly an entire civilization packed one suitcase each. What did they carry that you can still taste and hear?Begin the route

SOURCES & REVIEW

  • Iraq - Virtual Jewish History Tour

    Jewish Virtual Library · open source

  • Locality population tables

    Israel Central Bureau of Statistics · 2022 · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit) and Judeo-Arabic? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →