The Pace of Completion of Construction and
Designing of the Exhibitions
in the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center

To all our friends and supporters around the world.

I am happy to be able to inform you that thanks to a very generous donation,together with
the donations of those who wished to memorialize their loved ones, we have started the
second stage of construction in the project to develop the Center. The exterior of the
museum is changing for the better, we are preparing the top storey for the displays and
we are in the final planning stages for the three storey wing that will be erected adjoining
the synagogue and will cover 819 sq, meters. All together 1,677 sq. meters will be added
to the 951 sq. meters that the museum now occupies.

At the end of the construction we will have to make some gigantic efforts in order to
complete the interior finish of 18 halls that will include displays on the following subjects:
The Jewish Community in the Iraqi cities, Geneological Tables (Family Trees) of all Iraqi
Jews in the world who now number some 310,000, Education, Changing Exhibits, Study
Areas, Culture and Art, Theater, The Iraqi Jewish Home, The Zionist Movement, Absorption
of Iraqi Jews in Israel and a number of other subjects.

We have declared 2003 as the finishing date for the construction and preparation
of the exhibits. Until now more than 360,000 persons, among them 145,000 school children.
from all over Israel and from abroad, have visited the museum. We are proud of our
accomplishments and the completion of the construction poject will only add to our
satisfaction, for this is the only museum in Israel that presents the culture and the heritage
of Israel's oldest exile community.

Mordechai Ben-Porat
Chairman of the Center