This issue of Nehardea is among the many publications that the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center publishes each year and distributes to its registered members. This time we have decided to send this issue to Iraqi emigres across the globe who are not registered members of the Center. We assume that this will be their first encounter with the magazine, and they will be able to learn of the activity of the Center, which strives to keep aflame the Everlasting Light of Babylonian Jewry, the most ancient of the exiles of Israel.
This publication is only a part of the Center's many activities, which are presented in Hebrew and English. In the near future we plan to publish a collection of studies on the history of Babylonian Jewry in English. The Center also publishes video and audio cassettes, albums and postcards. It holds conferences and study days in order to spread the rich tradition of Babylonian Jewry in Israel and abroad.
We attach great importance to the research infrastructure that we have established at the Center, which includes a library, archives of recorded memories of the elders of the community, and also original documentary and photocopied material gathered from members of the community and from archives in Israel and abroad. In addition, we have established collections of pictures, video films and objects at the Center. This research infrastructure is intended to save and preserve all the material on Babylonian Jewry and its cultural heritage. This material is at disposal of interested researchers, among them many young people who are not familiar with the legacy of their forefathers.
Similarly, the exhibits at the Center's Museum serve for a wide range of uses, and we are proud that many emigres from Babylonia and Assyria, those living in Israel and those who visit us from abroad, keep faith with our institution and donate to it items of clothing and textiles, jewelry, silver objects, documents and pictures, in order to preserve and memorialize our deep and glorious heritage.
All this far-reaching activity is conducted in a building whose area is no more than 750 square meters. Therefore, we are now engaged with great energy on the execution of a plan to enlarge the Center's premises to 1700 square meters. We hope to defray the cost of this construction by mobilizaing the government of Israel. Our brethren, former Iraqi Jews in Israel and abroad, support us and contribute from time to time to the financing of current activities, but we are in quest of a benefactor who will undertake to fund the building of an entire floor. Despite the difficulties we are optimistic about realizing the Center's expansion plan, and hope that in about three years we may be able to behold the enlarged building and the Museum design of the exhibition wings in it. Most of the activity of the Center now takes place in the existing building, but some major events are held in other halls, attended by thousands of members of our community.
It is noteworthy that the Center and the Museum are unique institutions in Israel and the entire Jewish world. We consider our work dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of our forefathers' great legacy and its transmission to future generations.
I wish you very pleasant reading.
Mordechai Ben-Porat,
Chairman of the Center, Or Yehuda