During the last year we received dozens of new pictures, which were added to the collection at the Center. This report focuses on some important groups.
a. About 45 pictures were received as a donation from Dr. Moshe Brawer. They were photographed throughout Iraq by the donor's father, the shcolar Dr. Avraham Yaakov Brawer, who toured Iraq between 1932 and 1935. On his trips Dr. Brawer collected tens of photographs of sites in Iraq, Muslim and Christian clergy, and Iraqi fellahs. It is noteworthy that the only picture in this important collection belonging to the Jewish sector in Iraq is of the bimah and the hechalot in the Abu Menashe Synagogue, which was built in the 19th century by the honorable Menashe Zbeida, and was part of the Rabbinical Academy, which in later years changed its name to the Beit Zilkha Academy, located in the adjacent building.
b. Three picture albums of rare beauty, showing sites, Muslim personages, and lifestyle of the Muslim population in Iraq. The albums were donated to the Center by Mr. Edouard Dangoor of Paris.
c. Seven picutres donated anonymously were received by the Center, their importance being their visual documentation of religious life as it continued to exist in the Jewish community in Baghdad following the mass emigration. The pictures were taken in the Mas'uda Shem-Tov Synagogue in the al- Batawiyin neighborhood in Baghdad in 1957. The scene is Torah lessons given to members of the community by the Chief Rabbi of Iraq, Rabbi Sasson Khedouri. In addition to his duties as head of the community, he also attended to matters of religion after the mass emigration. In this framework he taught ritual slaughter, shofar blowing, halacha, and circumcision. In the picture, two of Rabbi Khedouri's pupils are seen seated to his right and left. They are Najy Paniri and Yitzhak Ezra Abdallah, who after the death of Rabbi Khedouri continued to supervise the religious affairs of the community.
d. Mr. Zoheir Sasson presented about 60 pictures of his grandfather, the head of the community Rabbi Sasson Khedouri. Most of the photographs were taken after the mass emigration, and in them the Rabbi may be seen at various events in the community.
e. Aharon and Sylvia Moreh presented about 30 family pictures, taken mostly in Baghdad in the years following the mass emigration. Most of them show the henna ceremony and the wedding of the couple in the late 1950s.
Picture captions: The Mas'uda Shem-Tov Synagogue, Ellul 5717 (1957).