Iraqi Jews to Demand Compensation for Billions in Lost Assets

From Iraqi Jews to Demand Compensation for Billions in Lost Assets:

Leaders of the Iraqi Jewish community from around the world are to meet in London on Sept. 18-19 to plan a strategy to demand compensation for lost assets, potentially in the billions of dollars, from the Iraqi government. Iraqi-born Mordechai Ben-Porat, chairman of Israel's Center for the Heritage of Babylonian Jewry, organized the first meeting. "The Jews left behind hospitals, schools, cemeteries, shopping markets," said Ben-Porat, who had been a leader of the Zionist underground movement in Iraq from its inception in 1942 until he immigrated to Israel in 1945. The Iraqi Jewish community was among the largest in the Arab world, numbering some 140,000, but most of the community left Iraq between 1950 and 1952, after the creation of the State of Israel.