31/05/2026
Today we remember the victims of the Farhud (Arabic for “pogrom” or “violent dispossession”) which erupted on June 1, 1941 in Baghdad, Iraq. Over a two-day period, rioters murdered more than 200 Jews, injured 600 others and r***d an undetermined number of women. Some 1,500 stores and homes were looted.
Sydney’s Elana Zulaikha still has fond memories of her childhood and extended family in Baghdad before this traumatic event. Her grandfather, Salmon Ganene, owned a sesame oil factory. A kind and deeply religious man, he went to synagogue every day; Elana recalls he wore a long black and white gown with a brilliant red felt fez.
She was 8 years old when the Farhud broke out and is still saddened when she recounts what happened. A Muslim businessman and close friend of the family warned her grandfather that the family was in grave danger and urged them to take shelter in his home. They all accepted but her grandfather, who was determined to remain at home to study Torah - as it was the Jewish festival of Shavuot. While he was studying, an intruder entered, demanding money. When he refused - offering to do so the following day, as it was a sin to handle money on a Jewish holy day - he was shot fatally.
The spontaneous violence of the Farhud was influenced by both political and ideological factors. A military coup against the pro-British government in April 1941 was extremely popular and antisemitic and N**i propaganda spread widely. With the war going poorly for Britain and needing to secure access to oil supplies as well as transportation routes to India, the British occupied the country. In the ensuing power vacuum, riots erupted and killing of defenceless Jews, including women and children, shocked the Iraqi-Jewish community.
Despite this, many Jews who had fled Iraq, returned and prospered throughout the remainder of the 1940s. However, hopes of long-term integration into Iraqi society proved elusive and by 1950, large scale emigration of the community was underway.
The Farhud is broadly seen as a pivotal moment in Jewish-Iraqi history.
Article by Shannon Biederman, Senior Curator, Sydney Jewish Museum.
