I learned today that there are perhaps about 30 or 40 Jews in Iraq at this time, most of them living religiously underground. This is an incredible commentary on the resiliency of Sephardic Jews living under Arab rule, which since 1948 has been all but impossible. Before the founding of Israel there were about 100,000. It’s possible that this is one of the oldest living communities of Jews in the world — 2,700 years. Their future, like that of all Iraqis, is pretty uncertain but I wonder if the Jews’ fate is more sealed now than ever.