But it is also part of a pattern of purposeful neglect aimed at Jewish sites in the country, which was once home to some 150,000 Jews whose presence dates back 2,600 years. Today, less than a handful of Jews remain.
The Swiss-based International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (Aliph), began a project in 2021 to reconstruct the Sassoon Synagogue, raising tens of thousands of dollars.
But work ground to a halt in 2022 when the Iraqi parliament passed a law entitled “Criminalising Normalisation and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity”, referring to Israel, where most Iraqi Jews now live.
“The official central government response to the reconstruction efforts is that inevitably it will require contact and consultation with Israelis, which is forbidden,” explained Mr Shuker, a senior member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
That means one of just three known remaining synagogues in the country is now facing irreversible decline.
Just one remains in Baghdad – the Meir Twigg Synagogue – but it has been permanently locked up and is also crumbling, with not even enough Jews left in Iraq to make up the quorum of 10 men to conduct prayers.
A third synagogue in the county’s south has been turned into a warehouse.
