Baghdad (jan 1, 1773 – jan 1, 1950)

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The Jewish community in Baghdad was accepted as pre-eminent over Iraq, Persia, and India in 1773, and continued to grow in importance throughout the 1800s. The Ben Ish Chai was a leading figure of this community, and the Jewish learning of this community continues to influence the entire Jewish world and forms the basis of much of Sephardic halacha today.

After a pogrom in 1941 and increasing discrimination, the Jewish community largely emigrated to Israel in the 1950s. Rav Ovadia Yosef, who became the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, was born in Baghdad.

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