Jewish Shrines in Iraq: A Shared Heritage
The tomb of high priest Joshua Cohen Gadol.
By Adhid Miri, PhD.
Part II
For 2,600 years, Jewish life flourished in Mesopotamia—modern-day Iraq—stretching back to the time of Babylon, where the Jews composed the Babylonian Talmud, and to the city of Ur, birthplace of the Prophet Abraham. Across centuries, Jewish communities left an indelible mark on the country’s cultural and spiritual landscape, building synagogues, schools, and shrines that became intertwined with the heritage of Iraq’s diverse peoples.
From Baghdad to Mosul, these sites once anchored vibrant neighborhoods. Shrines dedicated to biblical figures such as Ezra, Ezekiel, Jonah, and Ubaidiya drew pilgrims for generations, each community weaving its own traditions into the rituals of veneration. In Mosul’s Jewish quarter, the Sassoon Synagogue stood as the heart of a thriving congregation, while the nearby Shrine of the Prophet Ubaidiya reflected a rare interfaith reverence—Jews gathering inside to pray during the Feast of Weeks, Muslims offering petitions from outside its eastern window.
Today, these sacred places face a stark reality. War, neglect, and looting have left many in ruins; others have been repurposed or erased entirely. Yet their memory endures, carried by the few who remain and those who work to preserve what is left. Together, these shrines and synagogues tell the story of a once-prominent community whose history is essential to understanding Iraq’s religious pluralism—and the fragile hope for peace amid diversity.
Burial Place of Joshua Cohen Gadol - Baghdad
In Judaism, the High Priest of Israel (Hebrew: , Cohen Gadol; Aramaic: Kahana Rabba) was the head of the Israelite priesthood and the holiest position in the faith. From the time of Aaron until the destruction of the Second Temple, the High Priest oversaw the Temple service and served as the spiritual leader of the Jewish people. His most sacred duty was entering the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, when the holiest time, place and person converged.
For Iraqi Jews—known as Yahadut Bavel ()—the burial site of Joshua Cohen, the High Priest (Yehoshua ben Yehotzadak), is located on the western side of Baghdad in the Junaid al-Baghdadi Cemetery, near the shrine of Sheikh Marouf Al-Karkhi. Built by Jews in the sixth century BCE, the shrine was a place of prayer and blessing for generations.
Historical accounts confirm the shrine’s long-standing importance. In 1847, traveler Benjamin II described a small building shaded by eight large palm trees, divided into two sections—one containing the High Priest’s beautifully decorated tomb, mentioned in the Book of Zechariah (3:1). Other notable Jews are buried in the shrine’s courtyard, including Rabbi Yaacov (Jacob) Bar Yosef, the physician, buried in 1851, and Rabbi Abdallah Somekh, buried in 1889.
For Iraqi Jews, the Baghdad shrine of Joshua Cohen Gadol stands as both a spiritual landmark and a testament to the community’s deep roots in Mesopotamia. It remains a symbol of shared reverence, where Jewish and Muslim traditions intersect.
From Baghdad’s bustling heart, our journey moves northward through the Nineveh Plains toward the mountains of Alqosh, where another prophet’s resting place—one spared from destruction—continues to unite Iraq’s diverse faiths.
Shrine of Nahum Al-Alqoshi
North of Mosul, in the Chaldean town of Alqosh, lies the tomb of the Prophet Nahum—one of the most important surviving Jewish pilgrimage sites in Iraq. The shrine, nestled among rows of stone houses 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the city, has endured centuries of change and, in recent years, near destruction.
The complex centers on a synagogue housing Nahum’s tomb, surrounded by subsidiary buildings and a courtyard. The Bible records Nahum as one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, believed to have been born and buried in Alqosh. An inscription over his grave in Hebrew states that the current structure was renovated in 1796 by Abdullah Youssef and Sassoon Saleh Daoud, ancestor of Iraq’s prominent Sassoon family. The shrine has long been revered not only by Jews but also by Christians and Muslims.
Nahum’s biblical words—“And everyone who sees you will flee from you and say, Nineveh is destroyed! Who will mourn for it? Where shall I seek comforters for you?”—resonate with the site’s location just north of ancient Nineveh. In 2014, ISIS destroyed the tomb of Jonah in Mosul, erasing centuries of shared heritage. Had the militants reached Alqosh, Nahum’s tomb would almost certainly have met the same fate.
For centuries, the shrine was a focal point of Jewish life. Each summer, thousands of Jews traveled from across Iraq to mark Shavuot there, reenacting the giving of the Torah on nearby mountain peaks. This tradition ended abruptly in the mid-20th century. The Farhud pogrom in 1941, followed by a rise in antisemitism, forced most of Iraq’s Jews to leave. By the 1950s, the shrine stood empty. Local Christians maintained it as best they could, viewing it as a “jewel” of the town and a symbol of interfaith ties.
By the 2010s, the tomb was in severe disrepair. In 2017, the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage, with funding from the U.S. government, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and private donors, launched a stabilization and restoration effort. Traditional 18th-century stonework was preserved, Hebrew inscriptions were cleaned and revealed, and green iron gates were installed around the tomb, now draped in silk. A prayer book in Hebrew and English rests atop the tomb, illuminated by warm light through latticed windows.
Today, Nahum’s shrine once again draws pilgrims and visitors of all faiths. Church bells ring faintly in the distance, a reminder of the shared cultural landscape it inhabits. While its physical beauty has been restored, its long-term future remains uncertain—its survival dependent on both continued preservation and the willingness of Iraq’s diverse communities to protect this rare testament to their intertwined histories.
Shrine of Jonah (Yunus) – Mosul
Yunus ibn Matta (), known in English as Jonah, was a Jewish prophet and the son of Amittai. He is one of the 12 Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament and is the only one of them mentioned by name in the Quran. His story appears in the Book of Jonah in Christian scripture and in the prophetic collection known as the Twelve in the Jewish canon. In the Quran, he is referred to as Yunus, “an apostle of God,” and as Dhu l-Nun (, “The One of the Fish”). The Quran’s 10th chapter bears his name.
Biblical references, including 2 Kings 14:25, suggest Jonah lived around 785 BCE, during the height of the Assyrian Empire — one of the most feared powers in Mesopotamia. While his narrative is set in this period, scholars believe it was written later, in the 5th or 4th century BCE, after the Babylonian exile, when memories of Assyrian cruelty still lingered.
According to scripture, God commanded Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh — a major Assyrian city — to repent. Jonah, unwilling to see his enemies spared, fled west to the port of Joppa and boarded a ship to Tarshish. A violent storm threatened to sink the vessel, and the sailors determined Jonah was the cause. At his urging, they threw him overboard. Swallowed by a great fish, Jonah spent three days and nights in its belly before being delivered to shore. Chastened, he went to Nineveh, where the king and people repented, sparing the city from destruction.
The city of Mosul, believed by many to be the burial place of Jonah, is home to the Nabi Yunus site. The shrine was revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The Al-Nabi Yunus Mosque (1365–2014) was built over the traditional burial site, which had earlier been marked by an Assyrian Christian church. Archaeological evidence indicates the mound also contained the remains of an Assyrian palace built by King Esarhaddon (681–669 BCE).
The mosque’s tomb was believed by many to hold the prophet’s remains and, according to some traditions, even a tooth from the whale that swallowed him. The site resisted conversion to exclusive use by any single faith for generations. In 1924, a Turkish architect added a minaret to the mosque. Its alabaster floors, conical ribbed dome, arched prayer-room entrances inscribed with Quranic verses, and wooden dharih (tomb enclosure) made it a landmark.
Local Jewish tradition held that Jonah died during the Feast of Tabernacles, which begins each year in mid-October. Jews from Mosul visited the shrine during the festival, erecting a canopy for visitors after paying an entrance fee to the site’s caretaker. Non-Jews were not permitted to approach the green coffin.
Other claimed burial sites of Jonah exist in Israel, the Palestinian West Bank, Lebanon, Turkey, and elsewhere.
During Saddam Hussein’s rule, the mosque was renovated and guarded as a holy site. For centuries, it attracted Muslim pilgrims honoring the prophet.
On July 24, 2014, during its occupation of Mosul, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) demolished the shrine, calling it a place of apostasy. Locals had pleaded for its preservation, regarding it as a jewel of the city that united different religious communities. Satellite images taken days before and after confirmed the destruction, and later images showed the site cleared of rubble.
In March 2017, after ISIL was driven from Mosul, archaeologists discovered an extensive network of tunnels — more than 50 in total — beneath the site. Many contained Assyrian reliefs, carvings, and structures, providing further evidence of the area’s ancient origins.
The Sasson Synagogue - Mosul
In Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and long a crossroads of ethnic and religious diversity, the ruins of the Sasson Synagogue sit tucked into a bend in an alley. Colorful paintings still mark its walls, but its collapsed ceiling vault reveals weathered arches and stone columns surrounded by rubble, scrap metal and garbage.
For centuries, Mosul — which encompasses the site of biblical Nineveh — was home to Arabs, Turks, Kurds, Sunni Muslims, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Yazidis and Jews. But mid-20th century anti-Semitism, coupled with Baghdad’s pro-Nazi stance during World War II and the founding of Israel in 1948, led to the deportation of most of Mosul’s Jews and the confiscation of their land.
In the 1950s, Jewish shrines dedicated to the prophets Ezra, Ezekiel and Jonah were converted into mosques, and hundreds of synagogues vanished. Only Baghdad’s Meir Tawieq Synagogue remained in use. In Mosul, no Jews remain, yet the historic Sasson Synagogue — the city’s main synagogue in the 20th century — still stands, though badly damaged.
Built in 1902, the Sasson Synagogue once served a thriving Jewish community of 6,000 and was the heart of the city’s Jewish Quarter. Since the U.S. invasion in 2003, it has been left to decay: its mikveh turned into a horse stable, its interior crumbling, the Torah ark steps falling apart, and its once sky-blue, columned sanctuary exposed to the elements. Trash and debris fill the property, while looters have removed cultural artifacts.
After Mosul’s liberation from ISIS in 2017, 80% of the city’s cultural heritage — including the Jewish district — was found destroyed, according to UNESCO. Yet efforts to preserve the synagogue persist. Iraqi expatriate Jews are working with international organizations to save the building and safeguard Mosul’s Jewish legacy. The Swiss-based Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) has signaled support for a potential renovation, and in January, the U.S. consulate in Erbil announced $500,000 to restore the small Ezekiel Synagogue near Akre.
Jewish life in Iraq stretched back 2,600 years to Babylon but was decimated by repression and mass emigration after Israel’s creation. By the mid-1970s, nearly all Iraqi Jews had left, and most Jewish heritage sites were neglected, repurposed or demolished.
The Sasson Synagogue, like the few Jews who still live in Iraq — some keeping their faith secret — remains a fragile reminder of a community that once shaped the nation’s culture. Preserving it is not only about protecting a building, but about honoring a history of religious pluralism and the possibility of peace amid diversity.
Shrine of the Prophet Ubaidiya – Mosul
The Shrine of the Prophet Ubaidiya is located in what was once a Jewish neighborhood of Mosul. Tucked inside a dark crypt, the coffin is draped in a green velvet cloth. Historically, the shrine held special significance for the city’s Jewish community, who would visit during the Feast of Weeks. Visitors would enter the crypt and lie down beside the grave in an act of devotion and supplication.
Muslim residents of Mosul also revered the prophet but followed a different custom. Rather than entering the shrine, they would stand outside, speaking their prayers through a window set into the eastern wall. This quiet exchange—Jews inside, Muslims outside—was a reflection of the intertwined yet distinct religious practices that once coexisted in Mosul.
Conclusion
Though the Jewish population in Iraq has largely vanished, their physical and spiritual legacies endure in these holy sites—fragile yet resilient markers of a once-thriving community. Each shrine and synagogue tells a story not only of faith but of coexistence, cultural exchange, and shared history across religious lines. Preserving these sacred places is essential not only to honor the memory of Iraqi Jewry but also to affirm the broader values of pluralism and tolerance in a region too often marked by division. As restoration efforts continue and awareness grows, these shrines may yet inspire new generations to recognize and celebrate Iraq’s rich, diverse heritage.