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From 1951 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted between 120,000 and 130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel[1] via Iran and Cyprus. The massive emigration of Iraqi Jews was among the most climactic events of the Jewish exodus from the Muslim World.
The operation is named after Ezra and Nehemiah, who led groups of Jews from exile in Babylonia to return to Judea in the 5th century BC, as recorded in the books of the Hebrew Bible that bear their names.
Most of the $4 million cost of the operation was financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.[2]
- ^ Pasachoff & Littman 2005, p. 301
- ^ Szulc 1991, p. 208c, "Avlgur kept Schwartz informed of this enterprise and the Joint was able to finance the majority of the airlift - $4 million - which in the end brought 120,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel. It was the Joint's largest - but not the last - immigration operation after Israeli independence."