Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and historically significant Jewish communities. It was to Babylon that the Jews were exiled around 600 BCE. The descendants of these exiles ensured that Babylonia became the most important Jewish community after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. With the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the life of Iraqi Jews improved, though the community never regained its former importance. Iraqi Jews played an important role in the early days of the country's independence, but the Iraqi Jewish community, numbered at around 120,000 in 1948, almost entirely left the country in the wake of increased persecution, most of them repatriated to the new state of Israel. Today, fewer than 100 Jews remain.
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