Community
Obituary to Mr. Meir Basri
The last President of the Jewish Community in Iraq
and Chairman of the Jewish Council of Iraq (Baghdad, 1911-
London, 2006)
The older generation of Iraqi Jewish community leaders
and writers is diminishing day by day. Last week (4 January,
2006), Iraq as a whole and the Jewish Community in particular,
bid their last farewell to Mr. Meir Basri, a community leader
as well as an eminent man of letters, a writer of short
stories, a poet, economist and historian of diverse interests
and talents, who passed away after a short illness in London.
He was an active member of the Jewish Community which he
served with devotion throughout his life. He served his
country and community in many ways, as a member of the Board
of Directors of the Jewish Community Council in Baghdad
(1945), and as its Deputy Chairman (1947-1950), Chairman
of Educational Committee (1958) and Chairman of the Jewish
Administrative Committee in lraq (1967). In 1971, Mr. Basri
was elected President of the Jewish Community and Chairman
of the Jewish Council of Iraq. Following a period of imprisonment
in 1971 after having been falsely accused of spying, he
left Baghdad for Amsterdam in September 1974, together with
a few other Jewish Iraqi families who were fortunate enough
to obtain an official visa to the Netherlands. There they
were received with hospitality as refugees, and provided
with accommodation and financial support. From there the
Basri family left for London where several relatives were
already settled comfortably.
Like the late poet and attorney Mr. Anwar Shaul, Mr. Basri
was among the very few eminent Jews of Iraq who were not
only businessmen, but were also active in the cultural and
literary life of their country. On both sides of his parents'
families, the Basris and Dangoors, he was descended from
pious, influential, wealthy and educated people, descendants
of rabbis and businessmen whose members were scattered in
many countries, in the Far East, Egypt, France, England
and the USA. During the Ottoman and the Royal National Iraqi
regimes they had strong financial and social relations with
influential government officials.
Meir received his education at the Baghdad schools al-Ta'awun
(Cooperation) and at the Alliance school, where he studied
Hebrew, French and English, as well as Bible, Jewish history,
the Talmud and Cabbala. Later he privately studied economics,
contemporary literature, Arabic language and literature
and Arabic poetry. In his youth he composed poetry in Hebrew
and French. He studied Hebrew literature and was influenced
by Bialik, Sclmeor, Tschernikhowski and others. The latter,
who translated epics such as the Greek Iliad and the Finnish
Kalivala into Hebrew, inspired him to introduce epics to
Iraqi literature. He was also influenced by the French and
English romantic poets and became one of the romantic poets
of Iraq. Finally he devoted his efforts to study Arabic
Poetry, mainly Arab poets of the Renaissance period of the
19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
In 1928 he passed the exams of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry
and was promoted to the office of Secretary and deputy of
the Chief of Protocol in this Ministry. In 1933 he was transferred
to the Ministry of Post and Telegraph. In 1935 he became
Deputy of the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and in
1943 Director of the Chamber of Commerce, and founded and
edited its monthly magazine. He was at the same time Deputy
Supervisor of the Stock Exchange (1936). In 1937 he was
sent by the Iraqi Government to Paris to serve as assistant
to the Iraqi General Deputy to the International Fair. During
WWII he was appointed to the post of secretary and member
of various committees concerning commerce and food supply.
In October 1944 he joined the Iraqi Delegation to the International
Congress of Commerce which took place in Ray, N.Y. During
the following six months Basri lectured in the United States
on the Iraqi economy at various institutions and media.
In 1945 he left the Chamber of Commerce to direct the Eastern
Commercial Cooperation, and was elected a member of the
General District Committee, and the Administrative Board
of the District of Baghdad. During the years 1947-1952,
he was Director of Commerce and Publicity as well as Deputy
Director of the Dates Association at the Ministry of Economics
until he left his positions to enter private business.
His literary activities were no less diverse. In 1928 he
published his first literary article on ''Freedom'' following
Khalil Jubran's method of poetry in prose. He published
his poems as well as literary, social and economic articles
in Iraqi, Egyptian, Lebanese and Syrian newspapers, and
edited the economic section of several Iraqi newspaper as
well as articles in French and '' English magazines. He
was co-editor of the Arabic Section and editor of the English
Section of ''The official Directory of Iraq'' (al-Dalil
al-Iraqi al-Rasmi). However, his most important contribution
to Iraqi journalistic activities was his work as Editor-in-chief
of the monthly periodical Journal of the Chamber of Commerce
(Majallat Ghurfat Tijarat Baghdad) (1938-1945).
He was invited to lecture on Iraqi Radio, at the Middle
Eastern Broadcasting Service and at the BBC as well as Iraqi
TV on topics such as the economy, society and literature.
He was elected to the Iraqi Pen Club (1942), the Royal Asiatic
Society in London (1950), and joined the International Orientalists
Congress in Cambridge (1954) and Munich (1957).
Iraqi tribal and clan solidarity, the hatred of minorities,
- especially the Jews after the establishment of Israel,
the inability to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism,
the desire to avenge the defeat of the Arab armies against
Israel in 1948, brought about vicious persecutions, false
accusations and assaults, and forced the Jews of Iraq in
1950 to leave their homeland after 2500 years.
Arabic poetry he was the first to introduce the form of
the English sonnet in Iraq. He also composed two epics and
various lyrical poems which were collected in his anthology
Songs of Love and Eternity, published in 1991 in Jerusalem
by the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq, holding
263 Pages.
Because of his loyalty to Iraq and to the Jewish Community,
he agreed during the crucial days of 1967 to be Chairman
of the Board of Directors of the small Jewish Community
which had remained in Iraq. He maintained daily contact
with the Iraqi authorities in the years 1967-1974 in order
to save and release the many arrested and imprisoned Jewish
citizens and to enquire about the destiny of those who had
been assassinated and kidnapped. He defended their cases
in the Iraqi and International newspapers, demanding that
the authorities restore their civil rights and to allow
them to work or to travel abroad with official passports.
The late Meir Basri was of amiable character, hospitable,
generous and maintained, for several years in Iraq and abroad,
a Literary Salon which eminent writers, poets, politicians,
journalists and intellectuals attended. The discussions
were serious, with no joking, slandering or gossip. He was
very serious and meticulous in choosing his information,
subjects and personalities when writing history and biographies.
His wife Marcelle helped him in keeping open house which
welcomed every guest and visitor, whether they asked to
enquire about economic problems of Iraq, its history, personalities,
governments, Jewish community and its history, the relations
of different governments towards the Jews before and after
he left Iraq in 1974, or had questions on the foreign relations
between Iraq and other countries and about Iraqi refugees
in England who had escaped the Ba'ath regime. He was a living
encyclopedia on many of these topics.
The late Meir Basri published more than 14 books in Arabic
on history, economics, minorities, and biographical works
on eminent poets, writers, artists, men of letters, and
Iraqi politicians. Other books were on Turkmen literature
and short stories. The Association of Jewish Academics of
Iraq published four of his works: Eminent Jewish Men of
Modern Iraq (A'lama al-Yahud fi 'l-Iraq al-Hadith) (in two
volumes, Jerusalem 1983, 1993), his anthology of Arabic
poetry The Songs of Love and Eternity (Aghani al-Hubb wa-'l-Khulud)
(Jerusalem 1991) and his important memoirs Life's Journey
From the Banks of the Tigris to the Valley of the Thames,
Reminiscences and
Thoughts (Rihlat al- 'Umr min Difaf Dijla ila Wadi al-Thames)
(Jerusalem 1992). These memoirs are of special importance
for the study of the history of Iraq and its Jewish community.
It contains unique information, comments and descriptions
of events not available in other sources and constitutes
first testimony by an objective historian. It also contains
photos of many personalities on special occasions and several
letters and documents which he exchanged with the Iraqi
President during the first period of Ba'athist rule, Ahmad
hasan al-Bakr and his Deputy Saddam Hussein. All these books
published by Mr. Basri were received with favorable reviews
by many writers from Arab countries. He was loyal to Iraq
and as an Iraqi Jew was proud of his faith, family, works
and achievements. He was hard working, honest and devoted
to his optimistic aims of integrating the Jewish community
in Iraq as an active and productive element in the Iraqi
mosaic of minorities and religions. In London he joined
in the activities of the Iraqi refugees in England and was
received with great respect. He joined their activities
and accompanied them with his advice and experience.
Saddam Hussein's fall in April 2002 and the return of many
Iraqis back home gave him hope that he could return to a
democratic and free Iraq and resume once more his activities
there and restore the Jewish community.
However, the cruel realities in Iraq were stronger than
his hopes. The Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq
offers its condolences to his family, relatives and friends
for the loss of this unique and special personality of noble
character.
May his soul rest in peace.
Prof. Shmuel Moreh, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and Chairman, Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq
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