The last Jews of Baghdad: Just SEVEN remain (and they fear for their lives after being named by WikiLeaks)



The seven remaining Jews in Baghdad have been named by WikiLeaks, leaving them in danger of persecution, according to the city's Anglican vicar.



Their lives are now in immediate danger, according to Canon Andrew White, and they’ve been advised to hide their religion.



Canon White said Baghdad’s Anglican Church is trying to protect them, as they fear extremists might try to kill them if they’re identified.

Tiny community: Iraqi Jews pictured sitting in their Baghdad home in 2003

WikiLeaks published diplomatic cables from Baghdad which named the individuals of the small Jewish community.



And now the American Embassy is trying to locate any Jewish diplomats who could help the exposed individuals take part in religious ceremonies safely, to make up the number they’re required to take part in under Jewish Law.

A documentary on the dangers they face and the exodus of Jews from Iraq is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow.



The programme, by the BBC’s creative director Alan Yentob, said that for 2,600 years, a thriving Jewish community lived in Mesopotamia.

A third of Baghdad’s population was Jewish by the end of the First World War but they were forced to flee during the Second World War, which saw 180 killed in one day.



Jews living in Iraq were then branded Zionists and traitors after the creation of Israel in 1948 and when Iraq sent an army to fight in Palestine, Yentob says in the programme.



Only 6,000 Jews were living in Iraq by the 1960s and today only seven remain in the capital.



The Anglican church in Baghdad is also trying to keep safe abandoned Jewish shrines in Iraq.



The Last Jews of Iraq will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm on Tuesday.

In danger: Baghdad's Anglican vicar says the remaining Jews are in danger after being named (two Jewish men in Iraq pictured from 2003)



