In the city of two springs: Perceptions of Mosul’s Jewish quarter among Zionist and Alliance Israélite Universelle emissaries

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article discusses the reports and accounts of the Alliance Israélite Universelle and Zionist emissaries regarding life Jewish Quarter of Mosul (Mahallat al-Yahud) during the first half of the twentieth century. As a dynamic and open Jewish space, the quarter expressed the development of the Jewish community in the ‘city of two springs’, as Mosul was known among its inhabitants. The article discusses the ideological perceptions expressed in the accounts of the emissaries on life in the Jewish Quarter. The emissaries concentrated on aspects relating to the process of modernization, while describing the Jewish Quarter as a Jewish ghetto.