From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Iraqi Jewish pilgrimage site endangered by IS
The Iraqi site believed to be the burial place of the biblical prophet Nahum is in danger of being destroyed by the Islamic State.
Nahum’s Tomb in Alqosh, an annual pilgrimage spot for generations of Iraqi Jews, is 10 miles from territory controlled by IS, the Israeli daily Haaretz reports.
Until the early 1950s, thousands of Jews gathered at the site during the Shavuot holiday, some staying for as long as two weeks.
The tomb, inside an abandoned synagogue, is cared for by Asir Salaam Shajaa, an Assyrian Christian whose father and grandfather also cared for the site at the request of Jewish community leaders who fled, along with the majority of Iraq’s Jews, after the Iraqi government vowed following the establishment of the State of Israel to expel them.
— JTA
The Times of Israel Community.