About this talk

As a historian, I understand the difference between what happened and the 'narrative of what happened.' This difference led me to try to understand the history of my city, Mosul, which has enormous gaps that make it almost impossible to comprehend what happened. It was instead the 'narrative of what happened' that has been passed down from the past.

This made me ask myself: While most communities in Mosul had their histories documented, why was the Jewish history ignored and kept off the record? What happened to the Jews of Mosul? Who were they? How did they live in Mosul? What did they do in their daily lives? What were their thoughts on every small detail of their city and its people? How were they deported? What happened next? Where are they now?

These many questions led me to search for every Mosuli Jewish person around the world to reconnect with them in order to preserve and document their stories. After conducting weekly interviews with many of them in Israel and other countries, I concluded that the massacre wasn't only physical but also a continuous attack on their memory. The only way to stop this attack on the truth and history is by establishing a Jewish Museum of Mosul and reviving their memory to reconnect them with their city. I realized that every Jew from Mosul has a personal story that should be documented in its smallest details. I am dedicated to this task for the rest of my life.

About Omar

Dr. Omar Mohammed is a historian from Mosul, known only recently as the anonymous blogger Mosul Eye. Through Mosul Eye, Omar set out to inform the world about life under the Islamic State in his city.

He is the head of the Antisemitism Research Initiative within the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He hosts a series titled 36 Minutes on Antisemitism, which discusses the rise of antisemitism around the world, featuring policymakers and officials globally.

He is listed among The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life in 2020 by The Algemeiner.

Omar teaches courses on Middle East History, Cultural Heritage Diplomacy, and Counterterrorism at Sciences Po University.

He currently lives in exile in Europe.