This is a photo of the Halahmy family two years after they were forced to leave Iraq. Mr Halahmy was a goldsmith and jeweler in Baghdad and owned his own factory. Mrs Halahmy taught French and Modern Hebrew. They lived together with their extended family in Baghdad in a large house. The children kept pigeons on the rooftop, like many other people in Baghdad. In the summer it was so hot they slept on the roof. Most of the Iraqi Jewish population left Iraq between 1949 and 1951 because of the hostility towards their community. Today there is only one tiny synagogue left in Iraq and less than 50 elderly Jews. The Halahmy family chartered a plane with 300 members of their wider family when they left for Israel. They were allowed to take nothing with them, not even birth certificates. They arrived in Israel completely impoverished and lived in a tent. The Iraqi Jewish community were the original Babylonian Jews and they were the longest continuous Jewish community in the diaspora. The Halahmy family miss their life in Baghdad and would like to return to their homeland to visit.