Israel's annual Hanukkah coin series, running since 1958, commemorates a different diaspora lamp style each year. The Iraqi lamp — associated with the Jewish communities of Babylon and Baghdad, among the oldest continuous Jewish settlements in the world — was selected for 2003 as part of a broader effort to document lamp traditions from communities largely dismantled by mid-20th century emigration. Iraqi Jewish population in Israel had swelled following the 1950–51 mass emigration operation known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, which airlifted over 120,000 Jews out of Baghdad.
Israel's annual Hanukkah coin series, running since 1958, commemorates a different diaspora lamp style each year. The Iraqi lamp — associated with the Jewish communities of Babylon and Baghdad, among the oldest continuous Jewish settlements in the world — was selected for 2003 as part of a broader effort to document lamp traditions from communities largely dismantled by mid-20th century emigration. Iraqi Jewish population in Israel had swelled following the 1950–51 mass emigration operation known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, which airlifted over 120,000 Jews out of Baghdad.