No one could call it an organized archive. In fact, it's more like a mish-mash of Jewish stuff. What the exhibit, "Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage," most certainly can be called is a treasure trove which documents a lost culture.
"The Jewish community has roots in Iraq going back 2,500 years and this basically is a record of Jewish life in Iraq and we have no idea why these particular materials were taken," explained JoAnn Arnowitz, the director and curator of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU.
The exhibit is full of unexpected treasures, including a Bible commentary published in 1568, just 93 years after the Gutenberg Bible. It was all found floating in Saddam Hussein's flooded basement.
American soldiers, looking for weapons of mass destruction, found a record of a peoples' destruction instead. They discovered a soggy mess of old books, scrolls and letters inside Saddam's intelligence headquarters. The National Archives had everything shipped to Washington, where experts cleaned and preserved this slice of history.
"I think what strikes me more fascinating is to really see, through these documents and records, the progression of the downfall of the Jews in Iraq and how they were treated," said Arnowitz, who noted that Jews were once pillars of Iraqi society before persecution forced them out in the 1970's.
School groups visit on field trips to the museum in Miami Beach nearly every day. They see how history, from ancient Babylon to modern Iraq, is connected to all of us.
Museum patrons seemed happy to see kids walking through the exhibit, learning.
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"I think it's critical," said museum goer Morris Tuchman. "Because it's a history that's totally gone yet so, so, so ancient."
The museum's chief educator said visitors of all ages get a sense of history's relevance.
"What's really great about this exhibit is it ties our own students to their studies of ancient civilizations and brings them right up to the modern headlines of our involvement in the middle east," said educator Chaim Lieberperson.
In an era when groups like ISIS are trying to erase ancient culture, exhibits like this do the opposite.
"All over the world you hear about these monuments of cultural heritage being destroyed," Arnowitz said. "And this is the story of preserving cultural heritage so I think people of all cultures can relate to this."
No one knows why Saddam collected a stash of Jewish relics in his basement, but because he did, the culture of Iraqi Jews is now preserved for a new generation to see.
The exhibit remains open until March 6.
