Return to Nineveh

A rabbi with the 101st Airborne in Iraq writes about the city of Nineveh, today Mosul, after passing the cities of Ur, Babylon, and the sites of the Talmudic academies of Sura and Pumpaditya.

I am writing to you from Nineveh, the city of the prophet Jonah. Its present name is Mosul. I have had the privilege of seeing its ancient walls, of touching its stones, of going to the grave Islamic tradition says is the prophet Jonah's.

There is a mosque at the site; but hundreds of years ago, the Iraqis we work with tell me, it was a synagogue. They tell me the reason the site is so sacred is because of the sacredness in which the Jews held it. Presently, there are no signs of this ancient synagogue.

He also writes about discovering synagogues and schools filled with trash. A very interesting read.