Al-Ḥāṣid (The Reaper), one of Iraq’s finest literary and cultural journals, was edited by the Jewish intellectual and lawyer Anwār Sha’ūl (1904–1984). The first issue appeared in February 1929, and it continued until April 1938. Al-Ḥāṣid symbolizes, perhaps more than any other cultural and literary artifact of the period, the Jewish community’s desire to be integrated into Iraqi society, and the openness of the Iraqi cultural field to the participation of Arab Jews in the creation of a new national culture.

Al-Ḥāṣid published the works of Iraq’s leading intellectuals, including…