The Mesopotamian Zionist Committee (Heb. ha-Aguda ha-Ṣiyyonit le-Aram Naharayim; Ar. al-Jamʿiyya al-Ṣahyūniyya li-Bilād al-Rāfidayn) was founded in Baghdad on March 5, 1921, with the assistance of the Jewish Agency. The head of the committee, Aaron Sasson ben Eliahu Nahum (1877–1962), known as ha-more (Heb. the teacher), is considered to have been the first Iraqi Jewish exponent of political Zionism. The committee took over the club and library of the Jewish Literary Society (Ar. al-Jamiʿiyya al-Adabiyya al-Isrāʾīliyya) and pressed the Zionist cause in Iraq. Zionist associati…