HERE'S AN IRAQI JEWISH ARCHIVE UPDATE from the Forward (requires free registration to access):

Fate of Rare Document Trove Remains
Unclear as Iraq Regime Takes Charge
By ERIC J. GREENBERG
July 2, 2004

With political authority in Iraq now formally turned over to a fledgling local government, the fate of a cache of rare and historic Jewish documents rescued by American soldiers from destruction in Baghdad remains up in the air.

"The final disposition is to be determined," said Doris Hamburg, director of preservation programs at the U.S. National Archives & Records Administration in College Park, Md.

Hamburg reported last week on the status of the treasure trove of communal records and Jewish holy books at a panel at the 39th annual convention of the Association of Jewish Libraries held at the Marriott hotel in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Included in the collection are parts of a Bible printed in Venice in 1568, pieces of a damaged Torah scroll and rare books on rabbinic law. A 1,400-year-old Talmud, thought to be one of the oldest in the world and believed to have been part of the cache, is missing.

Hamburg told the Forward that the ultimate significance and value of the documents � rescued last year from the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters � can be determined only after a thorough analysis by scholars.

To perform this, the National Archives is looking to find between

$1.5 million and $3 million in private donations, she said.

"There are still a lot of things we don't know" about the documents, she said. The trove represents the legacy of Iraq's storied Jewish community, which dates to 586 BCE.

The question of whether the trove will be declared Jewish patrimony or will be claimed by an independent Iraq has discouraged potential donors from coming forward, sources close to the project said.

"Until a decision is made on where it's going to go, it's unlikely American Jewish philanthropists are going to give money," said one project source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

[...]

The article is mostly a rehashing of the previously reported story, but it does contain some new details. As I've said before (see first link, above), I'm skeptical about there ever having been a seventh-century Talmud in the collection.