This was noted with warm approval by the Baghdadi grandee Ezekiel Reuben, who had a history of making generous contributions to charitable enterprises in Iraq and Ottoman Palestine, including the establishment of the Beis Yaa’kov Synagogue for the Perushim in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Yet all his affairs have been left in the charge of his assistant while he devotes himself full-time to this venerable enterprise.Ezekiel Reuben passed away on the 14th of Tamuz, 5611 (1851), leaving behind two similarly generous sons, Menashi and Sassoon.
The traveller Jehiel Fischel, who visited Baghdad on the 14th of Sivan 5620 (1860), wrote: Thanks to the Blessed God, there are many Yeshivot and Hakhamim in Babylonia who focus exclusively on Torah and divine service!
This costs 50 coppers or more, and he pays it from a legacy trust left in his father’s will.In 1863, there were 30 scholars whose sole duty was to teach rabbinical students at the seminary.
Many were written in Hebrew and Aramaic, as well as a few in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, which demanded a substantial staff of scribes who were proficient in Eastern languages.
A sole surviving Sefer Torah from the original Midrash, dating to the early 17th century, has been transported to the Be’er Hana synagogue in Netanya.
An oral tradition claims that as the fire reached their room they began to recite the Shema, and suddenly someone opened an external window and lowered a pole that allowed them to climb out.
In June 1941, after the bloody pogrom known as the Farhud struck the Jewish community of Baghdad, chief rabbi Yaakov Mutzafi opened the gates of Midrash Bet Zilkha to survivors of the atrocity who were evicted from their homes.