Iraq's Jewish community saves a long-forgotten shrine

A few months ago, the tomb of Rabbi Isaac Gaon was filled with rubbish. Its door was rusted, the windows shattered and the walls stained black from decades of neglect. Today, marble tiling covers the once-small grave, and at its centre stands a large tombstone inscribed with a verse, the rabbi's name and the year he died: 688. A silver menorah hangs on the wall behind it. "It was a garbage dump and we were not allowed to restore it," said the head of Iraq's Jewish community, Khalida Elyahu, 62.