The collection includes a wide variety of books and rare documents, ranging from 500-year-old commentaries on the Talmud to personal letters sent during the 1950s. These materials were abandoned during Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, when almost all Iraqi Jews made aliyah to Israel on the condition (imposed by the Iraqi government) that they leave their property behind. The Intelligence Agency of the Iraqi regime subsequently gathered these books and documents from synagogues and Jewish community institutions, eventually storing them in the basement where they would be found by the US Army.