Book Review: The Wolf of Baghdad by Carol Isaacs

´Even if we could go back to Iraq, it would be as Jewish ghosts´.

For 2,600 years, Jews lived continously in the territory defined as Mesopotamia, a region encompassed between Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They lived together with the other religions and cultures, although life was not always easy and violent outbursts were frequent. Prophet Ezekiel´s tomb is located there, However, everything changed dramatically in the 1940s, when Jews in Iraq were hit by the Farhood - pogrom, in Arabic. The main contribution for this change of heart towards Jews is attributed to the growing influence in the region of the infamous Mufti Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, one of the biggest Nazi supporter in the Middle East. Nowadays, there are only a few Jews living in Iraq, from around 147,000 at the end of the 1940s. 

I had the priviledge to meet and talk with Jews born in Iraq - in Baghdad or Mosul - and I cannot forget the nostalgy of their voice when sharing their childhood memories from places that are no more. Through their stories they transmitted the love for Iraq to their children and grandchildren, some of them feeling the homesickness for the country that they never seen. 

The Wolf of Baghdad by Carol Isaacs - known also as The Surreal McCoy - is, as according to the undertitle, the Memoir of a Lost Homeland. Based on various accounts of the life in Baghdad, where Jews represented around 1/3 of the population before moving - being forced to move - out of the country, some in Israel some in London, Australia, Singapore, Ireland, Canada or America. The ethnography of Iraqi exiles does not have necessarily a religion, but it cries with the same tears of sadness. Through those stories, the Baghdad or the Mosul takes shape moulded by dreams and memories and memories of the memories shared. This is how The Wolf of Baghdad was written and illustrated. 

The wolf enters in the story as a protector from demons, according to the local superstitions, spread around the entire Middle Eastern region. Amulets made of wolf teeth used to be kept near the baby cribs to protect them from the evil eye and other bad occurences. It seemed that in Baghdad, the evil was too powerful to be beaten by the wolf. 

The story unfolds almost like a ghost story, with a fast-forward overview of the everyday life changes the Jews in Iraq experienced in the 1940s. Sooner, the images populated with voices and children playing or watching from the top of the roofs are replaced by shattered glasses and keys of houses that were long destroyed by hate. 

There is hardly anything that cannot be convened in the form of the graphic novel. The Wolf...is beautifully convening through the drawings and the texts - very sparse, actually - decades of heartbreaking homesickness. The images summon the present and the past, in a dream-like graphic conception. The story it is based on the author´s personal experience. Born in London, she witnessed the traditions and the stories of other Iraqi - not all of them Jews - hosted by her parents. The memories, tastes and fragments of stories, were turned into a song-like story of love for a country that once was. The book is sometimes presented also as a slideshow, with its own musical soundtrack, often performed live by an ense,ble playing music of Iraqi and Judeo-Arabic origin. In this setting, the author herself plays the accordion.

When the Temple was destroyed, the rituals and memories were internalized. What was left from the Temple was the learning and the rituals applied in the home. For the Jewish communities dispersed in the Middle East after the destruction of the Temple(s), being forced to live their homes after thousands of years created another dramatic memory rift. The keys from the houses soon to be destroyed epitomized the longing for a home where they can never come back. Stories and the images are small fragments of the shattered glasses they carry with, in their hearts and minds. Their children can only dream about the dreams of their parents.

As for now, writing and keeping the memory is all that´s left. It can mean a lot though for preparing for those times when hopefully, a return will be possible. The Wolf of Baghdad is one of the many stones against forgetfulness. 

Rating: 4 stars

The forgotten refugees

The fate of the Jews from Arab countries is a topic that was not addressed accordingly and sometimes I wondered why. Instead, I've heard very often, including among other Jews, what a better life some Sephardim had in the Arab lands. Being a little bit familiar with stories of refugees and survivors I never realized from where this stereotype originated.

Maybe there were not pogroms and crusades and not too much religious awakening and extremism, but I met many former Yemeni Jews who were forced to change their religion. Sadly enough, many Askenazim used to have fun of their Mizrahi neighbors calling them 'Arabs', but they did not know that they were forced to learn this Arabic. Similarly as many of the Askenazim needed to learn the language of the place - Russian, Frech, German, Hungarian or English etc. - as the only way to be accepted and got professional success. More than all of us, they understand very well what does it mean to deal with the Arab world, their prejudices and stereotypes. 

I wonder why it took so long until the media approached the issue of ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Arab lands. There are so many people for decades talking about the fate of the 'Palestinian refugees' - many leaving the country at the advice of their leaders - but not too many were curious to find out what happened with the Mizrahi Jews. They don't have where to go, their property were stolen and their chances to see the graves where their families rest aren't almost impossible. The rich culture of Mizrahi Jews were took upon in Israel, where many found their home after being forced to leave. 

We are used to think about the strong Zionism of the Jews from Europe and America, but we hardly remember the brave Mizrahi and Sephardim who suffered a lot for being Jews. Many left their houses with their kids in their hand and nothing in their pockets, their properties being held illegally by their Arab hosts. 

After the fall of communism, in many Eastern European countries, a symbolic restitution was sometimes possible. Our brethren from the Arab lands can't have their houses back. Some were even stolen their memories and their religion. 

Better late than never, the world should know more about their fate, and hope that more and more testimonies will be collected and published. Until it is not too late.

The Farhood - History of Iraqi Jews