Memories from the Baghdad that Once Was

How I wish I can see Baghdad through the eyes of the Jews that were forced to left. All the Iraqi Jews I´ve had the chance to meet that were born there kept nostalgia for this place in their hearts and minds.

The Dove Flyer by Eli Amir - himself born in Baghdad, nowadays living in the Gilo neighbourhood of Jerusalem - is a multi-layered story documenting the last years of the world oldest Jewish community between the terrible Farhood and the forced expulsion in 1950. There are wellknown documented facts unfortunatelly rarely mentioned in the big media. 

Told by Kabi who is a young teenager going himself through his coming of age story it features perfectly the diversity of voices within the community: the communist, the rabbi, the pro- and anti-Zionist etc. All of them are living though in a state of fear and ambiguity, not sure about what will happen next or if it is worth waiting to see. Moving to Israel - which may not be the country of milk and honey from the holy books - is for some an existential choice: Where else to go, but after all, why stay in the middle of an hostile world. But for most of them, their homeland will remain Iraq and if /when they are forced to leave, they will rarely accuse the entire society. Indeed, some of them were bad and indoctrinated, but the rest of the people, their neighbours, were those good people they helped during Shabbat or they break bread with during the rest of the week.

Besides the historical facts which serve as a context for the story, The Dove Flyer has interesting lively characters with a life of their own and a story to tell. There are love stories and bold characters keen to risk their lives for love, no matter what religion is involved. 

Amir´s novels, included in the school curricula in Israel, are both testimonies of the Iraqi Jews odissey and historical stories about a minority that suffered a lot both in diaspora and in the country. The Dove Flyer was turned also into a movie, Farewell to Baghdad.
Hopefully, I will write more in the next days and weeks about stories of Jews from Iraq, my modest contribution to all the good people from Iraq I had the chance to meet in the last years.