Chopping Onions on My Heart by Samantha Ellis

I am always happy to discover new books about the rich heritage of Iraqi Jews, as each book brings more information about a world that once was. Most part of the books I´ve read are generally related to the issues of identity and belonging in the Israel context, Chopping Onions on my Heart. On Losing and Preserving Culture by Samantha Ellis is adding a different identity layer: the role of language in keeping alive a world that exist only in memories.

Iraqi Jews, as many other Jews from Arab lands, don´t have a place to come back for the summer vacations. Children cannot experience the flavors and language inflections of their mother tongue. They cannot build their own memories of the places where they are coming from. Iraq is a place out of reach and for the newest generation - diaspora-born - there is no direct connection with the place. The Iraq of their parents and grandparents doesn´t exist anymore either. 

Judeo-Iraqi is a language that for Ellis, as for many Jews of Iraqi origin living all over the world, may build that bridge to the world as it was once. Ladino or the many variations of Jewish Persian dialects are kept alive by a community of language enthusiasts, some joining the fantastic courses of the Oxford School of Jewish Language that I had the pleasure to visit twice. Ellis herself attended the Judeo-Baghdadi classes. There are even more initiatives lately where people, not necessarily with a direct connection to the realm, do learn, translate, converse in those ´lost´ languages. It´s the power of zachor - as long as we remember them, we talk about them, they will stay alive.

Ellis is following the usual intellectual format of identity memoirs: food, family history, language longing. But although the format is similar with other memoirs, the content is different and this is what enriches the story about Iraqi Jews. Each chapter was a door towards a cultural realm which is about to disappear.

For me, it was another topic that interested me dearly: how can you connect your children to a traumatic heritage. It is all about that life choreography which is so difficult to keep under control and repress without diminishing its authenticity. In the end, everything belongs and depends on the power of stories and their storytellers.

I had access to the book in audiobook format, read by the author. 

Remembering Baghdad

´We are part and parcel of Iraq and I will not let go´.

Remember Baghdad, currently available on Netflix, documents the 2,500 years of Jewish history in Baghdad through the eyes of five families currently living in London. Although the traces of Jewish history are everywhere in Iraq, particulary in Baghdad, few people may remember nowadays the 140,000 Jews that were forced to leave the country.

Formerly a center of the Jewish world, Iraq is coping with a decade of dictatorship, war, civil conflict and foreign involvement. The film brings to life family stories and memories, businesses that were left behind and political projects - such as involvement in the Communist Party, were some of the former members got later involved in similar projects in Israel.

Like in the case of Persian Jews, Iraqi Jews nourish kind memories of their former country. It is a love for a country were they used to live or about whom they dreamed about with the dreams of their parents and grandparents. 

The film is using both documentary sources about Iraqi Jews and the making of the Middle East and Israel during and after WWII and direct interviews, as well as ground research in Baghdad and Irbil. It is balanced, nostalgic and keeps the distance from the subjects in order to let them unfold their stories, and the testimonies about their contribution to the local economy and culture.

Until the time will come for the Jews of Iraq to be able to visit again the places where they or their parents and grandparents were born, documentaries like Remember Baghdad are here to make everyone aware of their presence and memories. One day...

Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel

 

Between 1950 and 1951, 123,000 Jews from Iraq moved to Israel, particularly under the pressure of antisemitic turn of events. For the next decade at least, most of them were faced with a different reality that that they might have imagined before: far from being the country of ´milk and honey´, Israel was a pragmatic new state, coping with serious economic and social difficulties, looking for cheap labor force and with a relatively low tolerance towards cultural and social differences. 

Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel is the last volume of a trilogy written by Orit Bashkin featuring the Jewish community in and from Iraq. Very well documented both in terms of history, culture and direct contact with the Iraqi Jews themselves, the book opens up new perspective while countering triumphalistic approaches. ´The Iraqi-Jewish experence in Israel challenges the notion that Israel served as a melting pot for various global Jewish communities´.

There is a lot of material to discuss about in the book. From the extensive description of the conditions suffered by the newly arrived from Iraq, until the disdain unempathic displayed by the Askenazi establishment and the more or less random acts of protest again the measures took, the reader is offered a very detailed insight into the topic. Interestingly for me was the information regarding the connections of Iraqi Jews with the Communist Party in Israel. 

By taking a variety of perspectives - social, political, economic, cultural, anthropologic - the reader is offer a very complex landscape, which far from making conclusions, it re-writes an episode of histoy of both Israel and Jewish communities. It critically treats the data while offering possible explanations of the rift that exists - although at a very low level - between ´European´ and non-European Jews. 

However, the rift is not so black-and-white and rather has to do with specific social discrepancies, as, for instance, within the camps where the Iraqi Jews spent as long as seven years, they met not only other ´Mizrahim´/´Oriental´ Jews, but also Jews coming from Romania or other Eastern European countries. 

Personally, I would have love more comparative approach between, on one hand, the Iraqi Jews in Israel, and the Jews from Yemen or Syria or Egypt, among others. There are a couple of mentions in this respect, but it gives the impression of a special case faced by the Iraqi Jews when, in fact, it was typical for other communities as well.

Nevertheless, Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel is a noteworthy contribution to the current Israel story. By revealing less known and less pleasant episodes of the recent history, it only makes the Israel story easier to understand. 

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

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.

Those fine chains of sand that bind us

I finished reading this book in one long night, but took me some more weeks until all the impressions and ideas started to get together, less emotional and more clearly. 

Written from the perspective of British, sometimes too liberal, Jew - see the discussions about Israel and the religious compromise in a mixed family - it explores the identity stories of young Jews and Israeli, during the last war in Israel. If for an Israeli born and breed like Udi, being Jewish and Israeli is an identity to carry on with, for the successful banker Daniel from London, making aliya and eventually going to the Army is the confirmation of an identity that cannot fully develop outside Israel. For Daniel, taking part to a pro-Israeli manifestation in support of the three yeshiva kids kidnapped by Hamas, although confronting animosity and anti-Semitism, was this way to show his support. For Udi, in a British hospital after surviving a terrible car accident, facing the animosity of some of the nurses, was a part of life. 'But he knows that there will be always be those who hate Israel, and most of the staff are friendly and welcoming and blessing-sent'. And there is also Daniel's mysterious artist girlfriend.

There are a lot of discussions and cruel social realities, about Israel and the everyday tensions and the need to break free of all the drums of war, in a quiet sanitized European city. But somehow, those fine chains of sands are bringing us together or around the same (Pesach) table, everyone with its own truth. 

The book is well written and keeps you awake and curious to find out the rest of the story. The characters have depth and the tensions between idetities and love stories make it a captivating story. It is a book that makes you think a lot about your own identity, sometimes in a provocative, not always convenient, way.

There is an inaccuracy in the book, as the Iraqi Jews do not speak Farsi, but an Arabic dialect. I did find the choice for using 'yamaka' instead of kippa a bit awkward. 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher via NetGalley.com

Haggadot to make you think this Pesach

There are only a couple of hours left till Pesach and after days and for many even weeks of preparations, it's time to slow down and think about the meaning of the holiday: a holiday of freedom when we recognize what are the things that really matter into our life. Reading together the Haggadah is one of the most important moment of the seder - besides the delicious food, of course. Here are some recommendations to read this year, or later. The meaning is always the same as it is never enough to start a new life.

The Ethiopian Haggadah was published a couple of years ago by Koren and reunites the fantastic stories and memories of the exodus to Israel of the Ethiopian Jews. The first time when I'd read their stories and their courage to defy death, going by foot for months till they reached Jerusalem, I was deeply impressed. Used with the comfort of booking a flight to Tel Aviv as often as we can, we forget sometimes the deep meaning of coming home. The Ethiopian stories, illustrated with pictures and detailed with documents are a testimony of am Yisroel's strength. 

Yemeni traditions are fascinating and distinguished from the Askenazi and Sephardi customs, not only when it comes to the composition of the Siddur (prayer book) but also regarding the overall setting and culinary choices of the Pesach seder. 

The original Algerian Haggadah has various Berber influences, and different customs, such as the one of serving the guests from the Seder plate. I was told that this is also the minhag among Morrocan Jews Special songs are also sung, with the specific Hebrew intonation. The Aleppo Haggadah  reunites commentaries of the Syrian rabbis from the 17th to the 21st century. Besides the beautiful illustrations, it has useful information about the history of the Jews from Syria and their traditions.

Vilna Gaon (GRA) Haggadah I discovered a couple of years ago and I continued its reading long time after the holiday was over. The commentaries added of his son, Rabbeinu Avraham are outlining hidden Kabbalistic interpretations and a strong message of hope for the geula (redemption). 

The Indian Haggadah, used by the Bnei Israel, Jews from Indian or 'Black Jews', was discovered three years ago by accident, during a garage sale. It is written both in Hebrew and in the local Marathi dialect, sending interesting information about a group of Jews able to keep the traditions despite being isolated from the main centers of Jewish thinking, but still keeping their traditions and names. Similarly with the fate of the Jews in Egypt, at a certain extent.

Before Rav Ovadia Yosef zt''l, Ben Ish Chai was the most important representative of Iraqi Jews during modern times. His Haggadah is not only guiding the process through the various pre-Pesach preparations, including the burning of chometz, but also reunites various commentaries and stories that can turn the seder into a learning experience. 

Considered one of the oldest Haggadot, the one from Sarajevo contains special illuminations, in the art of the Middle Ages manuscripts in Europe. It was created in Barcelona, in 1350, written on bleached calfskin with cooper and gold illuminations. 

Proof that every Haggadah tells a story of freedom is the one made by the 3rd Battalion of Palmach in 1948, fighting in the Galilee during the War of Independence. The Haggadah takes into account the victories and fragile peace and the hardships of the newly created state. 

With so much inspiration, wishing all my readers Chag Kosher v'Sameah!

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