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The Historic Iraqi Jewish Community and Its Exodus
23/11/2016 @ 19:30 - 21:30
Speaker: Lisette Shashoua Ades
Temple Sinai, 210 Wilson Avenue
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016 from 8 pm
Doors open at 7:30 pm
Lisette Shashoua Ades was born in Iraq to an affluent Jewish family and studied Arabic, English, French and Hebrew in a private Jewish school. She escaped the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab lands in Iraq in 1970 and came to Canada, leaving her parents behind.
Lisette could not see her parents for thirty years because she was not permitted to return to Baghdad and they were not allowed to leave. They were miraculously reunited in Canada in 1990, having left behind all they had owned.
What happened to the Jews who were uprooted from Jerusalem to Babylon after the destruction of our Holy Temple…? What happened to them? Where are they now?
Lisette’s talk will be about the 2,500 years of Jewish existence in Babylon where the famous Talmud Bably was written and many Jewish prophets were buried. She will describe how the Jews of Iraq made huge financial, educational and medical contributions to their country and how a thriving community of more than 180,000 in 1947 was pushed out. Today only five elderly Jews remain.
