ijao's Latest Posts
Iraqi Jews – Preserving a Rich Heritage
by Sharon Kanon (WZPS) It is hard to imagine what it must have been like to take a stroll down a street in Baghdad, or sit on the shores of […]
22 Nut-Free Charoset Recipes
Have you tried avocadoes, bananas, ginger, chocolate or cayenne pepper in charoset? How well does traditional apples-nuts-wine charoset stand up to her cousins? Have an international Jewish taste test and discover your […]
Jews who lived in Arab lands were NOT just fine! Jews in Yemen
by Marilyn Herman It tends to be asserted – and has been for decades – generally by those who oppose Israel, that Jews who lived in Arab lands were just […]
The Jewish Community of Baghdad, Iraq
Reposted from Beit Hatfutsot In recent years [late 19th and early 20th century] Jews in Iraq were permitted to live in two cities only – Baghdad and Basra. They numbered […]
What should be the Jewish share of the Ottoman Empire?
June 30, 2017, 11:47 pm Judy Weleminsky What should be the Jewish share of the Ottoman Empire? Does that seem like rather a strange question? Maybe that’s just because […]
Iraq’s Kurdish Jews look to the future with hope and scepticism
Kurdish Iraqi Jews now have a representative in government, but few remain from a once vibrant community Taha Smith, pictured at the Erbil Citadel, where his grandparents used to attend […]
Arab Refusal of Culpability for the Middle East Conflict
Accusation: mention of “Israel apartheid” (a standard trope in the anti-Semitic wings of the New Old Now Old Far Out and Lost Left) and “letting the refugees return”. How about […]
I Left Iraq but Iraq Never Left Me
Jewish Exiles Finally Begin to Tell Their Story Sephardi Voices, an Israeli audiovisual documentary project, aims to retell the story of Jewish civilization to include ‘the richness of Sephardi Jews’ […]
Shavu‘ot in Baghdad: 75th anniversary of the Farhud
by Joe Samulels The festival of Shavu‘ot commemorates the time when the Jews received the Torah at Mount Sinai. It also marks the beginning of a new agricultural season, Hag […]
Risking death, Muslim lawyer stands up for Iraqi Jews’ rights
Muslim Iraqi lawyer Ammar al-Hamadani is working to ensure that Iraqi Jews receive the compensation they deserve after being expelled from Iraq following Israel’s 1948 War of Independence • Hamadani […]
Finding my roots in Tel Aviv
Raised in England by Iraqi Jewish parents, Rachel Shabi ‘blanded out’ her family heritage to fit in with her peers. Years later, she has finally learned to embrace her parents’ […]
Arabic has a Jewish dialect, and these women speak it
Public Radio International tells us the unlikely story of the near-death and cultural revival of Judeo-Arabic. Alina Simone tracked down three Judeo-Arabic speakers in Montreal. They arrived there decades […]
