Tag: Jews

Veteran White House Correspondent Helen Thomas Retires After Anti-Jewish Remarks

WASHINGTON – Longtime Washington journalist Helen Thomas abruptly retired Monday as a columnist for Hearst News Service following remarks she made about Israel that were denounced by the White House and her press corps colleagues.

The 89-year-old Thomas, dean of the White House press corps, has long been a fixture in Washington and has been lauded as a pioneering journalist who has covered presidents since 1960.

Known for her confrontational questioning, Thomas apologized for comments that were captured on video and have spread widely on the Internet. On the May 27 video, Thomas says Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine,” suggesting they go to Germany, Poland or the U.S.

Hearst announced her retirement, effective immediately, shortly after White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called her remarks “offensive and reprehensible.”

The White House Correspondents Association also issued a rare statement, calling her comments “indefensible.”

“Many in our profession who have known Helen for years were saddened by the comments, which were especially unfortunate in light of her role as a trail blazer on the White House beat,” said the statement, signed by journalists who are officers of the association.

Thomas had been scheduled to speak at the June 14 graduation of Walt Whitman High School in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Md., but Principal Alan Goodwin wrote in a Sunday e-mail to students and parents that she was being replaced.

“Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness,” Goodwin wrote.

Thomas wrote on her website that “I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

She added: “They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, said Sunday that Thomas’ apology didn’t go far enough.

“Her suggestion that Israelis should go back to Poland and Germany is bigoted and shows a profound ignorance of history,” Foxman said in a statement. “We believe Thomas needs to make a more forceful and sincere apology for the pain her remarks have caused.”

Thomas began her long career with the wire service United Press International in 1943, and started covering the White House in 1960, according to a biography posted on her website. She became a columnist for Hearst in 2000.

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/helen-thomas-retires-jews/2010/06/07/id/361258, 07 Jun 2010

June 8, 2010
The Role of Turkish Diplomats in Saving Turkish Jews in France: 1940-1944

By Arnold Reisman

Mr. Reisman PhD is listed in Who’s Who in America, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He published over 300 papers in refereed journals and seventeen books. His latest books are: TURKEY’S MODERNIZATION: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk’s Vision and Classical European Music and Opera. He is currently working on two other titles. They are: PERFIDY: Britannia and Her All-Jewish Army Units and Ambassador and a Mentsch: The Story of a Turkish Diplomat in Vichy France.

During World War II, Turkish diplomats saved Turkish Jews living in France (many were French citizens others were holding Turkish passports) from certain death, a fact of which the Anglophone world was ignorant until Stanford Shaw first revealed the historical data in 1995.1 Up until that time, this important piece of history had been ignored by historians. Mistakenly however, Shaw attributed the actions of Turkey’s legations in both occupied and Vichy France to a well articulated policy created by the Turkish government in Ankara, when in fact these brave acts of heroism were devised by the diplomats themselves as a matter of conscience. In fact, from the outset of these actions the Turkish government had to be prodded and pushed, with various ramifications including implied aid programs from a number of sources, to acquiesce from outside of Turkey not from within. The diplomats involved were: Behiç Erkin, Turkish ambassador to Paris and later to Vichy; Necdet Kent, Consul General in Marseilles; Paris Consul-Generals Cevdet Dülger, Fikret Sefik Özdoganci, and Paris Vice Consuls Namik Kemal Yolga, Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and Melih Esenbel; Marseilles Consul Generals Bedi’i Arbel, and Mehmed Fuad Carim.2

Recent findings of many contemporaneous documents from the NARA, Library of Congress, and the FDR Presidential library archives attest to the fact that the intervention in behalf of French Jews with Turkish origins was not the policy of the Government of Turkey at all. Rather, it was the determined undertaking of members of the Turkish diplomatic corps who acted on their own against the extant policy of their own government and that of the US and the UK. These men of conscience risked their careers and often their lives finding no support among their diplomatic peers representing western countries including those in the US legation. With their deeds these diplomats risked the wrath and ire of their own government as well as Germany and Vichy France.

While Germany and Vichy France were anti-Semitic to their cores, Turkey was in the unenviable position of attempting to maintain neutrality while in dire fear of being invaded by Germany. For that reason and after great pressure from Germany, Ambassador Behiç Erkin was recalled to Ankara and the rate at which Jews were repatriated to Turkey was greatly diminished. Many Jews were saved by the acts of the Turkish legation in France. From March 15, 1943 through May 23, 1944, the Turkish Embassy in Vichy and Consulates-General in Paris arranged for no fewer than eight groups of former Turkish Jews averaging roughly fifty-three persons each to be returned to Turkey and to freedom by rail in sealed wagons. This is but a part of claims that all 20,000 Turkish Jews residing in France were saved. Looked at in reverse the known number of Turkish Jews deported from France to the death camps is 1659.

To fully appreciate the actions taken by Behiç Erkin and his staff, one need only look at the fate of Jews in Thesalonika, Greece. During WWII Greece was occupied by the Nazis but neutral Turkey maintained an Embassy in Athens and a Consulate in Thesalonika. Before the war Thesalonika boasted a Jewish population of 56,000, most with roots in the Ottoman Empire dating back to the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492. These Jews were no different than those in France, many of whom were saved by Behiç Erkin and his staff while the entire Thesalonika Jewish community was deported to the crematoria. Why did the Turkish legation in Greece not raise objections? They did not interfere since they had no instructions from Ankara to do so, and obviously lacked the moral compass that guided their colleagues in France.

As the war continued the Nazis began persecuting French Jews. Many “Turkish Jews” who had relinqueshed their Turkish citizenship “suddenly found it was far better to be a Turkish Jew than a French Jew, and they applied in large numbers to have their Turkish citizenship restored.”

According to a Raoul Wallenberg Foundation website:

Turkish diplomats serving in France at that time dedicated many of their working hours to Jews. They provided official documents such as citizenship cards and passports to thousands of Jews and in this way they saved their lives.

Below is a story of these diplomats.

Behiç Erkin was the Turkish ambassador to Paris when France was under Nazi occupation. In order to prevent the Nazis from rounding up Jews, he gave them documents saying their property, houses and businesses, belonged to Turks. He saved many lives in this way.

Pressure mounted for Turkey to recall her Ambassador from France as he was deemed unmanageable.

Was it a coincidence that Behiç Erkin “resigned” from his posting to France on the 23rd of August 1943 and three days later from the Foreign Service altogether? There is no question but that Erkin was removed from the Ambassadorial post because of Ankara’s inability to withstand Germany’s pressure and the implied threat of invasion. For Turkey, angering Berlin meant more than risking the loss of lucrative exports at a time when its economy was still in shambles. There was also a real and present danger that Germany could opt to use Turkey as a route to the Caspian area oil riches in order to hit the Soviets on another front – its soft underbelly. This was indeed a real possibility, not just conjecture. Turkey’s army stood prepared.

In a letter dated September 2, 2008, to Abdullah Gul, President of the Republic of Turkey, the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation’s Founder, Baruch Tenenbaum, stated “we are conducting an extensive research into the actions of the Turkish diplomats who were stationed in France during WWII, including Ambassador Behic Erkin, Consul Bedi’i Arbel and Vice Consul Necdet Kent, just to name a few.” At the time this article was written, that “research” was still ongoing. It is this author’s humble opinion that starting with Behic Erkin, the Ambassador and the “leader of the band” most if not all members of the Turkish legation in France ca 1939-1944 deserve to be honored with Yad Vashem’s “Righteous Gentile” Award.

Shaw, S.J. Turkey and the Holocaust, (London: Macmillan Press,1993)

Shaw Turkey and the Holocaust; Kıvırcık The ambassador:

Anonymous, Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem International Historical Conference on Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust, held in Jerusalem, 8-11 April 1974

Ibid

“Notes from the Leahy diary,” US Ambassador in Vichy, France, William D. Leahy papers, Library of Congress All diary entries for 1941: Reel 2, William D. Leahy Diaries, 1897-1956, (Washington DC: Library of Congress), microfilm. All diary entries for 1942 and letters to Welles: Reel 3, William D. Leahy Diaries, 1897-1956, Washington DC: Library of Congress), microfilm. Entries for: Jan. 1 – p.2; Jan. 8 – p. 4; March 5 – p.29; April 14 – p. 46; April 25th – p. 52. For July 18, 1941 letter to Welles – p. 2; Sept. 13, 1941 letter to Welles – p. 3.

Source: History News Network, 02.11.2009,

http://hnn.us/articles/118548.html

November 3, 2009
Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust

Interview with Corry Guttstadt

Turkologist Corry Guttstadt has published a comprehensive study of the behaviour of the Turkish government towards its Jewish citizens during the Holocaust. In doing so, she has investigated a chapter of twentieth-century history that has thus far been all but neglected by international Holocaust research. Sonja Galler spoke to her about her findings

| Bild:
Corry Guttstadt: “Over the course of many centuries, the Ottoman Empire was an immigration destination for Jews fleeing the Reconquista in Spain and pogroms in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, to portray the Ottoman Empire as a ‘multicultural paradise’ is absurd and ahistorical.” | Much is made of the fact that there are approximately 20,000 Jews in Turkey today, a figure that is frequently held up as evidence of the country’s tolerant attitude towards its Jewish minority. It is often claimed that this success story began when persecuted Sephardic Jews found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of the modern Turkish state …

Corry Guttstadt: Well, there are currently over 20,000 Jews in Iran too. A number alone is not necessarily a reliable indication of whether somewhere is safe or free from anti-Semitism. As far as Turkey is concerned, it is important to emphasise that only 20,000 Jews now live in the country. That’s in stark contrast to the estimated 120,000 to 150,000 that lived in the region at the end of the First World War. Both before and after the Second World War, and most particularly after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the vast majority of Jews left Turkey. This was a reversal of the trend of previous centuries.

Over the course of many centuries, the Ottoman Empire was an immigration destination for Jews fleeing the Reconquista in Spain and pogroms in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, to portray the Ottoman Empire as a “multicultural paradise” is absurd and ahistorical. As non-Muslims, the Jews were subject to countless constraints. Like the Christians, they had to pay a poll tax and were obliged to behave in a submissive manner towards Muslims. Moreover, it must be said that there were numerous fluctuations in the fortunes of the Jews in the 600-year history of the Ottoman Empire.

The period of Jewish persecution on the Iberian peninsula coincided with the expansion of the Empire, whose rulers were keen to increase the urban population. Another reason why they were happy to welcome the Sephardic Jews was because they brought with them important skills and expertise. Jews who had settled in Anatolia and in the Balkans before the Ottoman conquest, on the other hand, were forced to resettle – also for demographic reasons – and were subject to a number of considerable constraints.

What was life like for the Jews around the time the Turkish state was created?

Guttstadt: The foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 was the final chapter in the protracted disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, which had lost most of its territory in a series of wars against major Christian European powers. The situation for the Jews varied because unlike the Christian populations in the Balkans, they were not pursuing any separatist goals. In response to European protests about the Armenian massacre, Ottoman leaders liked to point to the Jews as a “model minority”.

| Bild:
Guttstadt reveals that the dissemination of anti-Semitic tracts in the 1930s heralded the birth of modern Anti-Semitism in Turkey | For their part, the Jews were often the target of anti-Semitic attacks at the hands of Christian minorities around this time and were, for that reason, reliant on the protection of the state. Consequently, most Jews initially regarded themselves as allies of the Kemalist movement and looked to the new Republic with largely positive expectations. These hopes were quickly dashed because despite their attempts to adapt and their declarations of loyalty, the Jews quickly became a target for the rigid nationalism of the young Republic. One of the defining policies of the young republic was the “Turkification” of state, economy, and society.

In this light, the Kemalist leadership regarded the rights that had been granted to non-Muslim minorities in the Treaty of Lausanne as a continuation of the interference of major imperialist powers. It put non-Muslim religious communities under pressure to renounce these rights “voluntarily”. Jews were also successively driven out of a number of professions and economic sectors. This prompted many Jews to emigrate, particularly to France, but also to the USA, Italy or Germany.

Once war broke out, how did the Turkish state, which managed to remain “neutral” until the end of the Second World War, behave towards the Jews who lived within its borders?

Guttstadt: I think we have to differentiate here between anti-Semitism and anti-minority nationalism, which targeted not only the Jews, but other groups too. On the one hand, anti-Semitic tracts like the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion reached Turkey and were translated into Turkish in the 1930s. Following a visit to Germany, Cevat Rıfat Atilhan, who could be described as the father of Islamic anti-Semitism in Turkey, started publishing the anti-Semitic newspaper Millî İnkîlâp (National Revolution) in Istanbul, which contained anti-Semitic caricatures that had been lifted directly out of the Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer. Although this and other magazines were banned for a certain period, they mark the birth of modern anti-Semitism in Turkey.

Both the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf have gone through umpteen new editions to this day. Nationalist measures that affected not only Jews, but also Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks, included forced resettlement, the so-called “wealth tax” – which led to the confiscation of assets of those who were not in a position to pay the arbitrarily fixed and frequently astronomical sums they were required to pay – and forced labour in camps in eastern Anatolia. Although these measures are in no way comparable with the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, they destroyed the Jews’ faith in the Republic so utterly that the majority of the country’s remaining Jews left the country in 1947/48.

At this time, Turkish Jews were scattered all over Europe. How did they fare?

Guttstadt: At the start of the war, approximately 25,000 to 30,000 Jews of Turkish origin lived in Europe, most of them in France. Only about 10,000 of them still held Turkish citizenship, which became a matter of life and death during the Holocaust. There were many people who came to Europe as “Ottoman citizens”, but whose place of birth had been assigned to other states once the Empire was no more. In France, it was relatively easy to obtain French citizenship. From the start of the 1930s, the Kemalist Republic began checking the nationality of citizens living abroad and revoking the citizenship of non-Muslims in particular.

| Bild:
Ceremony to mark the opening of the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, one of the few remaining synagogues in Turkey: “During World War II, Turkey was not a major country of exile for persecuted Jews,” says Guttstadt | This policy of denaturalisation, which the Turkish state could initially pass off as a normal consequence of the new state order, focussed primarily on the Jews during the Holocaust. In October 1942, Germany delivered an ultimatum to the Turkish government to repatriate its Jewish citizens from the states occupied by the German Reich. Above all, however, the government in Ankara wanted to prevent a mass influx of Turkish Jews and decided to use the instrument of mass denaturalisation as a means of preventing it. What proved particularly fatal in this regard was the fact that according to Turkish law, people who had either voluntarily changed their nationality or had been denaturalised were not allowed to set foot on Turkish soil ever again – even as a tourist or a refugee.

Moreover, in 1938, Turkey passed a secret decree that forbade “foreign Jews who are subject to restrictions in their native countries, regardless of what religion they currently practice” from entering Turkey. With this decree, Turkey adopted the criteria that characterised anti-Jewish legislation in Germany and its allied countries.

What did the Turkish government at the time know about what was happening in the countries controlled by Germany and about the fate of Turkish Jews living in those countries?

Guttstadt: Naturally, the Germans did not tell the Turkish authorities that Jews who were not repatriated would be deported and murdered, but obscured the reality of the situation by saying that they would be “subject to the general measures applied to Jews”. However, in view of the fact that numerous Jewish aid organisations had representatives in Istanbul, Turkey was a one of the places where concrete information about the Holocaust was available. From there, journalists reported about the systematic murder of Jews.

Jews that had escaped the concentration camps or ghettos and managed to make it to Istanbul, were questioned by aid committees and given the assistance they needed. Their reports were passed from Istanbul to other offices around the world. Both journalists and Jewish activists were undoubtedly under observation by the Turkish secret service. In March 1943, the Turkish government newspaper Ayın Tarihi reported about the mass murder of Jews in Germany. Several Turkish Jews living in Europe turned to the Turkish government for help.

About 3,000 Turkish Jews were deported to German concentration camps during the Shoah. To what extent can Turkey be held responsible for their fate?

Guttstadt: The Germans are responsible for depriving these people of their rights and for their persecution and murder. In view of current attempts in Germany to rewrite history again and in view of the German “victim” debate, I refuse to qualify German responsibility in any way. Turkey could have repatriated a much greater number of Jews and opened its borders to refugees. Despite the fact that aid organisations offered to assume the costs that would ensue, the Turkish government generally refused. That being said, Turkey was certainly not the only country to adopt a passive stance.

However, until such time as the Turkish archives are opened, we can only speculate about domestic discussions and criticism of the official policy towards the Jews. We must remember that the Turkish regime at the time was dictatorial; there was a one-party system; the press toed the regime line and was subject to strict censorship. The Jewish community was also completely intimidated and impoverished by the measures taken in the 1940s.

The official Turkish line is that Turkey was a safe harbour for Europe’s Jews.

Guttstadt: Because of its close ties to Germany, Turkey actually had extensive opportunities to save Turkish Jews living abroad. Isolated Turkish diplomats frequently grasped these opportunities. In Paris, for example, Turkish consuls brought about the release of a number of incarcerated Turkish Jews. Turkish consuls in Milan and Vienna also protected individual Jews. Even though these acts were not always performed for purely humanitarian reasons – some consuls may have used their influence to line their pockets – it shows the great latitude they had. In many cases, it was enough to confirm the Turkish citizenship of a Jew to prevent him or her from being deported.

The hiring of German Jewish academics at Turkish universities is often mentioned as a humanitarian act. What is your view?

Guttstadt: It is true that from the autumn of 1933 onwards, a considerable number of German Jewish academics and artists found jobs in Turkey, where they played an outstanding role in building up new universities, hospitals, theatres etc. Even though they were not received for humanitarian reasons, but for reasons of utility, the Turkish government gave these people work, in most cases allowed their families to follow them to Turkey, and protected them against persecution by the Nazi regime. Nevertheless, Turkey was never a major country of exile for persecuted Jews. In terms of numbers, the few refugees that were allowed to enter the country do not appear in any pertinent statistics.

Interview conducted by Sonja Galler

© Qantara.de 2009

Corry Guttstadt: Die Türkei, die Juden und der Holocaust (Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust) Verlag Assoziation A, Berlin-Hamburg 2008. 520 pages, 26 euros.

Letter to the EditorAdd a comment Qantara.de

Interview with Ishak Alaton
“Turkey Needs a Mentality Revolution”
Ishak Alaton is one of Turkey’s most influential businesspeople of Jewish extraction. Hülya Sancak spoke to him in Istanbul about the current political situation in Turkey and minority rights for Jews, Kurds and Armenians in the country

German Jews in Exile in Turkey
“Haymatloz” in Istanbul and Ankara
When the Nazis took power in 1933, hundreds of thousands of German Jews fled the country. Some of them ended up in Turkey, which was a neutral state and safe haven up until the end of World War II. Ursula Trüper recounts their story and that of the Ruben family

Jewish Life in Istanbul
The Guardians of Hope
Istanbul was once a centre of Jewish life. Now 20,000 Sephardi Jews still live in the city. The writer Mario Levi recreates the spirit of time past in his books, which is also nurtured by a businessman and a linguist. Kai Strittmatter has been exploring Jewish life in Istanbul

Sixty Years of Turkish-Israeli Relations
Partnership in the Shadow of a Threat
Turkey and Israel mark the sixtieth anniversary of their diplomatic relations this year. Theirs has been a fruitful if conflict-ridden relationship. But there has been more than just the desire to make peace between the Israelis and the Arabs. Jan Felix Engelhardt looks back at the start of the relationship Published: 29.05.2009 – Last modified: 30.05.2009

June 1, 2009
Jewish-Turkish Cultural Exchange Promoted

July 17, 2008 2:15 PM

In a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community of S. Petersburg, Russia, Turkish consul Mahmet Chinar and vice-consul Ozgyun Talyu agreed on a cultural exchange that will see new exhibits at museums in each country.

Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Pewzner, the city’s chief rabbi, and Jewish community chairman Mark Grubarg hosted the meeting at S. Petersburg’s Great Choral Synagogue.

Source: chabad.org, July 17, 2008

July 24, 2008
Kurdish village Akre’s last Muslim with Jewish roots wants to visit family in Israel

AKRE, Iraq, May 24 (AFP) – Hajj Khalil is the last Muslim with Jewish roots in the Iraqi Kurdish village of Akre. One of his dearest wishes is to travel to Israel to apologise to his cousins for failing in his duties as a host when they visited him five years ago.

“In 2000, several of them came to see me and I didn’t even greet them, let alone invite them to stay. Despite the autonomy enjoyed by Kurdistan, Saddam Hussein had spies everywhere,” says Khalil Fakih Ahmed, a 74-year-old wearing the traditional Kurdish headdress.

In Akre, a large cluster of hillside houses some 420 kilometres (260 miles) north of Baghdad, near the border with Turkey, place names are one of the few reminders of the former Jewish presence.

The last Jews in the region left Iraq between 1949 and 1951, just after the creation of the state of Israel.

One block of houses is still called Shusti — or ‘Jewish town’ in Kurdish — but the old synagogue was destroyed long ago.

In the mountains overlooking the town lies a plateau called Zarvia Dji (Land of the Jews) where the Jewish community used to gather for celebrations.

“My grandmother converted to Islam when her husband died and my father had just turned 10,” Hajj Khalil recalls, sitting in his garden with his children and grandchildren around him.

“When the Jews left, we stayed because we had become Muslims.”

But in the streets of Akre, Khalil and his family are still called “the Jews”.

“If you ask for Izzat or Selim in the street, nobody will know who you’re talking about,” says the old man’s 19-year-old grandson. “But if you say ‘Izzat the Jew’, they’ll know immediately.”

According to the United Nations, some 150,000 Jews still lived in Iraq just after World War II, several thousand of them in Kurdistan.

Former Israeli defence minister Yitzhak Mordechai was born in Akre.

In 1999, Khalil’s cousin Itzhak Ezra, who lives in the northern Israeli city of Tiberias, arrived in Akre.

“We told the neighbours he was a Turkish trucker who needed a place to sleep. But Itzhak met an old friend who recognised him after half a century.”

“Luckily, his friend said nothing and the story was kept secret,” he says.

A few weeks after returning to Israel, the long-lost cousin sent a letter to thank Khalil for his hospitality.

“Saddam’s spies found out and arrested our brother-in-law who lived in Mosul,” southwest of Akre, says Saber, one of Khalil’s sons.

Saber went to see the intelligence services in an attempt to secure his relative’s release but was arrested and detained for a month in Baghdad.

“They interrogated me, I pretended to be illiterate and demented. Then they offered me a passport to go and spy for them in Israel before eventually releasing me,” Saber says.

Between 1991 and the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, some Israelis were able to reach this area in autonomous Kurdistan through the Turkish border. But Saddam retained intelligence agents in the region until the fall of his regime.

“When my cousins came to visit me” in 2000, “they didn’t understand why we would not meet them but I could not explain it to them. They were very offended and left,” Hajj Khalil remembers.

Since then, he has had no contact with his relatives. “My father is hoping to go and see them to resolve this misunderstanding,” his son Izzat says.

Source: www.kerkuk-kurdistan.com [sic.]

July 21, 2008
Paradise Lost

by Amy Waldman — Publishers Weekly, 7/14/2008

Ariel Sabar’s father, Yona, was from an Armenian-speaking Jewish community in remote Kurdistan. Yona immigrated to California and had a son who felt alienated from Yona’s antiquated ways. In My Father’s Paradise (Reviews, June 23), Sabar journeys to Kurdistan to bridge the barrier.

What is the most surprising thing you learned?

How central Iraq was to the history of the Jewish Diaspora. This was Babylon, where most Jews were exiled when they were booted out of ancient Israel. This is where synagogue Judaism got its start and where the Babylonian Talmud was written. Iraq allowed Judaism to succeed and flourish in exile. In Kurdistan, it mattered more what your contributions were to the community than whether or not you were Muslim, Jewish or Christian. The terrain itself, the towering mountains that bred this community, kept out the ideologies and intolerance that have led to so much bloodshed in recent history.

What was your father’s reaction when you told him you wanted to write about him, and did your relationship change as a result?

Initially, I think he humored me. He was supportive, but thought I was a little crazy when I told him I wanted us to go to Iraq together. We talk more now and a lot of the old tensions that were there when I was younger have faded. I now see and appreciate the cultural inheritance he’s passed on to me.

The book is about your father, but what did your mother think?

She thought I captured him fairly well, but wondered, a little jealously I think, why I wasn’t also writing about her family. I told her that the story of the Ashkenazi Jews had been written many times, but my father’s story hadn’t. I wanted to bring the story of the Kurdish Jews to a wider audience.

Is there a message you hope people will take away from the book?

For much of its history, Iraq looked nothing like the place we read about in the headlines today. It was a country where Jews and Christians lived harmoniously with their Muslim neighbors. There were occasional rough times for religious minorities, but nothing on the scale of the Holocaust. What’s happening now is not representative of Iraq’s larger history. I hope people can come away thinking of Iraq in a more hopeful time, that some of the values that sustained that multicultural worldview are still there somewhere and can perhaps be recovered.

Source: Publishers Weekly, 14/7/2008

July 16, 2008