(On) Passover we would go to my grandfather’s place. And all my maternal uncles used to come. My mother was an only daughter. She had three brothers. Everybody used to come on the holiday. We would celebrate the Seder night. And on the holidays, Shavuot, my mother used to take my father and they used to go visit Kirkuk. They would not take the children. We would stay (home). We were older and (had to) watch over our siblings. On Passover, on the holiday, before they would say “ma nishtana”, we would bring sticks, and wear my grandmother’s robe, and my father’s robe, and put something like this on our backs in order to (pretend to be) elderly. And we would come and knock on the door and they would not let us in and (say) that you cannot come (in), it’s a holiday. Then they would let us in and we would go to someone else, and we were not allowed to say too quickly that we came from (Egypt), and they would ask us. “where did you come from?”. (And we would say) “From Egypt. We want to go to Jerusalem”. This performance would go on for an hour. In the end they would let us in, and sing and read. We would not finish the Seder before twelve (midnight). Everyone would read it (the Haggadah). We arrived in Israel eight days before Passover. Exactly ten days. We stayed in Shaar HaAliyah for eight days. In the end they took us to Pardes Hana. My mother came, wanting to find wood to do aghala (making dishes kosher by immersing them in boiling water). I said to her, “mother, what are you doing?”. (She said) “I am making the dishes kosher, my daughter”. I said to her, “tongiht they are bringing us laban (a dairy product, which was not kosher for Passover in Iraq)”. She said to me, “what is this (what do you mean)? Have you become Muslim now that you’ve come to Israel?”. I said to her, “mother, we have no food. They are bringing us (food) from the kitchen”. She started crying. In the end, I did not agree to bring wood for her and she did not do the aghala. She started crying. In the evening, we went to the kitchen. We brought laban. We were seven children. They gave us a big plate. I brought it and told her, “take it, mother! This is for Passover”. She started crying, my mother. We would make matzot. The men would knead the dough, and the women would bring a big tub. They would flip it, and flatten all of it anew. The dough would not fall off their hands. The man would knead this dough with one hand, and the women would break it into pieces, move it from hand to hand, and bake it. We used to bring about four or five women. I would go to one of them, and she would come to my place. We would make it in a line. We never bought bread. We would make it at home. At our place in Tuz Khurmatu, we would not buy bread. We only used to bake with our own hands. When it was a holiday, we would all dress (in new clothes), eat and drink. On the eve of Rosh HaShana, we would take food and go to…somewhere where there were grapes. To a garden. We would take the children. And my mother would take us, and we would go there and make stuffed vine leaves. On the eve of Rosh HaShana, we would make it with eggs also. We would put money, water…

We had a hanukkia. It had..we would do…on Shabbat…we had a chain on the ceiling. And the Shabbat candelabra…my mother would…every Shabbat…on the eve of Shabbat, she would light candles. No, she would make a wick and put oil and water. And (we) would light (it). Even the…on Hanukkah, my mother would make a wick, and put oil and water with it, and they would light it. On Hanukkah. I’m telling you that at seven years (old) I fasted…it was Taanit Ester…it was very, very hot in our place. Very. During the day we would go down to the basement, and at night we would go up to the roof to sleep. This (is how it was), when they said you should fast, we fasted. If (they would say) “don’t fast”, we wouldn’t. That’s it. We used to listen to whatever my mother said, and that’s all. (I swear) on my life…I never heard. Only the men would go, and the women and girls would not go. The boys (would) go, (and so would) the men…(and) talk between themselves…and we wouldn’t listen.

When we fasted on Yom Kippur, they would whisle the shofar. We would all go to the synagogue. We would go, they would sound the shofar. I remember my uncle fasted in the time of Hitler. He fasted for two days. He couldn’t even speak. He fasted for them. At night, he would go at two or three o’clock. They would knock on the door (and say), “get up! Sasson! Slihot! Slihot!”. They would go. They would all fast…on Tisha B’Av. Also they would get up in the morning. We even had a tank with water in it. We would pour the water. It was even…we were fasting, cleaning, and everyone would say there was blood in it…the angel of death came and put blood in it. We would all clean it…until ten o’clock. (Then) we had to go to the market, to finish all our work.