We wanted to travel to Israel. The government said “you have to renounce your Iraqi citizenship and register for aliyah to Israel.” And we did, and we came…we came to Israel without money. (With only) twenty kilograms of clothing. And there, in…the airport, they took half our clothes. We came with…a small suitcase and a small amount of clothes. We came to a tent, a tent here in Israel. And we said “long live the State of Israel!” because we came to Israel. We had our house which we built…we did everything good inside it. And we…worked in construction, we worked in…fields, in…we worked everywhere. And we said, “thank you, thank you Israel. Israel is good. May Israel be healthy.”

Before…the synagogue, and…she heard that…the prayer in the synagogue, and would sit (there) from morning. When she slept, she would read “shema Yisrael”. Every night (she would say) “shema Yisrael, h’ is Gd,, h’ is one’”. Every night. And she was religious like nobody else. She was very religious. And we loved her, and she had a word to walk with everyone. We respected her. She was good. And she died in…(19)73. She died, may she rest in peace. 

Beautiful language. I like Arabic. I really really like Arabic. 

I grew up there in Baghdad. My eyes opened there in Baghdad. I studied there in Baghdad. Everything in Baghdad. I feel my whole body is there in Iraq. There’s nothing here in Israel. I came […] 66, and today like 120. And 55. My whole body is in Baghdad. I came to Israel and said, “100 out of 100”. They laughed at me. They said “nobody says 100 out of 100”. So they laughed at me. Again, a Russian manager. He would laugh, and said “nobody says 100%. They say 100%”. I learned. Thank you.

When my sister…got engaged…her boyfriend…proposed to her. And the Iraqis didn’t understand that she was married. They thought…thought she was still unmarried. And when they would go to the cinema or another place…they would take another friend or cousin aged 17 or 18 (as though they were) looking after her.

The houses were all together. The same. You’d go in here…this…the kitchen, and the shower. Upstairs there was…everything for sleeping. Beds, beds…beds, many beds next to each other. We were seven children of my mother. Bed, bed. We’d go out onto the roof and sleep on the roof in summer.

After Passover. Rosh HaShana or something like that. On Rosh HaShana, they would go downstairs.

The life was good, beautiful. Better than here. The woman would be at home and wouldn’t work. The children would eat…the mother would cook every day. Every day cooking […]. A woman would go to the street at one o’clock with a […] to take the remaining food. So that the leftovers wouldn’t go bad.

The Muslims would come on holidays. One officer came to my father with an expensive beaded necklace. He came on the holiday. He came six months later with a different woman to my dad. My father did this with the necklace.

I was at a girl’s school and I played with a ball to. I played with the ball a lot. I really liked…working my body a bit. I liked sport. I really liked sport. And here in Israel I did a lot of sport. I used to walk a lot, and lift heavy weights on my hands and feet. Because of that, today I’m well. I…walk, and cook and do the housework and clean the house. Every cupboard with my hands. I’m 87 years old.

There was a property taxin Baghdad. I really liked life in Iraq. I liked it. Because I opened my eyes in Baghdad…I don’t know. Maybe.

Baghdad was…they would sing about Baghdad was the country of the Rashid and the Gulf people. That’s Baghdad.

Baghdad was called […]