Iraqis like sad songs. Without having a sad thing (song), they won’t be happy. Iraqi songs, most of them, are very sad. Like the original ones. And there are also very happy ones. But Iraqis like sad songs of our language. There is a song…”it isn’t fair of you, for your absence to go on so long. And if people ask me about you, what should I answer them? What should I say?”.

That is very, very nice…(it’s by) Salima Pasha. And there’s another song…”the rules of life are all injustice”. That’s also by Salima. 

And there are other songs…happy (ones). All of them are in beautiful Iraqi Arabic.

And we grew up…most of us grew up on the Iraqi shame (modesty). We really respect elders, us Iraqis. And basis in our family is…about shame (modesty) And respect for elders. That’s what we grew up on. This…all Iraqis give their children an education of Baghdad. Even if they came here to Israel, they still…their nature is about Baghdad. That’s how we are at home. I don’t know about others, but that’s how we are at home. And this…is our story.

Greetings to you all. I want to tell you the story of my father and mother. My father left Baghdad in 1959 with his mother. His father passed away in Baghdad, and they came to Israel. The stayed in Turkey…for a year and a half they were in Turkey. Then they went to Italy. They stayed in Italy for a year and (then) came to Israel. His brother…stayed in Baghdad. His name is Nadem. He came…he stayed in Baghdad, and died in Baghdad. He didn’t agree to leave Baghdad. In 1994 he passed away in Baghdad. His children left to London. One of them, Fawaz, the younger one, remains in Baghdad to this day. He’s a doctor there in Baghdad. He didn’t agree to leave Baghdad. My father’s older brother, the eldest in the family, left Baghdad in 1973 with his family. They left Baghdad and lived in the Netherlands for a year, and (then) came to Israel. He, his wife and his children. Both of my uncles passed away. And we…my mother left (Iraq) in 1951, her and her family (left) to Israel. She left as a little girl aged around nine or ten years old. And her whole family left Baghdad in 1951…and came to Israel. My father worked here in wholesale. He worked in wholesale. He used to sell fruit at the wholesale market. And he passed away - may G-d have  mercy on him. He had another brother here, Naim, who lives on a farm. He had two sisters. I had one aunt - aunt Ktorya, and (another) aunt Madlen. They came here…and in Baghdad they lived in the Karada neighbourhood. Their financial situation was very good. And their coming to Israel was difficult for them. They always reminisced on Baghdad, and their days in Baghdad…how it was there, how they lived there, the servants, and the (other type of) servants. And the parties in the houses. They had…like…they saw it as difficult, life here (in Israel), because they came here and…the financial situation of the Jews here was very difficult. Not like in Baghdad. Everything there was […] good. And everything was happy. My cousins…my cousins (from my uncle) Nadem left Baghdad in the 1980s. Some of them came before, some of them (came) after…and they got married and lived in London. We were…I travelled to London to meet them. We would sit and have fun there. Afterwards, they got married. Nearly all of them. They stayed in London. And their father, my uncle, may G-d have mercy on him, would come to London to see us all and then go back to Baghdad. He didn’t like (the idea) of leaving to London. May G-d have mercy on him. And my whole family…all of them left (Baghdad) and stayed here. That’s the…the Iraqi Jews don’t change.

It was a bit difficult, but they all got married and had children, and grandchildren. And we also came and arrived here. And we continued speaking Iraqi (the Jewish dialect of Iraq) at home because my mother’s grandmother lived with us in the house. She was…she never had (her own) house, and she lived with us and only spoke Arabic (the Jewish dialect of Iraq). So my sister and brother and I learned to speak Arabic (the Jewish dialect of Iraq). Later, I liked the language and started making tours for Iraqis, and parties, and singing in Iraqi. I really liked the dialect of the Iraqis, the speech and…the entire life of Iraqis in Israel remained as it was in Baghdad. And I really liked the songs, (and) being […] with Iraqis. And today I do for them…I work on events in Ramat Gan. I organise parties for Iraqis every week. They sing songs by Salima Murad, and they sing Egyptian (songs) by Umm Kulthum and Abdel Wahab…every Wednesday we organise parties for them. And that’s our story, of my family that came to Israel. And we’re all (here). Greetings to you all.

In (19)58 (was) the revolution of Abdel Karim Qasem and Abdul Salam Arif. The king (Faisal II) and his family were killed. But in general, that period of Abdel Karim Qassem between 1958 and 1963 was…could be considered the second golden age for the Jews. He was a bit…didn’t distinguish. 

So in relation to…at that time, some of the restrictions Abdel Karim Qasem removed. For example, they could travel and stay abroad, so lots of students left. After finishing school, they studied abroad. Those who came back would go to Baghdad University. It was…okay. Business and such…all that was okay. 

The one thing that was, as they say, a black thing, in the history of that time, between (19)58 and (19)63…the old Jewish cemetery, Abdel Karim Qasem decided that he wanted to build a tower. Like the Cairo Tower. And they said to the rabbi that he wanted to remove all of the cemetery. And he (the rabbi) said to him, “that’s not okay to remove the cemetery.” But what happened to this situation…in the summer of…1961, it did happen. 

At that time they […] as in, this was a bad thing. A bit later on, a year or so later, Abdel Karim Qasim was killed. 

I told you. I…the *dialect*. The Jewish Iraqi dialect and the dialect of the Muslims are different. Like here, one would say that…one person’s accent is of Jerusalem, and a Tel Aviv accent, are a bit different. But here, in that respect, everyone…is an immigrant, everyone comes with the accent of their country. For example Russian, and German and Polish and Iraqi and such…their speech differs a bit. One says “xā” and another says “ḥa”. One says “ṭa”, anther says “t”. One says “qaf”, the other says “k”. In Iraq too, it’s the same thing. So, for example, we…(the word) “I say”. “We say”. “He said to him”. This is the Jewish (dialect). “He said”. We say “ġāḥ”, “ášlon-ak?”…”kān…kān wu-mā kān”. The Muslims, or the Muslim dialect, say *“agǝl-l-ak”. “čān”*. Instead of “kān”, they say *“čān”. “šlōn-ak”, “šlõn-ǝč”*. We say, to a female, we say “ášlon-ǝk? ašlon-ǝk?”. And they say *“šlōn-ǝč?”*. So there’s a difference…as in, there’s a difference between the dialects. In truth, the Jewish Iraqi dialect is the original dialect of Iraq. The original dialect of Baghdad, and Iraq.. From the (period of the) Abassids, as in…from approximately a thousand years ago. In the […] seventh, tenth…eighth, tenth, approximately…there was a plague. A plague…is a plague. A plague…and floods. Floods. Okay? In Baghdad. And many of the people died. Baghdad was gone. But the Jews…less (of them) died. Why? Because (of their) health (practices). They washed their hands. They had…they understood (the concept of) quarantine. They left the city and went outside, to the country…to the country. So relatively, the proportion of Jews who died was less relatively than the proportion of…let’s say…the remainder of Muslims. Naturally they stayed with their dialect…the Jewish (dialect). Many years later, let’s say about twenty years, Baghdad started growing again. Where did the Muslim people come from? They came from…other places. *Not* from Baghdad. They came from the countryside, from the south, okay? They brought their dialect with them. So the two dialects began to differ. Our dialect resembles the dialect of Mosul. The Mosul dialect of all (inhabitants of) Mosul. It resembles it. Not too much, but it’s closer. So when someone comes, an Iraqi Jew and speaks how I’m speaking, (someone) will tell you “is that person Maslawi?”. In comparison to a Muslim, we are considered to be speaking the Mosul dialect. They don’t know…that this is the Jewish dialect. So…in relation to Iraq, it changed more. Because Baghdad…now the majority of them (Baghdadis) are from the south (of Iraq). I mean, I have to…let’s say like this. Fifty years ago, when I left Iraq, if someone spoke Iraqi…there was chaos and…I mean…many people were talking I could catch it. The speech. Now, I need to concentrate. I have to listen to what people are saying exactly. The dialect has changed. I mean, things have changed over time. So this is how I spoke. And there was also…my dad worked all the time with the press and with Muslims. We didn’t want to show that we were Jewish in the street. Because if I were to come talk to you on the street in our dialect, they would instantly know (I was) Jewish. So I could go about without people knowing that I were Jewish. When I were to talk to a friend, I could talk as though I were a Muslim. That’s the story. But when we grew up, I started…my identity, my identity. So I started talking more in (the) Jewish (dialect). And sometimes, from time to time, there are words I use which are not Iraqi Jewish words. More Jewish-Muslim. For example, I say…”ˁād”. As in “ˁād”, as in…after, afterwards. (Jews) didn’t use it (that word) very much. And for example…words that are a bit different. They’re different. I’ve partly gotten used to them. And there are also Hebrew […] if someone is smart, we say “this person is a bastard”. As in, he’s smart. Okay? And…there’s…for example […]…we’d say “the husband of a widow”. As in, the husband of a widow…[…] you’re dead (a curse). As in, husband of widows. We can say “a fork”. One says “šǝkkāxa” and the other says…something else, I mean a different word. For example. There are words that differ between the…for example, that…ḥanafi, the Muslims say it…*what’s it called*…tap. Words such as this.

The story in relation to me…about, I mean, Iraq itself, how the Jews left and such.

Going back to my personal life. So after I finished the doctorate, I worked at a chemical engineering company, a big company. From there, as a chemical engineer, I switched to commercial things…in the company.

Later, I went to banks and became a manager…a merger and acquisitions manager in English.

In 1995 I came to Israel, I worked at an agricultural and land company. In about 1998, 1999 I started working in investment things in high-tech. And from that time I worked in those things.

In recent years I’ve started being more involved in the history of Jews of Iraq. For example, here in…the faithful…as in the ones responsible for the museum, from the area of the…administration of the museum. It’s called “neemanim”.

I am head of the organisation of the association of Jewish university graduates from Iraq. 

This organisation […] Jews of Iraq, about their history and…for example poetry or stories or things that were written. In recent years, I’ve become very involved in the subject of Jews of Iraq and the heritage of the Jews of Iraq.

After…in (19)72, I left Baghdad and went to England. I had a full scholarship there. In truth, I finished high school in (19)66, before the Six Day War. We entered university. I entered Baghdad University, in the engineering faculty. I started studying chemical engineering there. I finished the Baccalaureus of chemical engineering in Baghdad. I’ll tell you the story of the rest who finished in (19)67 and (19)68 - they didn’t let them (those who finished in 1967 and 1968) enter university. Life was different in terms of the government. So for example, between (19)50 and (19)58 after…there was the royal era. The Jews were stable. There were restrictions. For example, they couldn’t go to university either. But they didn’t suffer physically. As in, they didn’t kill them or torture them. There were many (Jews) in the prisons, accused of communism or accused of Zionism. So the courts before…in (19)50, (19)48…and when the sentence finished, they left. 

So I personally left in (19)72. I left with a passport. Passport. About at that time, they had started giving passports bit by bit. And because my father knew people who had left and got passports from the security services. But my exit was even harder maybe than smuggling, from travel. Smuggling is…travelling informally. It’s called smuggling in…part the word is Turkish. As in, smuggling…they say someone left “smuggling”. Meaning they left without a passport. Or someone escaped…he escaped by smuggling, they call it.

So I…they took me out […] of the security services. Of the security services. After, from the security services you go to the interior ministry. The interior ministry. Which was automatic. As in, a few weeks later you’d go out […] the security services was the main thing.

We…this story was September 1971. We were waiting and waiting to leave. (The outcome we received said) “You are forbidden from leaving. You are forbidden from travelling.” We didn’t understand what the story was. 

I went back to the security services. They saw it and said “okay”. Naturally, I was finishing as an engineer at college. So I will tell you another story about…I was working at…we’ll go back to that story.

After finishing…I was still in university, in the last year of chemical engineering. It was after (19)69. As in 69, 70, that year. The school principal of our Frank Einy and Shamash Jewish school came to me and a few students who had been at the school. He said, “look, your teachers…the teachers which were Muslim and Christian, some of them have left. So (can) you come and help the students (at the school)?”. So I was in my last year of university. I would go to the school and teach a chemistry class. And the year after that I finished too. I mean, (19)70, 71. I taught a few classes at the school.

So I didn’t work as an engineer. There was no work. It was forbidden. You’re Jewish - you can’t work. So I worked at the Jewish school. As a teacher. 

At the same time, I started trying to be accepted…to finish my masters abroad. So I received acceptance from a few universities in England. So I could finish…I mean, study a masters. At the same time also, there was…a few years after that, a special scholarship…a scholarship…for Iraqi Jews for the school to send them. But it was stopped for a few years. At the same time, I could obtain one of those scholarships…in England. And now I have permission at the university, and I have a scholarship…for example how would I leave Iraq?

I told you some of them had fled. My father was a bit scared of that topic. Scared not of the […] how to escape. But he had his reputation. As in, he was famous and patriotic and such things. And his son would leave? He said “I will try to help you and get you out. I know scapegoats and they can help you and get you a passport.”

In truth, my story was up to the Council of Ministers. Because I was Salim Basson’s son. Salim Basson, after my father. Famous, patriotic, and such and such. And his son…had permission at university. They […] he wanted to travel.

And so the issue got to the security services. And the security services gave permission. We said (to ourselves), “it’s over”. (But actually,) this was the start. 

After, they wouldn’t […] give them permission to travel. With a passport, with a passport.

I told you, my status was forbidden (to travel) from the interior ministry. We didn’t understand what the story was. I went back to the security services. The security services said we were successful. They wrote, again, that we were successful.

I went back to the interior ministry. Each of these occasions were a few weeks apart. I went back to the interior ministry. They said, “you are not successful”. We didn’t understand what…the interior ministry, the interior ministry, how…what they weren’t agreeing for. About what. I mean, the security services (said we were) successful, so how could they say we weren’t successful?

I came again again, for the third time, to the security services. They said, “but you are successful What’s the story?”. So now we thought we would return to the interior minister. The same thing happened.

I wrote letters. I mean, I wrote a letter to the interior minister. My mother was a bit stubborn. I mean, she didn’t get scared. She took the letter in her hand and went to the ministry. At that time the interior minister was Saadoun Ghaidan from the army. His car came out and she stopped in front of him like this. She stopped the car! She stopped the car until he…you know, everyone had machine guns and stuff. I mean, weapons. But he wound down the window and said to her, “what is it, my sister?”. As in, “what’s wrong with you?”. She went like this to him and had the letter. She said to him, this is my son and so and so, and they’re holding up his application at the interior ministry.

He said to her, “I remember such a name”. She said to him, “yes, but they won’t give him permission.” We took this…he took the letter and signed it for her. Now, the interior minister had signed - that’s the end of the story. As in, the interior ministry agreed. Whoever had interfered now stopped.

Afterwards, we understood the story. There was some person, a minor employee, at the interior ministry. He wanted to make a lesson out of me. A lesson, as in a lesson. What was the lesson? Look at this person - he can get approval from the security service, but I can stop it. Okay? Play your money. As in, give him a bribe, or give him some type of bribe.

The outcome was that the approval was given and the issue was finished.

Now we had to go to the office of travel and citizenship, which gave out passports. That also was the story as such. My mother took the thing and stopped in front of…in the queue. She came and arrived at the…what’s it called? The door. There was someone, a guard. He saw a Jewish woman, sent her away (and said) “go over there”. And this (happened) one, two, three times - the same thing. She didn’t know the story. Why…they were doing something not nice to her because she was Jewish.

Later she also…she didn’t get scared of these things. She went searching for the office of the manager, knocked on the door of his office and went inside. This manager was sitting - around him were sheikhs and such, who knows. He said “ah, what is it, my sister?”. She said to him, “I’m a Jewish woman.” He said to her, “yes? Welcome!”. She said to him, “I want to know…are we different, us Jews?” He said to her…like he was embarrassed. He said “what? What is it?”. She said to him, “such and such is the story. I came to the door and that man took me out.” He said to her, “ah, what happened? Bring this, bring that. I’ll sign it.” My mother returned again and stood in the queue. She arrived to that person - the same person. He said to her, “didn’t I tell you to go over there!”. This (was said) in the Muslim Baghdadi dialect. “You Jew, go there”. She picked up the signature and went like this with it in his face. So he saw the signature of the manager. He said to her, “we’ve finished”.

I obtained a passport. Okay? Supposedly, I was about to travel. After all that, at the same time, it had been three months since I’d taken the position at the university. And I didn’t…I still hadn’t travelled. So I wrote to them “I have a problem with…as in…I can’t come at this time.” They said to me, “don’t worry. Whenever you come - come.”