My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq

by Ariel Sabar

In important ways, they were Kurds first and Muslims, Christians, or Jews second. Muslims sent Jews bread and milk as gifts after Passover. They ate matzoh, which they called “holiday bread,” as a delicacy. They sent their Jewish neighbors hot tea during the Sabbath, when Jews were forbidden to light fires. Some Muslims even asked the synagogue keeper to wake them early in the days before Yom Kippur: They viewed early rising on Jewish days of penitence as bringing good luck. And the Jews paid back the respect, forgoing cigarettes, for instance, during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims may not smoke. In Kurdistan, religions from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism to Sufi mysticism, Bahaism, and Yezidism flourished alongside one another, and extremism was rare. Muslim Kurdish women went out without veils, could buy and sell goods in the markets, and were relatively free to talk with men who were not their husbands. Jewish men wore the same baggy trousers and embroidered tunics as their Muslim brethren.