Iraqi Jew site

The IraqiJews site has a interesting guestbook with many interesting stories about the Jews and the Kurds.

Name = Saman Jabbary
country: Germany
I am a kurdish man from Kirkuk. I remember that my father spoke about his jewsish friends in kirkuk. I will be very happy when the Iraqi-jews will be back to Iraq. Iraq is for all (Muslim, Christian, Jews, Yezidi and others)


Name = Helmut Kadir
Shalom, I come from a small Kurdish village called (kulajo). It was located in Kifri district of Kerkuk province. There was a big orchard called (bax-gawra) it was was very nice and had every kind of fruit in it. It was owned by a person we all knew that he bought it from Jews when they left Iraq. Another site still exists in that the region called (tapay-kalan), it is a big hill but we all heard that once it was a village that belonged to Jews and they all left to Israel. Still, nobody knows what is inside that hill. We, as Kurdish people, like Jews and we wish that one day they'll come back to Iraq, just as anybody else that was deported from their homeland. In that village we have Jews married to the Kurds and we would like very much to see them back to the land of Mesopotamia where we can all live together again. Thank you for the great website and peace to all. Helmut Kadir.

Name = Setrak Iskenderian
country: Los Angeles, California
My name is Setrak Iskender, born in Baghdad Iraq 1960. I am an Iraqi-Armenian; my father attended a Jewish school in Kirkuk (Northern Iraq), during the late 1920s & the early 1930s. He was satisfied with their education & treatment & he decided to let me & my younger brother Aram Iskender to attend Jewish schools.
I was admitted to Menahem Saleh Daniel Elementary in the early 1960s; Miss Kanawaty was the principle Miss Marcel was the vise principle I graduated from there in 1972 & attended Frank Iny School (Mr. Abdullah Obedia was the principle). I spent 1 year and after the nationalization of the education in 1973 the school was closed & went to another school. Ironically, I returned to graduate from Al Nithamiyah High school (formerly known as Frank Iny). My life in those schools & inside the Iraqi Jewish community was so great, wonderful & still lingering in my memory.

Name = Karim Faily
country: USA
The Kurds & Jews got along very well till the evil Saddam came to power. At least the Jews had a home to go, but we did not have any place to go. We must fight this evil.

Name = roee
country: Israel
Nice site. My father was one of those jews who left Iraq during that perioud of time, right in the year of 1970 when he decided to escape Iraq in order to have a better life without persecution from his arab neighbors. Of course he wasn't allowed to leave but luckly for him the kurds and iran back then used to be in a very good relations with israel so he went to the kurdistan part of iraq and they helped him to get into iran. There he was helped by the jewish agency to move to Israel.

Name = Raya Allam
Hi,
Very nice website you have here. My father(an Iraqi Muslims) always speaks fondly of the Iraqi Jews, how they made up such a vibrant part of the Iraqi community and how it is such a great loss to have them leave Iraq, perhaps forever...
He is looking for his friend Haim Murad, a Kurdish Jew.

Name = Karim A Karam
I am a Kurd from Iraq. My father & relatives used to work with the Jewish people in 1940-1960 in Baghdad, the time (1960) when most of the Jews left Iraq. We wish that we could leave Iraq with our Jewish friends, that we dearly missed. My father & relatives helped our friends leave Iraq, I was too young then. We have smuggled some of our Jewish friends to Kurdish regions of Iraq then to Iran & Turkey. You are too kind with the Kurds & we'll always love you. May God bless you all. Truly,
Karim

Name = Martin-Fallon Roxenlind (Don Corleone)
country: Sweden
Thank you for your homepage. It's very interesting. The Jewish people will always belong to the Middle East, just as the kurdish. The Iraqi people are from a lot of religions and nationalities, that's why Iraq is called Mesopotamia. We have to think how we can all live together again.

Name = Sebastian Parwar
country: Sweden
My father was Zaradisht and my mother jewish from Kurdistan Iran. They were killed and I was adopted by a family who moved to Baghdad. In 1976 I moved to Poland then to Sweden with my wife. I knew the truth about myself 40 years later, after my mother died. In her will she told me the whole story and that I was jewish. I couldn't believe it. I was both sad and happy. I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and Hag Hanukkah Sameach.