LEADER 04030nam 22006374a 450 001 9910810777003321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-292-79747-8 024 7 $a10.7560/702936 035 $a(CKB)1000000000453935 035 $a(OCoLC)607712410 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10245759 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000189405 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11156669 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000189405 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10165440 035 $a(PQKB)11633052 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3443277 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse2140 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3443277 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10245759 035 $a(DE-B1597)588626 035 $a(OCoLC)1286807703 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780292797475 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000453935 100 $a20040219d2004 ub 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe last Jews in Baghdad $eremembering a lost homeland /$fNissim Rejwan ; foreword by Joel Beinin 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aAustin $cUniversity of Texas Press$dc2004 215 $a1 online resource (269 p.) 300 $aIncludes index. 311 $a0-292-70293-0 327 $aIn old Baghdad -- The Rejwan tribe -- Mother and the placebo effect -- Naima -- Early initiations -- Schooling -- The great crash and US -- Hesqail Abul Alwa hires a helper -- Living in sexual deprivation -- Idle days -- Distorted visions -- Rashid Ali's coup and its aftermath -- Bookshop days -- A deepening friendship -- The start : movies, book reviews -- Out in the cold -- Disposing of a library -- End of a community -- Farewells and reunions. 330 $aOnce upon a time, Baghdad was home to a flourishing Jewish community. More than a third of the city's people were Jews, and Jewish customs and holidays helped set the pattern of Baghdad's cultural and commercial life. On the city's streets and in the bazaars, Jews, Muslims, and Christians?all native-born Iraqis?intermingled, speaking virtually the same colloquial Arabic and sharing a common sense of national identity. And then, almost overnight it seemed, the state of Israel was born, and lines were drawn between Jews and Arabs. Over the next couple of years, nearly the entire Jewish population of Baghdad fled their Iraqi homeland, never to return. In this beautifully written memoir, Nissim Rejwan recalls the lost Jewish community of Baghdad, in which he was a child and young man from the 1920s through 1951. He paints a minutely detailed picture of growing up in a barely middle-class family, dealing with a motley assortment of neighbors and landlords, struggling through the local schools, and finally discovering the pleasures of self-education and sexual awakening. Rejwan intertwines his personal story with the story of the cultural renaissance that was flowering in Baghdad during the years of his young manhood, describing how his work as a bookshop manager and a staff writer for the Iraq Times brought him friendships with many of the country's leading intellectual and literary figures. He rounds off his story by remembering how the political and cultural upheavals that accompanied the founding of Israel, as well as broad hints sent back by the first arrivals in the new state, left him with a deep ambivalence as he bid a last farewell to a homeland that had become hostile to its native Jews. 606 $aJews$zIraq$zBaghdad$vBiography 606 $aJews$zIraq$zBaghdad$xSocial life and customs 606 $aJews$zIraq$zBaghdad$xSocial conditions$y20th century 607 $aBaghdad (Iraq)$xEthnic relations 615 0$aJews 615 0$aJews$xSocial life and customs. 615 0$aJews$xSocial conditions 676 $a956.7/47004924/092 676 $aB 700 $aRejwan$b Nissim$0643921 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910810777003321 996 $aThe last Jews in Baghdad$93995530 997 $aUNINA