חגים

Every holiday, we would go to Baba Sida and celebrate the holiday for him. And my grandmother would cook, and also my mother would cook. We were a big family. We used to celebrate the holidays…we would always do it […] if (there was) a wedding, they wouldn’t let us go to the wedding. We were little girls. But the older ones would go…to the wedding. My sister (who was) older than me would go…to her friend who was getting married. She did a henna ceremony. They would not let me go. I would cry and say, “why won’t they take me?”. I used to go…on Sukkot…we would make a sukka at home and organise it, and the whole family would sit (in it). We’d sit in the sukka, and cook. Every week, dad would slaughter a lamb and cut it into four sections. My sister would come and I would bring… my dad (would bring) a knife and (cut it into 4 equal parts) without (needing to) weigh it or anything. He (would) say to her, “put each one on the meat. and we would split it (between us)”. We had everything in the house. Dad used to work. Dad had a store. And…on the evening of Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year), we would cook and go to…the garden. We would sit there all of us and make tea and bring food and sit there. The whole family would go. And then in the evening until we’d go home. Dad would work in the store, and also he would sell chicken and eggs. He would take chicken and eggs down to Baghdad every night. He would send chicken and eggs every night and buy from the Arabs, and bring them home. And my sister…and my brother…all of them would fill them into big boxes and tie them. And chicken…we had a a storage room. We had a room. Dad would buy the chicken, and put it in the room. And in the evening, dad would sit and we would go and bring it from the room. He would put them in the cage and count them and put them (in the car), and we would send them to Baghdad. We had a good (economic) situation in Iraq. We had a new house next to the water. When I was 16 years old, a guide came and said, “I’m from Israel. If you agree, I’ll teach you Hebrew.” I said to him, “no. I have to tell my mother. I’m afraid.” I came to my mother. My mother agreed. She said to me, “go and learn (Hebrew)”. My sister came wanting to learn. She was older than me. He said to her, “no. You’re engaged.” They used to come to us…. only in the day when there is… on the evening of Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli independence day). We did (celebrated) it. If I would study, (it would be) just girls on our own. It wasn’t possible to study (with boys). But on that day young boys would come and we’d sit and study. We would also do celebrations. We would laugh and talk. We all wanted to go to Israel, but dad didn’t agree. He would say to me, “no, my daughter. The Muslims are grabbing the (Jewish) girls and taking them. I won’t let you go with them.” I would cry. I wouldn’t drink or eat. He would say to me, “no, my daughter. I’m afraid for you. They’ll take you! I don’t want to give you (to them).” Afterwards, I stayed quiet until we (actually) came to Israel. On Yom Kippur, I would go to the synagogue. And I would go with my mother. Because not everybody would go there. It was shameful. I would go with my mother. (When) I was eight years old, I fasted.  We would come home, break the fast and eat and…on Yom Kippur. And dad…every morning and evening would close his shop and go to the synagogue. My uncle was very religious. In the time of Hitler, he fasted for two days. He didn’t eat nor drink. He fasted for…because the Jews were being killed. We all knew that Hitler was killing the Jews.