I came from Iraq. I want to tell you (about) what was there. I…studied at the Alliance (Israelite) school. We were…boys separate, girls separate. I studied at the girls’ school. And…but…many girls wouldn’t come to school, because their families were scared for them (and didn’t want) anything to happen to them, anyone to grab them, anyone to push them over, or anyone to do a bad thing to them. But I was there…I went there (to school), I studied, everything…was there. There was Arabic there, there was English there, there was…geography there. Everything that was necessary for us, we studied. We learned to read, and we learned to write, and we learned to speak. We studied everything there in Iraq. I don’t remember that we wore anything…specific there. We wore…regular (clothes). But in kindergarten, what’s called “gan” in Hebrew, in kindergarten we would wear clothes…white shirts…(and) a blue jacket.

I want to tell you a story about my father. My father knew many…languages. My father used to work in Sh’eba, with the English (army). He was their translator. He (would) translate for them the…speech in Iraqi (dialectof Arabic) and the speech in English. They couldn’t see (tolerate) the Jews. Nobody…not even one person wanted to see (tolerate) the Jews. They made…truthfully. There were two cars…dad went out to one of the cars, the other car came, and stuck him, and broke his arm, and blood was coming out of him. And until he died, my father didn’t have (couldn’t feel) an arm. His arm was without sensation. And that’s how…that’s how life was. That’s how…we lived there. We lived. And we…waited for the day and the hour we (could) get out of there. And we remember all of it. We remember the good, and we remember the bad. And after that, after that, my father couldn’t work with them anymore. he had a store, a store of…plates…and glasses. And I used to go to him (and) help him a bit after school. And I…it’s a bit…a lot of time. A long time. And I…when I left Iraq, I couldn’t go to my dad (to his store). And his neighbours, those stores, his neighbours said to him, “where is your daughter?”. He said to them, “she went to her brother’s house” “she went to her paternal uncle’s house” “(she’s) at her maternal uncle’s house”. But they knew. They said to him, “No! You sent your daughter to Israel. They went…(and) told the police. And one day, dad came in the morning, wanting to open the store, and the store was…closed. He couldn’t open it. They took the…he took the…

Shvuot - (people( would go to the synagogue. They (would) read all of the night (all night long). And they (would) sit in the morning, (and) go visiting (tombs of prophets).

They (would) go (to) Rabbi Sem…no, Rabbi…What (was) his name, this…Rabbi Hesqel. Rabb Hesqel, they (would) go there to visit (tombs).

(On) Shavuot we would make a visit. In the last year, (my) aunt’s husband took us, mercy on his soul. He took us to Baaquba, and we went to visit (the tomb), and we slept in Baaquba.

And how they made us fish (what fish they made us)! Fish. They made us fish, and they made us salad, and we sat, we ate, and the bread was hot, we ate and we became full, and the next day we returned to our house. Mercy on his soul, my aunt’s husband.

One day, on Passover, my mother said to me…I had gone to, I don’t know, to the neighbour, to my (neighbour), and I ate a chickpea. (Just) one. And I came and told her. She hit me with a hit (gave me a severe beating)…she killed me from the beating (beat me so badly it was like death). There is nothing in (wrong with) it (chickpeas on Passover). Yes. And she hit me with a hit of…(badly). (On) Passover…there were…there wasn’t matza like here. We used to bake at home. Yes. And we would bake…they (would) bring this…they (would) go and grind the…flour. They would grind the flour and bring it to the house and knead it. And one after the other, one after the other, and they would make jghadeq (matza). And my mother had…she had a cupboard, this was just…of…of Passover. (She would) take (the items) out of it (the cupboard), rinse them all, and put them back in again. And we (would) eat with them, and Passover would finish, and she would put them back inside again. And when she (would) take them out, they would put jghadeq. We would bake jghadeq at home. And we (would) go from house to house, and see them (other people)…and help them too. It was beautiful in Iraq. Beautiful, very beautiful. If (people) didn’t have all of these (substitute items for Passover), they (would) do haghala. They would do haghala, yes. Women, not (men), (just) women.

Oh, date syrup! The husband of my maternal aunt used to make it. My maternal aunt (and her husband) used to make date syrup. They (would) bring dates, and make date syrup. Silan. They would put it (dates) in water, for two days, steep it, and then they would take it out of the water, put it in a…pot, and put in more water, and put it on…a lamp. In Iraq we didn’t have ovens, like here. There were lamps. And they (would) put it on the lamp (to) boil, boil, boil…until they saw (that) it (looked) good. They would remove it (from the lamp), and they (would) start to squeeze it, and make date syrup. And (on) the night of the holiday, they (would) put in the date syrup…put in nuts. They (would) crush the nuts, and put them in the date syrup. I swear to G-d - in place of (may G-d bless) those days! They were beautiful. 

On) the night of the holiday, we would sit…everyone…and (a child) would sit…and get up, and say “where have you come from?” (and the others would answer) “from Egypt”. (The child would then ask) “where are you going?” (and the others would answer) “to Jerusalem”. And then there (were) books (Haggadas), and in them was (text) in Arabic and in Hebrew. They (would) read it in Hebrew, and then translate it to Arabic. And we would put a chair, which we (would) say is for Eliyahu the Prophet. Nobody (would) sit on it (the chair). Eliyahu the Prophet (was) due to enter at any moment to sit on the chair. And they (would) say…how (did) they say it? Ṣfardaˁim and dam (frogs and blood, the first two plagues of Passover). And we would say, “(may this happen) to the Arabs. To the Arabs. So that…please G-d, (may this happen) to our Arabs!”

No. We (would) bring a small bowl, and they (would) bring a cup of water, and pour, and say them (the ten plagues) and pour (water into the bowl each time a plague was read). And what (did) we say? (May these plagues happen) to the Arabs…our enemy, our enemy…G-d willing, amen. And children would…when children were born, they would tie (the afikoman to) them…yes, correct. They (would) put the afikoman on them. And this aunt of mine would…mercy on her soul…when (the person running the seder) would put the kerchief (with the afikoman inside) on the children, she (my aunt) would want it (for herself). When the child was born, the young one, the youngest child…they would take him, and bring head wraps, a beautiful kerchief, very beautiful, and tie it to him. And who (would) take it? My aunt would take it. She (would) say “may it not…(be given) to anyone!”. We (would) say to her “no! We’re giving it to you!”. Mercy on my aunt’s soul. Believe (me), here in Israel they do Passover in a hurry. Quickly, quickly, and (then) they finish. Once, I went to…my cousin’s house, and her son came, my cousins on, he did it at…at my cousin’s house. We sat (awake) until four o’clock in the morning. They read it first in Hebrew, and then he read it again in Arabic.