Grandma and preserving the Iraqi language and culture

Name of speaker: 
Rani Cohen
Gender of speaker: 
Male
Occupation of speaker: 
Director of Eastern Culture at Ramat Gan Municipality
Age of speaker at time of recording: 
49
Speaker's country of origin: 
Speaker's community of origin: 
Language: 
Documentation: 
Ophir Phofliger
Year of recording: 
2021
Translator: 
Nathan Himmelfarb

Translation: 

It was a bit difficult, but they all got married and had children, and grandchildren. And we also came and arrived here. And we continued speaking Iraqi (the Jewish dialect of Iraq) at home because my mother’s grandmother lived with us in the house. She was…she never had (her own) house, and she lived with us and only spoke Arabic (the Jewish dialect of Iraq). So my sister and brother and I learned to speak Arabic (the Jewish dialect of Iraq). Later, I liked the language and started making tours for Iraqis, and parties, and singing in Iraqi. I really liked the dialect of the Iraqis, the speech and…the entire life of Iraqis in Israel remained as it was in Baghdad. And I really liked the songs, (and) being […] with Iraqis. And today I do for them…I work on events in Ramat Gan. I organise parties for Iraqis every week. They sing songs by Salima Murad, and they sing Egyptian (songs) by Umm Kulthum and Abdel Wahab…every Wednesday we organise parties for them. And that’s our story, of my family that came to Israel. And we’re all (here). Greetings to you all.

 

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