Kurdistan - Mother Tongue

Amadiya

Avraham ʿAmedi

Father's Aliya to Israel

Kurdish Jews' foods

Sayings of the parents

The grandfather and his family

Dalya Ḥarfuf (ʿAmedi)

Aliya and family

Jokes and fables

Proverbs and family expressions

Recipes

Nurit Chuna

Aliya

Community, birth and matchmaking

Foods

Holidays and foods

Passover

Rabbi Shimʿon: her mother in law's brother

The extended family

Work and trade with the Muslims

Amedi

Yaʾacov Cohen

Bar mitzva, synagogue and immersion in the frozen river

Bereavement customs and the Covenant of Isaac

Dating and wedding

Fasting, Yom Kippur and Piyyutim

Ḥacham Shimʿon and a story about the murder of a rabbi

Maftir reading for Shavuot and for the Second Day of Passover

Muslim school studies and punishment

My father and his business

My grandfather, a dayan (rabbinical judge) and shochet (ritual butcher), and how he helped a couple get divorced

My mother and her acts of kindness toward the community

Passover in Baghdad and Amedi and reading the Haggada

Purim celebrations and breaking dry cow udders in the recitation of Haman

Relationship with Muslims and making aliya

Roles of rabbis and a Jew who converted to Islam

Sukkot

Weaving and trade relations between Jews and Muslims

Awena

Moshe Shlomo

Aliya, absorption and the relationship with other Jewish communities in Israel

Aramaic folk song

Aramaic folk song 2

Awena folk song in Aramaic

Children's song

Daily life and the war of the Kurds

Love song

Love song I learnt from my father

Shabbat and Passover

Song Moshe sings on Passover

Wedding

ʿAraq (drink) making and folk medicine

Baghdad

Sara ʿAdaqi

Inviting neighbors to listen to her father's stories and the girls' activities during this time

Koshering meat, the shochet (ritual butcher) and donating food to the poor

My father's stories

Proverb: leave us alone, we left you alone

Shavuot and ascent to the tombs of Sara our Mother, ʾEsther and Jonah the Prophet

Cemetery, women at funerals and washing the deceased

Folk remedies and a story about a relative

Good relationship with the Muslims and the hostility resulted from Zionism and World War II

Her father's profession as a healer, passing the tradition to the next generation and making alcoholic beverages

Her occupation, home in Kurdistan and Aliya to Israel

Passover

Proverb of a bride who serves her mother-in-law meat that turns into a frog

Shabbat, men's and women's roles on Shabbat, the synagogue's structure and its customs

Showers near the river, bathing the babies and buying raw materials

Song for a bride

Wedding's celebrations for eight days, mikve and beliefs about a woman giving birth

Sara ‘Adaqi

Purim

Sukkot and Hanukka

Yom Kippur and refraining from showering for forty days on Tishʿa BeʾAv

Zakia Ḥucha

Birth and bereavement

Education, employment and Bar mitzva

Engagement, wedding, marriage life and domestic violence

Making and earning from ʿaraq (drink)

Shabbat, holidays and childhood memories

Barzan

Itsik Baruch

Aunt Z”L and her life document in Kurdistan and Baghdad

From Barzan to Baghdad and from Baghdad to the maʿabara (absorption camp)

Of Zakho dialect and Barzan dialect

Parents' Aliya and their life in Israel

Parents' meeting and wedding

Story about a donkey (Barzan dialect)

Visit at the Ḥacham (sage of Talmud)

׳Messianic Age׳

Batas

Raḥel Muʿalem

Aliya and absorption

Cigarettes to her father: poverty and family values

Foods, her husband and his family

Language, school, Passover traditions and Islam conversion

Betanure

Mordechai Saidoff

The Loss of the Mule

The Beggar

The Donkey

The Fool and the Fleas

The Fool Who Thought He was Dead

The Lashes

The Marriage of the Patriarch

The Servant, the Duck and the King

The Shepherd Who Thought He was Dead

The Stolen Donkey

Who Lends a Donkey?

Bukan

Michael Cohen

Aliya, absorption and family

Engagement and wedding

Engagement and wedding songs

Passover

Relationships with the Muslims and sharing food

Song for Passover

ʾAmnon Nabati

About the Aramaic language

Aliya of parents

Bar mitzva, engagement and Shabbat

Celebration songs

Holidays

Reading and singing in Hebrew

Challa

Shabtai (Shabo) Amrani

The history of Jews in Challa

The Agha takes what he wants

The wife of the Mudir repays kindness

Abraham gets drunk

Shabbo decides to end business dealings with his Kurdish neighbors

Sufi Abraham, the prayer rug, and the Hajj

The art of stealing while on a moving train

The attempted seduction

The beating and killing of Jews

The death of mighty Qoto

The death threats over leaving for Israel

The murder of a peddler

The seizure of Shabbo's brother and attempted forced conversion

Violence against Jews

Diana

ʿAmram David

Dating, wedding and brit mila

Education and livelihood

Folk beliefs and natural medicine

Holidays, kashrut and Shabbat

Men, women and livelihood

Reasons for Aliya, Aliya and absorption

Relationships with the Christians and the Muslims

The Jewish community, the rabbi and establishing the synagogue

Duhok

Sara ʿAdaqi

Inviting neighbors to listen to her father's stories and the girls' activities during this time

Koshering meat, the shochet (ritual butcher) and donating food to the poor

My father's stories

Proverb: leave us alone, we left you alone

Shavuot and ascent to the tombs of Sara our Mother, ʾEsther and Jonah the Prophet

Cemetery, women at funerals and washing the deceased

Folk remedies and a story about a relative

Good relationship with the Muslims and the hostility resulted from Zionism and World War II

Her father's profession as a healer, passing the tradition to the next generation and making alcoholic beverages

Her occupation, home in Kurdistan and Aliya to Israel

Passover

Proverb of a bride who serves her mother-in-law meat that turns into a frog

Shabbat, men's and women's roles on Shabbat, the synagogue's structure and its customs

Showers near the river, bathing the babies and buying raw materials

Song for a bride

Wedding's celebrations for eight days, mikve and beliefs about a woman giving birth

Sara ‘Adaqi

Purim

Sukkot and Hanukka

Yom Kippur and refraining from showering for forty days on Tishʿa BeʾAv

Shalom ʿAdaqi

Community, education and economic status

Passover and Sukkot

Relationships with non-Jews

Relationships with non-Jews

The family's home and livelihood

Wedding, dating and ḥenna

Erbil

Noga Cohen

Raḥamim Shmula

Absorption, settlement and agriculture

Community, Shabbat and Tu BiShvat

Dating and wedding

Sabiḥa Cohen

Holidays

Kubbe recipe and memories from father

Shabbat

Wedding and bar mitzva

Varda Yosef

Childhood and making Aliya

Yosef Fella

Difficulty in speaking Aramaic

Foods

Work in Israel and Kurdistan

Yosef Moshe

Josef’s maternal orphanhood

ʾEsther Shabtai

Islam conversion

Her parents' occupations, birth, brit mila and bar mitzva

Her sisters' marriages to Muslims and their abduction

Passover

Spouses, dowries and the relationship between a bride and her mother-in-law

Synagogue and the role of rabbis

ʾUri Shubat

Family and the Kurdish community in Israel

Female abduction, wedding and love songs

Kashrut, language, community and relationship with non Jews

ʿAziz Barazani

Bar mitzva

Family, childhood and education

Occupation and livelihood

Relationships between Arabs and Jews

Ginz

Ḥabiba Breimuk

Passover, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana

Suspicion of abducting Ḥabiba’s son

Hasnaka

Itsḥaq Shmuʾeli (Taqo)

Children's story

Conversion of a relative to Islam and making aliya

Dating

His parents' occupations, and his occupation as a shepherd

Love song and story

Mikve, wedding and brit

Passover Haggada in Aramaic and the story of Josef and his brother

Purim, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot

School and the boys’ teachers

Shechita, preserving the meat and preparing foods

Synagogue, Shabbat and Diwan

Winter life and folk medicine

Women's occupations, their status, and young girls

Israel

Shalom ʾEliyahu

Living at deserted Arabic villages

My grandfather, Rabbi Yizchak Noah ʾEliyahu ZT"L and his tole in the community

'Yaʿarat Devash': piyyut by Rabbi Israel ben Moses Najara

Avraham ʿAmedi

Father's Aliya to Israel

Kurdish Jews' foods

Sayings of the parents

The grandfather and his family

Dalya Ḥarfuf (ʿAmedi)

Aliya and family

Jokes and fables

Proverbs and family expressions

Recipes

Ya'akov Maoz

Night of lights

ʾAhuva Baruch

Aliya and the Siege of Jerusalem (1947-1948)

Community and women

Her father's education and spreading the legacy of Kurdish Jews

Her father’s Aliya and his assistance of bringing Jews to Israel

My mother and family

Shavuot Haftara

Spiritual leadership and Rabbis' daughters

Translations, Shabbat and holiday

Zichron Yosef neighborhood

Koy Sanjaq

Shalom ʾEliyahu

Living at deserted Arabic villages

My grandfather, Rabbi Yizchak Noah ʾEliyahu ZT"L and his tole in the community

'Yaʿarat Devash': piyyut by Rabbi Israel ben Moses Najara

Salaḥ ʾEliyahu

Family

Family, life story and making aliya

Modest life in Sulaymaniya and lack of time during World War II

My father's life story

My father, Rabbi Yizchak Noah ʾEliyahu ZT"L and his tole in the community

Name meaning of Shimʿon Yizchak

Staying at abandoned Arabic villages near the Lebanon border and infiltration of Lebanese to Israel

Mergasor

ʿAmram David

Dating, wedding and brit mila

Education and livelihood

Folk beliefs and natural medicine

Holidays, kashrut and Shabbat

Men, women and livelihood

Reasons for Aliya, Aliya and absorption

Relationships with the Christians and the Muslims

The Jewish community, the rabbi and establishing the synagogue

Mosul

Noga Cohen

Varda Yosef

Childhood and making Aliya

Zakia Ḥucha

Birth and bereavement

Education, employment and Bar mitzva

Engagement, wedding, marriage life and domestic violence

Making and earning from ʿaraq (drink)

Shabbat, holidays and childhood memories

Zilpa Gorani

Aliya to Israel

Birth

Children's sleep

Diseases and ʿAyin Haraʿ (the evil eye)

History of the mother

Legend of the river and its bridge

Passover

Polygamy

Shabbat

Story about healing

The family's story

Qaladze

Yosef Moshe

Josef’s maternal orphanhood

Qapʾachʾan

Malka ʾAvraham

Aliya to Israel

Children's tales and songs

Life in Kurdistan, community and the synagogue arson

Wedding and family

Mordechai Breimuk

Aliya to Israel

Rekan

ʾAsnat Moshe

Bar mitzva and education

Groom's Sabbath, matchmaking, immersion and ḥenna

My grandfather and grandmother

Neighborhood and Jews' occupations

Proverbs and jokes

Rabbis and cycle of the year: brit mila, birth and death

Relationship with the Muslims and receiving assistance from them

Status of women and men

Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot

Rustaqa

Leah Sharoni

Aliya

Foods, gathering and grinding flour

Love song

Passover

Shabbat, community and relationship with the Muslims

Michael Sabati

Languages

Refurbishing the synagogue with the assistance of the Muslims

Trips and nature

Nissim Sharoni

Bringing flour from Megiddo

Said 'ubed

Shimʿon Cohen

Daily life and Shabbat preparation

Family

Holidays

Yosef Cohen

Aliya to Israel

Family residence

Messiah ben David song and wedding song

Wedding and birth

Sanandaj

Moshe Tavakoli

Birth, ʿAyin Haraʿ (the evil eye), brit, wedding and Shabbat

Men and women's occupations, matchmaking, wedding and divorce

My grandfather: head of the Jewish community in Sanandaj, mediator and ḥazzan

My mother: mediator, matchmaker and clothing designer

Preparing wine and matzot for Passover, and sleeping together in the Sukkah

School and subjects of study

Synagogues in Sanandaj

Sandor

Shimʿon Shmuʾel (Shiḥki)

Message to the Kurdish leadership

Folk song

Love song

Love song: Walla Naʾe

Itsḥaq Shmuʾeli (Taqo)

Children's story

Conversion of a relative to Islam and making aliya

Dating

His parents' occupations, and his occupation as a shepherd

Love song and story

Mikve, wedding and brit

Passover Haggada in Aramaic and the story of Josef and his brother

Purim, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot

School and the boys’ teachers

Shechita, preserving the meat and preparing foods

Synagogue, Shabbat and Diwan

Winter life and folk medicine

Women's occupations, their status, and young girls

Yafa Ḥalfon

Aliya, family and life in Israel

Passover and Sukkot

Šiwāraš

Varda Yosef

Childhood and making Aliya

Sulaymaniya

Na‘ima ʾAmba (Haḥam)

Building the Sukka, decorating it and hosting

Doctors and folk medicine

Shabbat dinner, going to synagogue and special Shabbat foods

Absorption into Israel and an additional wedding ceremony in Israel

Her father's family: their orphanhood and the fate of the siblings

Birth of a son, tending the mother, synagogue and brit mila

Cleaning for Passover, Passover eve on the floor and is habits

Community life, relationship with non-Jews and folk beliefs

Local foods and gathering mushrooms and weeds

Mixed school, uniform and studying Hebrew

Purim foods, burning Haman and customs

Selling fabrics, jewellery making and types of jewellery

Shalom ʾEliyahu

Living at deserted Arabic villages

My grandfather, Rabbi Yizchak Noah ʾEliyahu ZT"L and his tole in the community

'Yaʿarat Devash': piyyut by Rabbi Israel ben Moses Najara

Ḥacham Meʾir David

Aliya and work in Israel

Ants in the supply room

Book of Ruth: Hebrew verse and Judeo-Aramaic verse in Sulaymaniya tradition

Childhood in Sulaymaniya

Description of community and concern for the poor

Fable

Fable about the Indian Jewry and an incorrect reading of the Bible

Fables

Foods

Gifts for Passover

Harun al-Rashid stories

Interpretation (Midrash) of the binding of Isaac in Sulaymaniya tradition

Jew builds a mosque

Medicine in Israel

Mistake in a Tora book

Passover fables

Passover Haggada and guidance in Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic

School, childhood and matchmaking

Shabbat and holidays

Spring in Kurdistan: experiences, picnic and the connection with the Muslims

The anti-Semitism of the King of Prague

Three Spring songs in Kurdish

Wedding customs

Zionism

Rivka Nadav

Foods

Life in Sulaymaniya

Passover and Shabbat

Salaḥ ʾEliyahu

Family

Family, life story and making aliya

Modest life in Sulaymaniya and lack of time during World War II

My father's life story

My father, Rabbi Yizchak Noah ʾEliyahu ZT"L and his tole in the community

Name meaning of Shimʿon Yizchak

Staying at abandoned Arabic villages near the Lebanon border and infiltration of Lebanese to Israel

Zakho

Naftali Mizraḥi

Night of Hosha'ana Rabba

'Mipi el' piyyut for Simḥat Tora

David and Goliath – Aramaic translation

God conceals himself in the glamour of secrecy

Kol beruey ma'la (all creatures of God above and below)

Learning to read and write in Zakho

Mitzva of hospitality

Sukka and lulav

Sukkot

The Rabbi's wife

Batya Mazor Hoffman

Dr. Baruch Mazor

The haftara of Jona

Eliyashiv Mazor

Ha Laḥma ʿAnya - Zakho tradition

Ḥabiba Masousani

Birth story and midwife gift

Daily life in Zakho

Foods

Preparation of challah, shechita, food preservation and making ʿaraq (drink)

Raising children and women's lives in Zakho

Shabbat preparation and Shabbat dinner

The Farhud

Ḥabiba Mesosani

Attending a Muslim school

Bar mitzva, rabbis and synagogue

Diseases and folk medicine

Fasting and the festive meal after the fast

Food distribution for the poor and Chevra Kadisha

Ḥacham Bashi and faith in the prophets

Her home and neighborhood

Holidays: Lag Ba'omer, Tu BiShvat, Purim, Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot

Matchmaking, wedding and family compatibility

Mikve and Yom Kippur

My father and his role as governor

Weighing silver coins, trade and livelihood

Itsik Baruch

Aunt Z”L and her life document in Kurdistan and Baghdad

From Barzan to Baghdad and from Baghdad to the maʿabara (absorption camp)

Of Zakho dialect and Barzan dialect

Parents' Aliya and their life in Israel

Parents' meeting and wedding

Story about a donkey (Barzan dialect)

Visit at the Ḥacham (sage of Talmud)

׳Messianic Age׳

Mordechai Qala

Songs

Mordechai Yona

Educators, education and punishments

Piyyutim (liturgical poems) and a wedding

Writing of Kurdish-Jews language and culture

Naʿim Bechavod

A mother's love

Farhud

Harun al-Rashid asks a riddle

Jokes, songs and Night of Huza

King David

Story of a wise king

The Jew and the Priest

Naʿim Shalom

Haftara of Tishʿa BeʾAv – Aramaic translation

Sultana

Tafsir for Rosh Hashana in Aramaic

When the gates of compassion open (ʿet shaʿarei ratzon) - Aramaic translation

Pinḥas Ḥafzadi

Aliya and childhood

Holidays and Yom Kippur

The family's story

The resistance and the military

Pnina ʾAlfia

Aliya and absorption

Passover and motherhood

Sara Tsezana

Work and education

Tsabaria Ido-Zaqen

Folk tales and women's lamentations

Folk tales, lamentations and family stories

Night of Huza – a Tishʿa BeʾAv lamentation

Ya'akov Maoz

Night of lights

Yona Shmuʾel

Aliya and absorption

Children's education and parents' livelihood

Cooking with Israeli arum (plant)

Folk remedies and ʿAyin Haraʿ (the evil eye)

Fruit, ʿaraq (drink) and wine

Holidays

Love song

Neḥama's family

Relationships between Muslims and Jews

Rituals, the synagogue and the community

Weddings, singing and leisure

Yosef Zaqen

Childhood: swimming, fishing and horse riding

Family, community and synagouges

History of Zakho and hospitality of King Zakho’s son

Journey with father

Life story

Life story: childhood, education and family

Zakia Ḥucha

Birth and bereavement

Education, employment and Bar mitzva

Engagement, wedding, marriage life and domestic violence

Making and earning from ʿaraq (drink)

Shabbat, holidays and childhood memories

Zilpa Gorani

Aliya to Israel

Birth

Children's sleep

Diseases and ʿAyin Haraʿ (the evil eye)

History of the mother

Legend of the river and its bridge

Passover

Polygamy

Shabbat

Story about healing

The family's story

ʾAhuva Baruch

Aliya and the Siege of Jerusalem (1947-1948)

Aliya to Israel and stories about her father

Community and women

Her father's education and spreading the legacy of Kurdish Jews

Her father’s Aliya and his assistance of bringing Jews to Israel

Life of mother: Debora Da'de Baruch

My mother and family

Shavuot Haftara

Spiritual leadership and Rabbis' daughters

Translations, Shabbat and holiday

Zichron Yosef neighborhood

ʿAziz Shemo-Cohen

Brit mila

Difficulties in livelihood

Hanukka

Passover customs

Passover preparations

Pidyon haben (redemption of the first-born son)

Preserving religion in Zakho

Relationships with non-Jews in Zakho

Rosh Hashana customs

Saharana

Shavuot

Six days before the Brit ceremony

Spoken languages in Zakho

The blessing of "everything was created through His words" (Shehakol nihyah bidvaro)

Yom Kippur

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