At the (brit) mila…oh, in the place of (may G-d bless!) those days. (Brit) mila…he would come…(a rabbi would) come…this mohel (circumciser). (He would) come right to the house. They wouldn’t do it…or they would…the Arabs would do it in the synagogue. When a Muslim boy was born, they would go to the synagogue, and they’d take the boy, and…a Jew would circumcise him. But the Jews…would do it in the home. They would do it in the home, lots of people (would) come, and they (would) ululate, and dance, and have fun, and eat, and drink and take their path and go to their home. When a child (was born), they would…dress him (in) bracelets, and dress him in bracelets with…here…here…a ring, and anklets (with bells), so that when he (would) do this with his leg, they (would) hear that the boy was upright (awake). It was beautiful. Oh…and they (would) dress him with a special talisman (slāḥlu). In the place of (may G-d bless) my mother…(even) today they do…here in…here in Israel, she (my mother) did it to…my grandson…my son. To my son. Her grandson. Yes. they would tie him. Not like here. They (would) dress him and walk (off). They would…this…what do they call it…in your place (may G-d bless you)…in Arabic, a diaper. A diaper. They (would) dress the boy in clothes, and tie up his legs, and tie up his arms. I (would) say (to my mother) “why (did you use to tie up the baby)?”. She (would) say “so that he (would) turn out…so that he (would) turn out strong.” The Zohar (ceremony)…they (would) also do it in the home. They (would) read…and would…when the boy’s age became forty days old, they (would) bring a Cohen. Pidyon. (The) Cohen (would) buy him. Yes. (To) see how much (money) they (would) give him. He (would) say to them “I am taking the boy”. They (would) say to him “what (do you mean), you are taking him? Whatever you want, we’ll give you. (Why) are you taking the boy? Until (by the time) we saw him (we were gifted) this boy, you’re taking him?”. In Iraq, they didn’t like girls. They would only want boys. My aunt, mercy on her soul, when she was…once, her sister-in-law, gave birth…no! Her granddaughter, her son’s daughter, gave birth to a boy. She did a phone to (called) me at one thirty at night. She got me up from sleep. (I said) Oh, in your place (may G-d bless you) my aunt! What is there (what happened)?”. She said to me “no, don’t be scared. Ġǝsnāt gave birth to a boy!” She became pregnant again, and gave birth to a girl. I knew that she had given birth and had a girl two weeks ago. Two weeks after, I made a phone to (called) my aunt, mercy on my aunt’s soul. I said to my aunt “Didn’t Ġǝsnāt give birth to a gi…didn’t she give birth?”. She said to me “yes, gave birth to a girl two weeks ago.”

The groom would come. He and his father and his mother (would) come and bring her something to dress her (in). Yes. And they would read…and take their path and go. And at the girl’s house…yes, he would request (propose to) her. Yes, he (would) bring…he (would) come to her house. They (the family of the groom) would come to their house, the bride’s house. He (would) request (propose to) her and (would) tell her…his mother and his father (would say) “we want your daughter.” She (would) say…he (the bride’s father) would say “I want to ask her.” If she (would) want to take…I mean, (if) she agreed…I mean, okay. If she didn’t agree, it wouldn’t happen. It wouldn’t happen, of course. Before they (would) get married, (one) week (prior), they (would) go and do the ketuba (Jewish marriage contract). But at the wedding, they would also write (sign the ketuba), so that he (would be) unable to leave her. (It was) like a marriage. When he (would) go to request (propose to) her, they (would) write (sign the ketuba). So that he neither he would be able to leave her, nor would she (be able to) leave him. If she (were to) leave him, or he (would) leave her, it (would be) as though he were giving her a get (Jewish divorce). Yes. Like a get.

I came to Israel via aliyah in…  in…  1951.  I worked…  at Rambam hospital…  in Haifa.  After…  afterwards…  I got married.  We moved to Jerusalem,  and I worked at Hadassa (hospital),  in the… children’s ward…  the children’s ward.  Afterwards…  I studied…  a course for…  like…  (medical) treatment in families and children, and I passed.  And the…  my manager said,  Ahh…  now someone like you…  is what I’m looking for.  (I asked her:) Why?  What?  What happened?  She said:  All of the…  a lot of young children…  young babies…  from…  Arab villages…  are dying.  And we are making (collecting) statistical data…  from all over the world.  (People are claiming that) Israel doesn’t like Arabs,  and the children are dying because they are Arabs,  but the Jews - (the government) takes care of them (the Jews).  So… I started working (in) Abu Gosh.  It was…  difficult for me to work...  because they didn’t like Jews.  At first, the job was…  (in) the early days of the State of Israel…  they didn’t have trust in the Jews.  And at (their) home…  there were families…  families,   for example…  a woman, with five children…  each child, when they would get married,  she (the mother) would give them a separate room to sleep in.  And then the children would grow up,  and there would be fights between the children,  and… problems,  problems,  sometimes even the police…  the police would come to do reconciliation between them.  So…  they (the residents of Abu Gosh) would come…  to the station (clinic) of…  to get treated.  She (the manager) said…  we would give them…  injections,  in order to…  vaccinations.  Illness prevention.  And these injections…  there were…  what’s it called?  How do you say “reaction”?  The reaction to the needle,  the child would get…  a fever.  The child would go home,  and…  cry, cry.  The lady of the house would say:  You took him to the Jews, and (they) hit him with the (evil) eye, and (the nurse) gave him an injection,  take a look at the condition in which you brought him (back),  he is sick.  He’s about to die!  Don’t take…  don’t take him again!  Afterwards…  it was…  it was hard for me to convince them,  and to talk to them.  And I would go to their houses,  we would do… home visits.  When we started working, they didn’t know…  the Jewish culture.  They thought…  that we didn’t like them.  But , we…  our intentions were good with them,  we wanted to help them,  we wanted to teach them something good…  (so that they could) make progress.  I would go to their houses,  and talk to the…  the woman of the…  the lady (of the house).  We would greet her,  sit with her,  we would talk.  I would say to her:  Why doesn’t…  why doesn’t the boy come to me anymore?  She would say:  No, no, no, no!  He’s not coming.  He’s not coming anymore.  (I would ask:) Why?  She would say:  He got sick.  We don’t want (him to go again).  (I asked:) How many children have you given birth to?  She said:  Oh, many!  (I asked:) How many of your children are still alive?  She said:  Oh…  half of them.  Half of them died.  I asked her:  Why?  She said:  G-d took them.  G-d wanted (to take them),  G-d took them.  I said to her:  No,  someone needs to take care of the health (of the children).  Today we have…  injections,  that prevent three diseases…  for young children.  Diphtheria,  tetanus,  and whooping cough.  That’s whooping cough.  And…   I mean, it’s true,  the child does get a fever,  but…  he will gain protection from disease.  And he needs to receive (the injection) three times.  One each month.

We came…  they (the residents of Abu Gosh) didn’t like (appreciate) girls.  They only liked boys.  One woman…  was…  they would only marry from…  within the same (family)…  male cousins,  (with) female cousins,  like that.  Yes.  Like that.  So…  there were many illnesses.  Nerves (nervous system diseases),  heart disease,  blood diseases…  types and colours (a wide variety).  When we would talk to them,  (they would say:) No!  Muhammad said:  The male cousin (should marry) the female cousin and that’s it.  Fine.  Could I change their minds (rhetorical)?  I could speak…  (if) they (would) listen,  good.  (If) they didn’t listen…  let everyone do whatever they want.  One woman…  got married,  (and) she gave birth to a girl first.  She was living with her mother in law.  Okay.  One year later,  she gave birth to a girl again.  She (the mother-in-law) said to her:  Oh dear,  this (woman) only brings us girls.  The third time,  she gave birth to a girl.  Oh!  Four times she gave birth to girls.  The fifth time,  she was pregnant.  She (the mother-in-law) said to her:  Oh,  this time you’ll (surely) give birth to a girl again.  Who wants this pregnancy of yours?  She (the mother-in-law) started hitting her (the pregnant woman’s) stomach,  attempting to kill her.  And truthfully (in the end),  she gave birth, (and) she gave birth to a stillborn boy.  They grieved,  they clapped their faces in sadness,  they cried.  How (could) they do (that)?  How (could) they do such a thing?  From that time on,  she didn’t give birth again.  (The matter was) closed.  I said to her…  to the lady of the house,  I said to her:  Why don’t you like girls?  She said:  Oh!  You Jews don’t like girls either!  I said:  Let me tell you something.  In Iraq we…  The father had to prepare…  money for the bride,  Thousands of dinars.  And if he had six daughters,  five daughters,  where would he bring (money) from (if) he were poor?  Muslims would come,  take them (the daughters),  and convert them to Islam,  and the family…  would mourn her as though their daughter had died.  But (for) you (Muslims),  (rhetorically:) what’s the issue?  He (the groom) gives her money,  gives her a house,  everything.  She said to me:  No.  It’s true.  But…  he (could simply) say to her:  (You are) divorced!  (You are) divorced!  (You are) divorced!  If he were to get angry with her.  If he were to say it three times,  and there weren’t any…  there were no witnesses,  he would say to them (the walls):  Walls,  you are witnesses.  I’ve divorced her.  So she would be unfortunate (facing a bad situation),  because of this.  And we started talking and such, and (trying to) convince (each other).      

What else is there (to say)?  The Jews in Iraq,  (used to speak) Hebrew,  and a mix of…  Arabic and Hebrew together.  So that…  the Arabs would not understand what we were saying.  Because we…  we were always scared of them,  we knew they were treacherous.  Because they would say:  Jew,  may your mother die,  (and) we will bury you on Sabbath.  (We would ask them) Why (are you saying that)?  Why?  Why?  He (they) would say:  Because Sabbath is dear to you (Jews).  Holy.  We come to serve you…  to light the fire,  and to serve you…  (rhetorically) are we your servants?  Okay.  In Iraq they (would) say…  If you want to curse someone,  and he doesn’t understand she has a servant,  We…  before we came…  to Israel,  there was the war of…  the second world war.  And Hitler…  would always…  tell them…  Mufti (Amin al-Husseini of Jerusalem)…  would come to Iraq and tell them:  The Jews…  finish them,  just like we finished the Jews in Europe.  They had prepared things for us…  but…  we…  G-d helped us,  and The Joint from America,  bribed the…  the head of parliament,  his name was Nuri Sa’id.  For every Jewish person,  there would be…  (The Joint) would give him (Nuri Sa’id) fifty dollars.  One hundred thousand,  one hundred and twenty thousand Jewish people from Iraq. How many came here?  From fifty… fifty dollars (per person),  he became a millionaire.  He agreed, he signed.  One day,  on the radio they said:  All Jews,  whoever wants to leave Iraq,  he is…  free. Free to leave.  But…  to leave (and) not return.  He is not permitted to take anything with him at all.  Neither money,  nor gold,  nor…  only…  ten…  ten kilograms of clothes.  We threw away our houses and left,  we went to…  to the synagogue,  the synagogue…  in the synagogue.  We registered (for Aliyah),  and we came.  Thank G-d.  We came to Israel,  we lived in the ma‘abara,  we saw it (as) beautiful, despite…  all of the…  all of the disasters,  all of the problems that happened…  we were happy.  We rid ourselves of it (of Iraq),  we survived.  We (would have) died (if we had stayed in Iraq).       

I was…  in the ma‘abara in…  in Kfar Hasidim.  In Haifa.  If I wanted to get to work,  it was a big problem.  Bus…  there wasn’t (a bus) every day…  every hour.  The bus would come once in the morning and take the labourers,  and bring them home at four o’clock.  And whoever…  would arrive first to the bus could…  I was a (young) girl.  The men would push me,  and I was shy.  By the time I (would be able to) enter,  there was no space anymore.  I went to talk to her…  to the manager of the hospital,  I said to her:  I live in the ma‘abara,  and it’s hard for me to come (to work).  What (should) I do?  I can’t (continue this way).  There are no buses.  She said to me:  Come,  to a room (that) we have,  as in…  a room for… nurses,  and you can live there…  until…  things clear up.  Afterwards,  that was it.  We came to…  we came to… Jerusalem.  We were…  we lived in Ein Karem.  My husband was…  an instructor…  he was… a professor…  of cattle.  This was in a barn, right?  The stable…  he would teach the students…  how to…  milk the cattle,  how to give them food…  These…  South Africans came to Israel…  they looked and said,  What?  What are these houses?  We (in South Africa) had servants,  whose houses are bigger than these ones.  No.  We are not coming.  Why?  There wasn’t…  there wasn’t electricity,  and there wasn’t a road,  there wasn’t a road,  and even…  the toilet,  the toilet,  had to be outside.  The houses remained empty.  Our neighbours,  (from) Abu Gosh and other (places),  would come and steal the doors,  doors,  windows.  He said:  Oh my! What (is this).  My husband worked at an agency.  They said to him:  Go.  Bring people,  about ten (people),  and live (there).  Guard these houses until you make something good out of them.  And (in) fifty-seven,  the year of…  (nineteen) fifty-seven,  we came to Shoeva.  There was no electricity and no water,  life was very difficult.  Come on (we encouraged ourselves).  Little by little.  We worked,  we built,  and thank G-d we got a house.  We became like (real) people.  We’re happy in Israel,  I mean…  there are…  there are problems in our country,  but…  we make do between ourselves.  I studied for three years at nursing school,  and I have a certificate…  I am a professional nurse,  I mean…  certified.  And when I brought this certificate in(to)...  Haifa,  all the…  all the writers and such who know Arabic in Haifa,  they read it (and said):  Good, really.  It will be okay.  And I worked.  And that’s that.