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Tatran Neighborhood, Baghdad, Iraq
"...but that's what counts--where you spent your first years, and your first language. That's who you are."
A Feather in the Breath of God (HarperCollins, New York, 1995)
The neighborhood of Tatran (טטראן, ططران) was a Jewish ‘ghetto’ in Baghdad (Bexda, بغداد, באגדאד), Iraq. In this context, the word ‘ghetto’ refers to a Jewish quarter--a place where Jews lived apart from their Arab Iraqi counterparts. Although these quarters were decidedly separate--a signal of distinction and separation of Jews from the larger Baghdadi society--they facilitated the emergence of “homogenous” communities of Baghdadi Jews; and thus provided a sense of cultural identity and community (1).
Tatran in particular was a poorer Jewish community, and was a place of, “ancestral tradition and folklore” (2). Jews of Tatran worked very diligently to get by. They were often illiterate, and developed understandings of current events through conversation, which helped facilitate an important cafe culture (3). Furthermore, as Tatran was one of the oldest Jewish communites in the Kurdish Iraqi region, and it was a poor town (and therefore inconspicuos), it was chosen as a regular meeting place for the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) in the early 20th century (4).
With the arrival of Islam, the Iraqi Jewish community became over time quite “Arabized,” and was integral to the functioning of its Iraqi homeland (5). However, persecution, politics, and major acts of violence such as the dreaded Farhud in 1941, caused Iraqi Jews--most of whom described themselves as Babylonian Jews--to flee their homeland and start their lives anew. Tatran was one of the many sites to directly experience the violence and dispossession of the Farhud (6).
Description
History of Jews in Iraq: The Jewish community of Iraq dates back to the Babylonican captivity, c.586 BCE. Iraq was once home to approximately 140,000 Jews (7). It is difficult to say how many remain in Iraq today. Some estimates state close to 100 whereas others claim there are fewer than 10. Although Jews were separated into religious quarters like Jewlakan, the Jews of Iraq were integral to the cultural fabric of Iraq--entwined in Iraqi business, tradition, and social life (8). It is due to this fact that the tremendous loss of the Jewish population in Iraq, after the partition of Israel in 1948, was a shock to many. Ultimately, the once vibrant and integral Jewish Iraqi population all but ceases to exist within Iraq's borders today.
The Farhud: Farhud is an Arabic word meaning, "violent dispossession." This is an exellent word to describe what Iraqi Jews experienced on June 1-2, 1941.
It was Shavout, a popular Jewish holiday, following a failed Iraqi nationalist attempt to overthrow the British-backed Iraqi government. This frustrated setting intensified with additional frustrations felt by many Iraqi nationalists due to their inability to escape colonial dominance. This intensity, combined with the fact that Jews were consistently viewed as connected somehow to the British, lead to the Farhud, during which Jews endured two days of violent disoposession at the hands of their neighbors, the police, and the army. The looting, rape, and general disorder was allowed to continue for two days until the armed soldiers were effectively ordered to put an end to the madness. It is estimated that as many as 189 Iraqi Jews were killed (9). Hundreds more were injured, and all were traumatized. This event marks an irreparable tear in the security of Jews within Iraq, an unforgivable mishap of governance by both Iraqi and British military leaders, and is seen by many as a main reason for Aliyah ('ascent' or emigration to Israel) of Iraqi Jews (10).
Baghdad, Iraq
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Sources
[1] Tamar Morad, Dennis Shasha, and Robert Shasha, "Iraq's Last jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, ad Escape from Modern babylon," (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
[2] Lyn Julius, "Baghdad, From the Other Side of the Tracks," Jewish News Online, accessed july 15, 2016, http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/baghdad-from-the-other-side-of-the-tracks/.
[3] Tamar Morad, Dennis Shasha, and Robert Shasha, "Iraq's Last jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, ad Escape from Modern babylon," (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
[4] Nelida Fuccaro, Violence and the City in the Modern Middle East, (Stanford University Press, 2016).
[5] Tamar Morad, Dennis Shasha, and Robert Shasha, "Iraq's Last jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, ad Escape from Modern babylon," (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
[6] Orit Bashkin, New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq (Stanford University Press, 2012).
[7] "World Jewish Population," Simple to Remember, accessed July 11, 2016, http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm.
[8] Orit Bashkin, New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq (Stanford University Press, 2012).
[9] Orit Bashkin, New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq (Stanford University Press, 2012).
[10] Orit Bashkin, New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq (Stanford University Press, 2012).