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Rawanduz, Iraqi-Kurdistan
The town of Rawanduz (alternate spellings: Ruwandiz, Rowanduz, Rowandiz, Rowndiz, ڕەواندز ,رواندوز, רונדוז, Rawanduz, Rwandz) is located in the province of Irbil in Iraqi-Kurdistan, near the Iranian border. As described by A.M. Hamilton, the British engineer, Rawanduz is located "high on the steep and narrow slope and perched thus between two great precipices is the town of upper Rowndiz, [lower Rowndiz was burned by the Russians in 1915-16]. Rowndiz looks out on mountains on all sides. Jagged and irregular peaks, nearly all of them over eight thousand feet in height, snow-capped for six months of the year."1
Description
Jewish Community: Rawanduz was the site of an ancient Jewish community, which suffered at the hands of cruel goveners.2 The situation for the Jews of Rawanduz improved, however, in the 19th century once the Ottoman occupation began. In 1881 there were about 50-60 Jewish families in Rawanduz; from 1884 to 1906, 120 Jews; in 1910, 40 families; and in 1914, 100 Jews.3 After the invasion of the Russians into Kurdistan in 1915, the Jewish community suffered, as the synagogue was destroyed, as was its Sifrei Torah.4 The community, however, was renewed following World War I. According to the official census of 1930, there were 17,787 inhabitants in the whole district of Ruwandiz, of whom 250 were Jews.5 In 1932 there were 20 Jewish families with a synagogue. All of the Jews of Rawanduz emigrated to the State of Israel in the 1950s.6
![Rawanduz, Road [1], (Rawanduz, Iraqi-Kurdistan, 2014)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/29RFSfRLRFOZra7xAvHm/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Rawanduz, Grass [1], (Rawanduz, Iraqi-Kurdistan, 2014)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/eg05v8QsR5ytqAzearWP/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Rawanduz, Grass [2], (Rawanduz, Iraqi-Kurdistan, 2014)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/uxVNkdWyQdCkKSxrtfxR/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Rawanduz, Road [2], (Rawanduz, Iraqi-Kurdistan, 2014)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/tWLAwaART2mwoH3GnqYq/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
Sources
Ben-Yaacob, Abraham, Michael Berenbaum, and Fred Skolnik, Encylopaedia Judaica 2nd ed., s.v., "Ruwandiz" Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2587517196&v=2.1&u=mlin_m_wellcol&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=7e96b744ff9233a3f946070a5a062c71
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KurdJewwomenRowendez905.jpg
Notes:
[1] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KurdJewwomenRowendez905.jpg
[2] Ben-Yaacob, Abraham, Michael Berenbaum, and Fred Skolnik, Encylopaedia Judaica 2nd ed., s.v., "Ruwandiz"
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.