I have always been interested in isolated jewish communities or "exotic" jewish communities, the Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan and Cochin Jews of Kerala are the best known among them.
But then there are unexpected places and Jewish encounters.. Driving from Ivalo in Lappland towards the Norwegian border to go up the river to meet a Same Doctor, we stopped at the convenience store at the border. It was a pleasure to know that the owner was a Jew. I tried to communicate to him in Swedish, so we did say more than just Shalom.
In Uzbekistan, there was an itinerant photographer who was Jewish, who spoke only Uzbek and Russian..
Closer to my connections to the American Indians, one comes across a lot of Jews who had shops in isolated Indian villages. Many of the older Winnebago Indians in Northeastern Nebraska still remember the jewish shopkeeper who had the grocery store in the village. Of course there are Jews all along the Amazon river in small settlements, most of them assimilated into the local society but at Iquitos and Manaus they still maintain a strong presence. Jewish cemetery maintained by a Tamoul in Penang...in Malaysia .
I have been fascinated by the Kurdish people, a sort of brotherly feeling for them. They too are a people who are dispersed and until recently no place to call home, even though now there is an Iraqi Kurdistan. Even as an adolescent I used to look at the maps (atlases with lots of red colour )and wonder why there cant be a Kurdistan.. Hope it happens one day..
Jews have lived in Kurdish lands for millenia, in fact Kurdish and Iranian jews are some of the oldest jewish communities outside Israel.
Like almost all Jewis in Muslim lands, most were exiled after 1948. There are now 200 000 or more jews of Kurdish descent in Israel.
Kurdish Jewish refugees in Tehran, Iran in 1950.
Israelis of Kurdish descent are very proud of their Kurdish connection and celebrate some of the festivals of their ancestral land, one of which is celebrated at the time of Kurdish Nowruz. Jerusalem where there are more than 100 000 Kurdish Jews attracts a lot of visitors during this celebration.
An Israeli of Kurdish descent, Idan Amadi, who stars in the Internationally popular FAUDA, is a well loved singer and it is said that in all his concerts he ends singing a Kurdish song!
during the Saharane festival (the dates were moved from March/April coinciding with Nowruz to September/October, so that the popular Israeli Moroccan festival Mamouna will not overlap) Kurdish people from other Arab countries and Europe come to Israel to celebrate
My Hats off to Kurds, not just Jewish Kurds, but all Kurds and a future united Kurdistan!
But then there are unexpected places and Jewish encounters.. Driving from Ivalo in Lappland towards the Norwegian border to go up the river to meet a Same Doctor, we stopped at the convenience store at the border. It was a pleasure to know that the owner was a Jew. I tried to communicate to him in Swedish, so we did say more than just Shalom.
In Uzbekistan, there was an itinerant photographer who was Jewish, who spoke only Uzbek and Russian..
Closer to my connections to the American Indians, one comes across a lot of Jews who had shops in isolated Indian villages. Many of the older Winnebago Indians in Northeastern Nebraska still remember the jewish shopkeeper who had the grocery store in the village. Of course there are Jews all along the Amazon river in small settlements, most of them assimilated into the local society but at Iquitos and Manaus they still maintain a strong presence. Jewish cemetery maintained by a Tamoul in Penang...in Malaysia .
I have been fascinated by the Kurdish people, a sort of brotherly feeling for them. They too are a people who are dispersed and until recently no place to call home, even though now there is an Iraqi Kurdistan. Even as an adolescent I used to look at the maps (atlases with lots of red colour )and wonder why there cant be a Kurdistan.. Hope it happens one day..
Like almost all Jewis in Muslim lands, most were exiled after 1948. There are now 200 000 or more jews of Kurdish descent in Israel.
Israelis of Kurdish descent are very proud of their Kurdish connection and celebrate some of the festivals of their ancestral land, one of which is celebrated at the time of Kurdish Nowruz. Jerusalem where there are more than 100 000 Kurdish Jews attracts a lot of visitors during this celebration.
An Israeli of Kurdish descent, Idan Amadi, who stars in the Internationally popular FAUDA, is a well loved singer and it is said that in all his concerts he ends singing a Kurdish song!
during the Saharane festival (the dates were moved from March/April coinciding with Nowruz to September/October, so that the popular Israeli Moroccan festival Mamouna will not overlap) Kurdish people from other Arab countries and Europe come to Israel to celebrate
My Hats off to Kurds, not just Jewish Kurds, but all Kurds and a future united Kurdistan!
