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My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq | 
 enlarge | Author: Ariel Sabar
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 8306
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 325
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 1565124901
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.892405672092
EAN: 9781565124905
ASIN: 1565124901
Publication Date: August 21, 2008
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Product Description
In a remote and dusty corner of the world, forgotten for nearly three thousand years, lived an ancient community of Kurdish Jews so isolated that they still spoke Aramaic—the language of Jesus. Mostly illiterate, they were self-made mystics and gifted storytellers, humble peddlers and rugged loggers who dwelt in harmony with their Muslim and Christian neighbors in the mountains of northern Iraq. To these descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, Yona Sabar was born.
In the 1950s, after the founding of the state of Israel, Yona and his family emigrated there with the mass exodus of 120,000 Jews from Iraq—one of the world's largest and least-known diasporas. Almost overnight, the Kurdish Jews' exotic culture and language were doomed to extinction. Yona, who became an esteemed professor at UCLA, dedicated his career to preserving his people's traditions. But to his first-generation American son Ariel, Yona was a reminder of a strange immigrant heritage on which he had turned his back—until he had a son of his own.
My Father's Paradise is Ariel Sabar's quest to reconcile present and past. As father and son travel together to today's postwar Iraq to find what's left of Yona's birthplace, Ariel brings to life the ancient town of Zakho, telling his family's story and discovering his own role in this sweeping saga. What he finds in the Sephardic Jews' millennia-long survival in Islamic lands is an improbable story of tolerance and hope.
Populated by Kurdish chieftains, trailblazing linguists, Arab nomads, devout believers—marvelous characters all— this intimate yet powerful book uncovers the vanished history of a place that is now at the very center of the world's attention.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
Excellent history of the Kurdish Jewish experience told through the story of the author's family August 30, 2008
Benjamin Lukoff (Seattle)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
We've all heard of Kurdistan, of course--especially the Iraqi portion. And those like me who are either of Jewish descent, interested in languages, or both, have heard of Kurdish Jews and the fact that they were some of the last remaining speakers of Aramaic. But never before had I gotten such a deep insight into their culture and struggles to assimilate in the new state of Israel. They truly had more in common with their fellow Kurds than their Ashkenazi co-religionists in Israel, and this seems to have been a major reason the author's father elected to stay in the U.S. after receiving his Ph.D. at Yale. It's slightly mistitled in that, while Ariel Sabar's search and desire to reconcile with his family's past was the genesis of the book, it really reads more as a biography of his father Yona, now a UCLA professor, and of the entire Kurdish Jewish community. The son's own story, while touching, almost seemed an afterthought.
I understand from the introduction that some dialogue was made up and some composite characters were created, so while this isn't quite creative nonfiction, it's not journalism either. That makes for an excellent read, but it also makes me wonder if there's an accessible but more historiographic book on this subject out there.
At any rate, my thanks to Ariel Sabar for writing this and painting a vivid picture of a world I think few people know ever existed... one that was turned upside down in the space of his father's childhood and is now almost nonexistent. My thanks, too, to Yona Sabar for his important scholarship. I had no idea how important this man was to the study of Neo-Aramaic and am glad he didn't suffer the fate of too many of his fellow Mizrahi immigrants to Israel. Highly recommended.
Beautiful and beautifully written September 13, 2008
J. Fuchs (Los Angeles, CA United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
At heart this is about a Jewish man, born and raised in America, trying as a grown-up to find a connection to the immigrant father by whom he was baffled and embarrassed as a child. Ariel Sabar knows how to tell a story, however, and it's his writing and organization even more than the story itself that makes this book such a treasure. But the story is wonderful, too.
The book starts in the village of Zakho, in Kurdish Iraq, with the tale of its people, including the author's great-grandfather, Ephraim, the dyer, whom the locals believe talks to angels. Sabar makes the village and its inhabitants come alive and while I at times wished there were more photos included in the book, Sabar's writing is usually picture enough. Sabar's parents are married (arranged, of course), Sabar's father, Yona, and his siblings are born, and too many of them die. One goes tragically missing. Throughout the personal saga, Sabar presents a global context -- World Wars I & II, the relationship of his family's native language in Zakho (Aramaic) to the rest of Iraq, to the multi-culturalism and religious harmony of Kurdistan and how the area was divided in the wake of the first World War, to the changing attitudes toward Jews in Iraq and the Middle East and the foundation of Israel.
In the '50's Sabar's family relocates, not entirely willingly, to Israel, where they find not the holy land of their dreams, but a huge and unwelcoming city in which they are the lowest of the low. Most of the middle of the book follows Yona's tale as he works to make something of himself in this hostile environment, eventually earning a scholarship to Yale and becoming a respected professor of Neo-Aramaic at UCLA.
The final sections of the book recount the author's story and his attempts to reconnect with his roots in Iraq and reconcile himself with his father.
Wisely, Sabar distances himself from the earlier portions of the book and doesn't spend much time on his American upbringing and personal story, choosing only to interject himself into the tale as it relates to his family's past. The tale is about the people, but Sabar deftly weaves throught the book language, politics, religion, and poverty without letting any of them dominate.
Being from Los Angeles I find myself hoping one day that I will run into and recognize Ariel and Yona, so that I can smile at my fellow Angelino and the rumpled professor who has never felt like he truly belongs here. I know very little about my family before they emmigrated to New York, but somehow Sabar's book makes me feel as if I do. His family's story is that of everyone whose ancestors came here hoping for a better life for the people they loved, yet still missing that which was lost.
Thank you, Ariel Sabar for this beautiful and heartfelt book.
Reconciling Past and Present August 25, 2008
Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Sabar, Ariel. "My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq", Algonquin, 2008.
Reconciling Past and Present
Amos Lassen
We really do not have a great deal of literature about Jewish life in Iraq so "My Father's Paradise" is extremely welcome. Ariel Sabar, a noted journalist gives us a look at past and present in the Arab country and it is all fascinating.
Kurdish Iraq can be described as "a remote and dusty corner of the world, long forgotten for nearly 3000 years." Here they still spoke Aramaic and most of the people had a degree of literacy. They believed in mysticism and they told stories and supported themselves by humble and honest work. The people of Kurdish Iraq lived peacefully with their neighbors who were Muslims and Christians.
The Jewish community of northern Iraq originated with the tribes of Israel and in this community Ariel Sabar's father, Yona, was born. Yona came to the States and in the 1980's was a professor at UCLA where he worked with the Aramaic language. At the same time, his son was experimenting with becoming a drummer in a rock band. When Ariel's son was born in 2002, he began to understand the meaning of fatherhood and became involved in the history of his family. As Sabar unearths information, he shares it with us and we learn of the daily life in the village of Zahko and then he moves onto the daily life of the Kurdish Jews when they came to Israel after having been expelled from Iraq in 1951. 120,000 Kurdish Jews, a large element of the Diaspora which was virtually unknown, went to Israel in the 50's where they were considered "backward and simple". It seemed that their heritage and life would never be known but when Yona came to America; he was determined to preserve the Kurdish traditions and dedicated his career to it. It took for Ariel to have a son of his own to understand his father's passion.
Yona and Ariel went to Iraq to find what was left of Zahko and they learn the story of the Sabar family as well as an epic saga of hope and tolerance. The characters that father and son meet are a gallery of unforgettable people--linguists, Arab and Kurdish chieftains, nomads and Bedouins, religious believers. We get an eyewitness account of the history of a place that has vanished but remains in a place that monopolizes the attention of today's world.
Ancient Iraq and 21st century America are indeed worlds apart; "My Father's Paradise" brings them together through beautiful prose and intense storytelling. Several times my eyes filled with tears as I read, both from the depth of the tales and the beauty of the prose. It is so good to have this book! It fills a void which existed for too long and gives the Kurdish Jews their proper place. I remember spending an evening with a Kurdish family when I lived in Israel and although the details are fuzzy, the book reminded me of it and just that is enough for me.
Achingly Beautiful August 28, 2008
Johann Wolfgang von Moeller (United States)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Ariel Sabar's brilliant personal and family history is one of the most fascinating books I have read in a long time. Part history, part personal memoir, part logbook of a voyage of discovery, this book both enlightens and entertains. Set in Kurdish Iraq, in Israel, and in the academic environs of Yale University, this is narrative history at its best.
There is a lyrical quality about Sabar's prose which is almost Biblical. Steeped in the language and literature of the Aramaic, which Abrahanm ibn-Ezra called "the first of all languages," Sabar writes as a kind of Israelite wanderer, invoking the rhythms and passion and vision of the desert peoples. This book equals and perhaps surpasses Bruce Feiler's estimable Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses (P.S.) as a moving introduction to Judaica. It accomplishes what the best of historical writing brings to the table--a rich introduction to a profound subject.
I hope there are more books inside Ariel Sabar.
We thought they were lost September 1, 2008
Patricia L. Marks (Morristown, N.J. United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The reach of this book can be understood by thinking where you would put it in your library. It is a heartfelt family drama full of varied emotions, coming of age, sorrow and appreciation. It is likewise an amazing historical account of what happened to those Jews long ago who were carried off into captivity. Jews in Kurdistan, Iraq , spoke Aramaic, got along with Christian and Arab neighbors for over two millenia and had their own traditions, customs, dress and perspectives. Ariel Sabar brings in all these facts while creating a loving , very personal story of his relationship to his past. You meet memorable personalities who stand out in their very simplicity. You likewise take your own journey into the past and present while walking along with Ariel in his . This is a special book. Read it. You will not be disappointed.
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