Unwitting Zionists: The Jewish Community of Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan

454 Pages·2009·8.027 MB·English

by  Haya Gavish

Unwitting Zionists
Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology
General Editor
Dan Ben-Amos
University of Pennsylvania
Advisory Editors
Jane S. Gerber
City University of New York
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
New York University
Aliza Shenhar
University of Haifa
Amnon Shiloah
Hebrew University
Harvey E. Goldberg
Hebrew University
Samuel G. Armistead
University of California, Davis
Unwitting Zionists
The Jewish Community of Zakho
in Iraqi Kurdistan
Haya Gavish
wayne state university press detroit
© 2010 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part
of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of
America.
14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gavish, Haya.
[Hayinu Tsiyonim. English]
Unwitting Zionists : the Jewish community of Zakho in Iraqi Kurdistan / Haya Gavish.
p. cm. — (Raphael Patai series in Jewish folklore and anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8143-3366-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8143-3689-2 (e-book)
1. Jews—Iraq—Zakhu—History—20th century. 2. Zionism—Iraq—Zakhu—History.
3. Zakhu (Iraq)—Ethnic relations. I. Title.
DS135.I712Z353513 2010
305.892’405672—dc22
2009028350
Hayyinu Zionim,
was published by the Ben-Zvi Institute of Yad
the Hebrew by Yohai Goell.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Werner Weinberg Fund of the Hebrew Union College
Press and the Ben-Eli Honig Fund at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for support of this
book.
Typeset by Maya Rhodes
Composed in Adobe Garamond Pro and Walbaum
Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations xi
1. Between Folklore and History 1
2. Zakho, an Island in the River 13
3. Religious Attachment to Eretz Israel 51
4. Rabbinical Emissaries: A Bridge to Eretz Israel 87
5. Aliyah in the Prestate Period: The Historical Context 149
6. The British Mandate Period: Aliyah at All Costs 194
7. Zionism in Zakho: Zionist Cell or Center for Illegal Immigration?
236
8. Social Upheaval and National Emancipation, 1950–51 316
Epilogue 337
Interviewees: Biographies of Members of the Zakho Community 341
Interviewees: Emissaries to the Zionist Underground in Iraq 355
Notes 357
Bibliography 417
Index 431
v

Preface
Toward the end of 1948, the family of Abraham Zaqen hired Jewish rafts-
men from Zakho to transport sawed trees down to the river and float them to
Mosul, where they were to be sold. A heavy snowstorm delayed them up for
a few days in one of the villages, and only on the Sabbath did the sun finally
break through the clouds. They dearly wanted to warm themselves, but due
to the Sabbath refrained from lighting a fire. And so, they began dancing,
in traditional Kurdish fashion: the lead dancer sang “tee, tee, tee,” waving a
kerchief in his free hand, and all the others replied, “Israel,” referring to the
Jews, the People of Israel. That was the tradition among Zakho Jews. Some
Kurds also gathered round the enthusiastic dancers, but one of them—a po-
liceman, a soldier, or a drunk—complained to the authorities, accusing the
Jews of “Zionism.” The dancers were arrested, brought to Zakho and from
there to Mosul, where four of the oldest among them were freed. The other
eleven were taken to Baghdad for trial in a military court and sentenced to
imprisonment. From that day on, the Jews of Zakho had their own “Prison-
ers of Zion” (Heb. assirei tziyyon, persons who were persecuted because of
their Zionist activity or aspirations).
I heard many versions of this story from former Zakho Jews, four of
whom were among those imprisoned. Although there was a consensus among
all my interviewees about the event itself, for many years they disagreed re-
garding details and interpretation. Did the raftsmen dance innocently to
warm themselves or were they expressing their joy at the establishment of the
State of Israel? Did the lead dancer wave a simple kerchief or was it intended
to represent the Israeli flag? Was “tee, tee, tee, Israel” merely a traditional
phrase, sung when dancing at weddings and other celebrations, referring
to the People of Israel throughout its lengthy history? This episode was a
traumatic event for the Jews of Zakho. When their community came to an
end in 1951, with the mass immigration to Israel, the prisoners remained
behind, in jail. They were released only later and came to Israel with the last
emigrants from Iraq.
This episode is indicative of the duality between Jewish tradition and
Zionism among the Jews of Zakho. Such duality in Jewish communities
vii
PREFACE
the world over, including those in Islamic countries, has been the subject of
much research. It is not my intention to define Zionism, but rather to de-
lineate the Zionist consciousness of Jews in this community, as understood
and put forward by those whom I interviewed. Though the community of
Zakho, a town in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, was geographically remote and
far removed from the influence of the Jewish religious leadership in Iraq,
it unswervingly preserved its traditional—that is, religious—character. It
generally wrestled with its problems by itself and, as the most important
community in the region, was sometimes known as the “Jerusalem of Kurd-
istan.”
Many articles and books have been devoted to the history of Zionism
in Iraq and the immigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel, with special emphasis
on Baghdad. I have therefore chosen to throw light on what happened in
one community in Iraqi Kurdistan on the assumption that the history of a
community reflects both its unique features as well as central developments
in the surrounding area. Since almost no academic study has been written
about local Jewish communities in Kurdistan, one purpose of this volume
is to fill that lacuna. Its objective is to examine the changes undergone by
the Jewish community of Zakho as a result of its religious affiliation with
the Land of Israel, its exposure to Zionist efforts, and its immigration to Is-
rael—from the late Ottoman period until the end of the community when it
immigrated en masse to Israel in 1951. The volume is based on my doctoral
dissertation submitted to Haifa University in 1999.
No such study has been conducted with relation to Zakho. I chose to
examine these changes and developments in that community. I found that
its remoteness was a deficiency that had some advantages because it pre-
served, in the twentieth century, traditional social patterns that had not un-
dergone modernization or politicizing. It was therefore not difficult to trace
the changes undergone by the community when it became exposed to Zion-
ist activity from the moment it began to open up to external influences and
outside information after World War I.
I chose to conduct a folkloric-historical study. While my academic ap-
proach is historical, the very choice of the Zakho community mandated
the sources at my disposal. There is very little written documentation about
Zakho; not much is known about the town and little has been written about
its Jewish community. This is where the folkloric aspect came to my aid,
filling the gap as much as possible. The folktale, in its various genres, is
mistakenly considered to be no more than a means of entertainment and
diversion. In my study, the folktale serves as part of the oral documentation
that reconstructs the individual and collective memory of the community.
viii
PREFACE
Whereas most of the sources I used are folkloric, my analysis of them is
historical. The written documentation was studied and examined with an eye
to what it could contribute to historical knowledge and insight, and served
as the basis upon which I relied for the construction of the chronological
continuity. Oral documentation supplied me with a rich mine of informa-
tion, diverse and fascinating, that was grounded in the memory of former
Zakho Jews and their children, and on their storytelling ability. In the He-
brew version of this book, I reproduced the stories told by my interviewees
in their authentic vernacular language and have tried as much as possible to
preserve their spirit and style when translated into English. By means of the
oral documentation, I was able to uncover much of the recent history of the
community, reconstruct events, reveal certain episodes, trace changes, and
verify and countercheck the information provided by the written sources.
Without it, much of this would have been lost forever. By means of the two
types of sources of information, I believe that I have been able reconstruct a
communal reality and lifestyle of which very little had been known.
This study is based on primary sources—interviews and archival mate-
rial—and on secondary published works. Such works related to all aspects of
Kurdish and Iraqi Jewry in general, including Zionist underground activities
in Iraq and immigration to Israel. I also found published material that added
somewhat to the information I gleaned from the stories related by my inter-
viewees about the Zakho Jewish community and its lifestyle.
In 1988–89, I conducted an extensive field study during which I inter-
viewed thirty men and women from Zakho of various ages. They included
rabbis, secular communal leaders, persons who engaged in various crafts and
having different economic status, and persons who emigrated from Zakho
at different times. Thus was I able to put together a wide panorama of in-
formation and impressions. I have also availed myself of the interviews con-
ducted in 1967 by the Oral History Division of the Institute of Contempo-
rary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1993–94, I conducted
interviews with an additional twenty-nine persons who had emigrated from
Zakho to Israel, and with seven emissaries from Israel to the Zionist under-
ground movement in Iraq that also organized clandestine immigration to
Israel. In addition, I was able to consult interviews conducted with former
Zakho Jews in 1994 as part of a research seminar on “Life Stories,” in which I
participated, conducted by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
I found historical documents in public archives and private collections.
I also found some documents outside of Israel, in the archives of the League
ix