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Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad
 
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Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad (Paperback)

by Marina Benjamin (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (18 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747593280
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747593287
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 322,778 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Last Days in Babylon is a marvel An amalgam of political commentary, history and personal memoir it offers a poignant testimony to an obliterated people' Sunday Times 'An intelligent and heartfelt book' Sunday Telegraph 'Much more than a biography. Benjamin provides an impassioned account of a multi-ethnic society and an incisive expose of the twentieth-century political vicissitudes which transformed the Middle East This is a history unknown even to most Jews. Benjamin narrates it fluently and passionately' Independent 'Benjamin tells their story fluently, cogently and with well-modulated empathy. It is a tale worth reading' Evening Standard


Product Description

Marina Benjamin grew up in London, feeling estranged from her family's Middle Eastern ways, refusing to speak Arabic or eat their food. But when Benjamin had her own child a few years ago, she realized that she was losing her link to the past, inspiring a journey to Baghdad and into her family's history. Her discoveries will haunt anyone who seeks to understand a country whose ongoing struggles continue to command the world's attention. By turns moving and funny, "Last Days in Babylon" is an adventure story, a riveting history and a timely reminder that behind today's headlines are real people whose lives are caught in the crossfire of misunderstanding, prejudice and ambition.
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Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Nice photos, but not much substance, 18 Feb 2008
This review is from: Last Days in Babylon: The Story of the Jews of Baghdad (Hardcover)
This book has some valuable and beautiful photos of the life of the Jews in Baghdad in the last two or three generations. It has interesting stories about the life of the author's family. This is not enough for publishing a book or buying it. The author admits that she grew up knowing nothing about her family history and roots. Unfortunately, the book proves that she has to learn much more before she can write meaningfully about that period.

This book is lacking in historical insight and presents a distorted interpretation. Such a distorted message was picked up by a reviewer in The Times. The review of the 16 of February 2008 issue says "Benjamin challenges a Shibboleth by criticising Israel's response. The promised land welcomed Iraqi Jews -but by putting them in crowded camps and employing them, at best, as labourers". Where else can a State house hundreds of thousands of penniless refugees who arrived in the span of two or thre years after the state was established? Particularly when the total population of the new State of Israel was only six hundred thousands? Could Britain have coped with a flood of 30 or 40 million refugees in one year, shortly after the end of the Second World War?

The Iraqi Jews were persecuted, humilated, threatened and robbd of their jobs, homes, property, furniture, jewellery -everything - by the Iraqi government. Their Muslim neighbours with whom and their ancestors they have been living peacefully for generations did not protest. The Iraqi Jews fled and found refuge among total strangers, mainly East Europeans - the Jews in israel. At first they were given tents, then sheds, then subsided built houses. There were not enough jobs available but some were created artificially. The idea was to give some trainig in agriculture, and avoid the humiliation of giving dole money.

Professionals like doctors and teachers were sent to Hebrew crash courses and appointd to jobs in the government and public institutes, often caring for their fellow refugees.

There was a quick programme of Hebrew lessons and job related training. The refuges obtained jobs, bought subsidised housing, and then moved and excelled in all fields of the Econommy. It took one generation or two before the refugees recoverd from the dispossession by the Iraqi Geovernement.

It seems that the author has swallowed the Arab propagandists, and their habit always to accuse others. The book accuses everybody - including the inevitable "British Imperialism" - except the perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing - the Government and population of Iraq.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brought my own family history to life, 3 Jul 2008
'Last Days in Babylon' left me frustrated and disappointed with myself for not finding out more about my own relatives' lives as Jews in Baghdad, while I still had the chance.

'Last Days' superbly provided a moving true story, with a wonderful illustration of the social history of the lives of Baghdad Jewry between WW1 and the exodus of the 1950s. Reading it, I became so thoroughly absorbed in Benjamin's family's story that they felt like my own - and indeed - some of the traits and anecdotes of my late father began to make more sense.

Cleverly, the story doesn't end with the exodus from Babylon. It's brought straight up to the present through Benjamin's visit in 2004 to see the last remaining handful of Jews from what had been a thriving, prosperous and respected population.

If I have one small criticism, it's that Benjamin's negative critique of the attitude of the fledging State of Israel to the new immigrants from Iraq doesn't sufficiently consider the difficulties with which the State was faced in having to absorb so many refugees so quickly. (There were hundreds of thousands from other Arab countries as well as survivors from the European Holocaust). Whilst it is true that the European dominated government was somewhat prejudiced against the Mizrachi (Eastern) Jews in these early years, they were soon absorbed and now play the same role in society as their European counterparts.

Despite the above, "Last Days in Babylon" is a wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone whose family may originate from that area. Thank you Ms Benjamin for bringing my own family story to life.
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