The Photo

Out of the few family photos that have survived there’s one that I love in particular. Its of my maternal grandmother and some of her children sitting on a swing in their garden in Baghdad. My mother, aunt Flora and uncle Eli are in the photo, perhaps my uncle Nessim was behind the camera, and […]

Family recollections

Much of The Wolf of Baghdad is based on family testimonies that I have collected for this project or heard over the years. Last year I asked members of my family, either face-to-face or over Skype, for recollections of their lives in Baghdad. I then drew their portrait and used some of the quotes as […]

Ahbab Festival, Cambridge

The Wolf will be performed at the 4th annual Ahbab Arabic music festival in Cambridge on Sunday 17th February at 4pm. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion from leading academic experts on the subjects of Iraq, its music and the legacy of its Jewish communities. It will be chaired by Dr Merav […]

Another London Performance

Happy to announce that there will be another performance of The Wolf of Baghdad next February. It will be at SOAS University, London (the School of Oriental and African Studies) in conjunction with the UK’s Jewish Music Institute on Monday 18th February at 6.30pm. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion from leading academic […]

30/11 Commemoration

Today is the international commemoration of the exodus of Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran. Remembering almost a million Jews forced to leave their homelands and settle wherever they could. They left behind homes, businesses, friends. It was dubbed the ‘Silent Exodus’ because they went quietly and without fuss, unnoticed by the wider world. […]

Thank you ! شكرا لكم

A huge thank you and شكرا لكم to all those who attended The Wolf of Baghdad performances at JW3 last week, it was wonderful to see you there. Sorry if you weren’t able get a ticket – it was heavily oversubscribed and I was told the venue could have sold out two more nights! There […]

War Rugs

I think I first heard the term listening to Amy Ray’s song War Rugs (Amy is half of the American folk duo Indigo Girls). These are her lyrics: War rugs in the hallway Prayer rugs on the wall Who’s walkin’ tall? I should be kneelin’ (Bridge) Soldier girl, oh, soldier boy Tell me what to […]

3yin

The Wolf of Baghdad house band is 3yin, a quintet of London-based musicians with a deep love of Arabic music especially from Iraq and, for this project, of Judeo-Arabic origin. DANIEL JONAS – cümbüş, guitar, vocals Daniel Jonas founded 3yin (pronounced with a guttural “ayin”) to perform the music of the Jewish communities of the Middle […]

Matriarchs

Here are some portraits of the women of my family wearing the traditional Iraqi-Jewish dress of the early 1900’s. Out of their ghostly clothing (as seen in the memoir) at last!

The Past is Another Country

How can we remain fully in the present when the past is still on our minds? Being so immersed in my family’s history this last year has proved something of a challenge. There’s been no great epiphany or sense of closure on completion of this memoir, just sadness at what has been lost and still […]