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Last Days in Babylon: The History of a Family, the Story of a Nation
Draws on the experiences of the author's own family to chronicle the odyssey and ultimate exile of Jewish Iraqis, documenting how Jewish citizens in Baghdad deteriorated from the region's largest and most prosperous ethnic group to a band of a few dozen survivors under the oppression of a hostile Iraqi government. By the author of Rocket Dreams. 35,000 first printing.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
10 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Marina Benjamin
18 books38 followersMarina Benjamin worked as a journalist before turning to non-fiction and, later, memoir. She has served as arts editor of the New Statesman and deputy arts editor of the Evening Standard and has written features and book reviews for most of the broadsheet papers. Her first book Living at the End of the World (1998) looked at the mass psychology of millenarians. Rocket Dreams (2003), an offbeat elegy to the end of the space age, is at the same time a story about coming of age in the 1970s, while Last Days in Babylon (2007) blends memoir, political commentary and travelogue to explore the story of the Jews of Iraq.
These days, Marina works as senior editor at the digital magazine Aeon. She teaches regular life writing and creative non-fiction courses for Arvon, and runs workshops for graduate students and staff as an RLF Consultant Fellow. In recent years she has doubled down on her commitment to exploring what memoir can do, with a modern take on the essay form in The Middlepause (2016) – a personal interrogation of what it means to be middle aged. Her new memoir, Insomnia – part confession, part poetic exploration and part philosophical reflection – is published in 2018. She lives in London with her husband, teenager and dog.
These days, Marina works as senior editor at the digital magazine Aeon. She teaches regular life writing and creative non-fiction courses for Arvon, and runs workshops for graduate students and staff as an RLF Consultant Fellow. In recent years she has doubled down on her commitment to exploring what memoir can do, with a modern take on the essay form in The Middlepause (2016) – a personal interrogation of what it means to be middle aged. Her new memoir, Insomnia – part confession, part poetic exploration and part philosophical reflection – is published in 2018. She lives in London with her husband, teenager and dog.
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February 16, 2018A curiosity about a curiosity, the disappearing Jewish community of Baghdad, this book combines a not very good history of Iraqi Jews in the 20th century with a not very good history of the author's grandmother that manages somehow to be more than the sum of its parts and to slip a dart of melancholy into the reader's heart, the tea half drunk suddenly tastes of crushed dreams and soiled hopes rather than of lemons .
I think it works oddly because the author is, in a way a failure, her mother and grandmother Baghdad Jews in London exile, the grandmother living a circle of similar old women all yakking away in Arabic about the long vanished glories of sweet treats and pastries, but the author grew up speaking English, another kind of exile, and when as this book begins she goes to Iraq a year after the US occupation she claims to her Shia guide that her grandmother was an Armenian Christian. The book as a whole then becomes a confession powered by peccavi. This, she says, is where I came from and part of what I am.
A very short account of the Baghdad Jews in the 20th century is that at the beginning of the century there were about 200,000, a third or so of the population of Baghdad, completely dominating the commercial life of the city, the community had family links to Jewish communities in Iran and India, such links were also trading links. By the time of the American occupation the community numbered about one dozen, there was one man and one woman of both of breeding age - but they didn't get on, the last wedding had been in 1982, the last Bar Mitzvah in 1978. There were some hopes of introducing some of the older men who were still of marriageable age to eligible women from the Iranian Jewish community which apparently totals perhaps 20,000. But as you know, hope was the last and most pernicious of our ills to escape Pandora's box.
In the earlier sections the family history is the weaker component, this seemed to be the author's recollections of her Grandmother's stories, chopped up and repurposed to illustrate the larger narrative. This requires both her maternal great grandfather and maternal grandfathers to die and then to pop up afterwards in extra stories, for the maternal grandfather to loose all his money due to the outbreak of war and the refusal of his British partners to honour a contract only afterwards for his widow to have sufficient capital to invest in the futures market and to have wealth to carefully smuggle out of the country before emigrating in the 1950s, and the focus on a very wealthy internationally connected family probably gives an untypical view of iraqi Jewish life, which didn't have French lessons and thwarted hopes of becoming a lawyer for all. Also in narrative terms her family story only gets beyond the odd anecdote level once her maternal grandmother decides that there is no point in remaining in Iraq and hatches a cunning plan to escape the country via India with her three children to a land of central heating and double glazing, namely London .
If you are a little acquainted with the recent history of the world, you may have already guessed that the appearance of the state of Israel in one way or another was an important event in the story, but what struck me was how this linked to the current state of Iraq and its ongoing struggle to achieve some form of non-authoritarian or oppressive administration, without getting too misty eyed over the end of the Ottoman Empire how this was a product of the arrival of the idea of nationalism.
From early on, the future pattern was revealed with then colonial secretary Winston Churchill suggesting the best way to deal with separatists was poison gas attacks from the air, massacres of Christians and military action against the Kurds in the 1920s promised no bright future for a state composed of minorities, the brief and bloody existence of the so called Islamic Caliphate in recent years only the most recent and extreme attempt to define a nation in the region through exclusion. We might observe that much the same process occurred in Europe, but the slower pace made all the difference, when nation building or rebuilding is occurring rapidly we tend to seethe mass population expulsions and massacres as groups scramble to make themselves in to the defining majority group. First Arab nationalism held out perhaps some promise, in theory one could be an Arab first, Sunni, Sh'ia, Jewish, or Christian second, however at the same time Sunni were politically dominant and disinclined to share power, Italian Fascism captured the imagination and later in the 1930s German fascists were active as propagandists in Iraq, the country went through a series of coups, the British overthrew the government during WWII. There were riots which targeted Jews who as a community moved from supplying six representatives to parliament and providing the occasional government minister under the first King to persecuted minority, after 1948 the writing was on the wall and over a decade or two the Jewish population rapidly declined as they fled abroad - direct travel to Israel was impossible, but one could go via Cyprus or Iran. However if one went one had to renounce Iraqi citizenship and what one could take out of the country was strictly limited the assets of departing Jews were seized all of which sent out its own very clear message.
In the final couple of chapters Marina Benjamin manages to meets the last surviving Baghdad Jews, there's a sharp introduction to Jewish anti-Zionism, coupled with the often difficult experience of 'oriental' Jews in Israel. Some of the last surviving Baghdad Jews argue for remaining on the basis of the communities deep roots, heritage and culture, but in the context of the book this seems rather like accepting the inevitability of periods of persecution and violence as part of the natural order of things as though we must accept poaching and predating of endangered minorities as an inevitable cost of their continued existence in their natural environment.
One's lasting sense is that this book is not just a personal mia culpa to the author's mother and grandmother, nor a requiem for a vanishing community but it is or will be the community, the future of iraqi Jews is the perpetuation of sharing their heritage through books like this one, not a pluralistic and free society between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
I think it works oddly because the author is, in a way a failure, her mother and grandmother Baghdad Jews in London exile, the grandmother living a circle of similar old women all yakking away in Arabic about the long vanished glories of sweet treats and pastries, but the author grew up speaking English, another kind of exile, and when as this book begins she goes to Iraq a year after the US occupation she claims to her Shia guide that her grandmother was an Armenian Christian. The book as a whole then becomes a confession powered by peccavi. This, she says, is where I came from and part of what I am.
A very short account of the Baghdad Jews in the 20th century is that at the beginning of the century there were about 200,000, a third or so of the population of Baghdad, completely dominating the commercial life of the city, the community had family links to Jewish communities in Iran and India, such links were also trading links. By the time of the American occupation the community numbered about one dozen, there was one man and one woman of both of breeding age - but they didn't get on, the last wedding had been in 1982, the last Bar Mitzvah in 1978. There were some hopes of introducing some of the older men who were still of marriageable age to eligible women from the Iranian Jewish community which apparently totals perhaps 20,000. But as you know, hope was the last and most pernicious of our ills to escape Pandora's box.
In the earlier sections the family history is the weaker component, this seemed to be the author's recollections of her Grandmother's stories, chopped up and repurposed to illustrate the larger narrative. This requires both her maternal great grandfather and maternal grandfathers to die and then to pop up afterwards in extra stories, for the maternal grandfather to loose all his money due to the outbreak of war and the refusal of his British partners to honour a contract only afterwards for his widow to have sufficient capital to invest in the futures market and to have wealth to carefully smuggle out of the country before emigrating in the 1950s, and the focus on a very wealthy internationally connected family probably gives an untypical view of iraqi Jewish life, which didn't have French lessons and thwarted hopes of becoming a lawyer for all. Also in narrative terms her family story only gets beyond the odd anecdote level once her maternal grandmother decides that there is no point in remaining in Iraq and hatches a cunning plan to escape the country via India with her three children to a land of central heating and double glazing, namely London .
If you are a little acquainted with the recent history of the world, you may have already guessed that the appearance of the state of Israel in one way or another was an important event in the story, but what struck me was how this linked to the current state of Iraq and its ongoing struggle to achieve some form of non-authoritarian or oppressive administration, without getting too misty eyed over the end of the Ottoman Empire how this was a product of the arrival of the idea of nationalism.
From early on, the future pattern was revealed with then colonial secretary Winston Churchill suggesting the best way to deal with separatists was poison gas attacks from the air, massacres of Christians and military action against the Kurds in the 1920s promised no bright future for a state composed of minorities, the brief and bloody existence of the so called Islamic Caliphate in recent years only the most recent and extreme attempt to define a nation in the region through exclusion. We might observe that much the same process occurred in Europe, but the slower pace made all the difference, when nation building or rebuilding is occurring rapidly we tend to seethe mass population expulsions and massacres as groups scramble to make themselves in to the defining majority group. First Arab nationalism held out perhaps some promise, in theory one could be an Arab first, Sunni, Sh'ia, Jewish, or Christian second, however at the same time Sunni were politically dominant and disinclined to share power, Italian Fascism captured the imagination and later in the 1930s German fascists were active as propagandists in Iraq, the country went through a series of coups, the British overthrew the government during WWII. There were riots which targeted Jews who as a community moved from supplying six representatives to parliament and providing the occasional government minister under the first King to persecuted minority, after 1948 the writing was on the wall and over a decade or two the Jewish population rapidly declined as they fled abroad - direct travel to Israel was impossible, but one could go via Cyprus or Iran. However if one went one had to renounce Iraqi citizenship and what one could take out of the country was strictly limited the assets of departing Jews were seized all of which sent out its own very clear message.
In the final couple of chapters Marina Benjamin manages to meets the last surviving Baghdad Jews, there's a sharp introduction to Jewish anti-Zionism, coupled with the often difficult experience of 'oriental' Jews in Israel. Some of the last surviving Baghdad Jews argue for remaining on the basis of the communities deep roots, heritage and culture, but in the context of the book this seems rather like accepting the inevitability of periods of persecution and violence as part of the natural order of things as though we must accept poaching and predating of endangered minorities as an inevitable cost of their continued existence in their natural environment.
One's lasting sense is that this book is not just a personal mia culpa to the author's mother and grandmother, nor a requiem for a vanishing community but it is or will be the community, the future of iraqi Jews is the perpetuation of sharing their heritage through books like this one, not a pluralistic and free society between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
December 31, 2022
This was a book close to my heart as the grandson of Iraqi Jews, who feels very proud of his roots and connected to it.
The book is a well written testimony to the rise and collapse of the ancient Iraqi Jewish community and the reasons why. It is told in a personable style through the life of Marina's own family and the political and social backdrop they lived in. The way Marina talks about her family really brings Iraqi Jewry to life and as someone who is proud of his Iraqi Jewish heritage, this is something that made me understand the lives of my grandparents in Iraq.
I thought the first quarter of the book was excellent as we learnt of the birth of modern Iraq and how Jews initially when the British came in were living prosperous lives, but this slowly changed as anti-British attitudes turned to antisemitism. The way Marina talked about the Iraq of the early 20th century up to the 1930s, shows someone who had immersed herself research wise in the history of Iraq in this period and paired it well with her knowledge of her family history.
The second quarter of the book was relatively good but not perfect. I noticed some grammatical errors. The writer also strained, I think based in part on her own lack of nuance on Israel and Zionism to try and draw a comparison between Iraqi Jewish refugees and Palestinian refugees. There are some and those saying there are none are equally unnuanced, but equally there are a lot of differences and I also felt at times the author placed too much blame on Zionism for engendering antisemitism in Iraq, when in my book the only people to blame for antisemitism are the antisemites.
The second quarter also contained an excellent description of the Farhud and its aftermath. It was expertly and powerfully told. It deeply moved me as it made me recall how one Passover my Grandma explained the sheer terror she had experienced living through the Farhud. The author gave me an insight in to the nightmare my Grandma and her family lived through and survived. She also highlights how though there were a couple of false dawns after, the Iraqi Jewish community never recovered after that. It was the beginning of the end for the Jews long history in Iraq.
The third quarter of the book is very well written, explaining what happened to the Iraqi Jewish community and her family after the Farhud and the creation of Israel. It writes knowledgeably of the dual loyalties Iraq's Jews were now facing as it became clear that they couldn't remain both Jewish and Iraqi. There were also the competing ideologies of Zionism, Communism, being proud Iraqi nationalists and whether to assimilate or face emancipation in Israel. Marina highlights how through her own family's story, this would lead brothers to differing paths to survival. It also is a reminder of the choices that faced my grandparents.
Although there was good bits, none more so than hearing from the tiny Iraqi Jewish community had remained I was disappointed in the last section of the book. It is true to say and my grandparents experienced it that Iraqi Jews experienced a lot of discrimination when they first came to Israel. It was true to say this was in part because Israel's leaders saw themselves as European and looked down on Middle Eastern Jews, who they often saw as backwards Arabs. Equally though, Israeli society has developed a lot since then, which Marina failed to mention, as when it comes to Israel she seems to go for diatribe, rather than nuance. I'm not someone though a Zionist of the Liberal variety who is blind to Israel’s faults, especially with the current horrific government in charge, but equally a black and white picture of only Israel in the wrong isn't the full story. Equally Marina is wrong to say Iraqi Jews are still suffering in Israeli society. Israel is now much more middle eastern in its culture and in music, cooking and business since the 70s, Iraqi Jews have become more and more prominent. Equally, Marina ignored that though there is a loud active minority of left wing Iraqi Jews, they've tended to vote for right wing parties in Israel, due to their experiences in Iraq. If you are taking about Iraqi Jews in Israel this should be mentioned. All that said it was right of the author to talk about the discrimination Iraqi Jews faced, I just think it would have been more accurate to show how this has been changing and it seems outdated for me to describe Israeli society as only European now.
The shame is the last bit of the book took away a bit of my enthusiasm for this book, which for most of it really did move me and connected me to my Iraqi Jewish roots. The story of her family within the backdrop of Iraq's history and politics was beautifully tolf. Given I connected with most of the book, it is still deserving of four stars, despite my disappointment in the last quarter of the book.
The book is a well written testimony to the rise and collapse of the ancient Iraqi Jewish community and the reasons why. It is told in a personable style through the life of Marina's own family and the political and social backdrop they lived in. The way Marina talks about her family really brings Iraqi Jewry to life and as someone who is proud of his Iraqi Jewish heritage, this is something that made me understand the lives of my grandparents in Iraq.
I thought the first quarter of the book was excellent as we learnt of the birth of modern Iraq and how Jews initially when the British came in were living prosperous lives, but this slowly changed as anti-British attitudes turned to antisemitism. The way Marina talked about the Iraq of the early 20th century up to the 1930s, shows someone who had immersed herself research wise in the history of Iraq in this period and paired it well with her knowledge of her family history.
The second quarter of the book was relatively good but not perfect. I noticed some grammatical errors. The writer also strained, I think based in part on her own lack of nuance on Israel and Zionism to try and draw a comparison between Iraqi Jewish refugees and Palestinian refugees. There are some and those saying there are none are equally unnuanced, but equally there are a lot of differences and I also felt at times the author placed too much blame on Zionism for engendering antisemitism in Iraq, when in my book the only people to blame for antisemitism are the antisemites.
The second quarter also contained an excellent description of the Farhud and its aftermath. It was expertly and powerfully told. It deeply moved me as it made me recall how one Passover my Grandma explained the sheer terror she had experienced living through the Farhud. The author gave me an insight in to the nightmare my Grandma and her family lived through and survived. She also highlights how though there were a couple of false dawns after, the Iraqi Jewish community never recovered after that. It was the beginning of the end for the Jews long history in Iraq.
The third quarter of the book is very well written, explaining what happened to the Iraqi Jewish community and her family after the Farhud and the creation of Israel. It writes knowledgeably of the dual loyalties Iraq's Jews were now facing as it became clear that they couldn't remain both Jewish and Iraqi. There were also the competing ideologies of Zionism, Communism, being proud Iraqi nationalists and whether to assimilate or face emancipation in Israel. Marina highlights how through her own family's story, this would lead brothers to differing paths to survival. It also is a reminder of the choices that faced my grandparents.
Although there was good bits, none more so than hearing from the tiny Iraqi Jewish community had remained I was disappointed in the last section of the book. It is true to say and my grandparents experienced it that Iraqi Jews experienced a lot of discrimination when they first came to Israel. It was true to say this was in part because Israel's leaders saw themselves as European and looked down on Middle Eastern Jews, who they often saw as backwards Arabs. Equally though, Israeli society has developed a lot since then, which Marina failed to mention, as when it comes to Israel she seems to go for diatribe, rather than nuance. I'm not someone though a Zionist of the Liberal variety who is blind to Israel’s faults, especially with the current horrific government in charge, but equally a black and white picture of only Israel in the wrong isn't the full story. Equally Marina is wrong to say Iraqi Jews are still suffering in Israeli society. Israel is now much more middle eastern in its culture and in music, cooking and business since the 70s, Iraqi Jews have become more and more prominent. Equally, Marina ignored that though there is a loud active minority of left wing Iraqi Jews, they've tended to vote for right wing parties in Israel, due to their experiences in Iraq. If you are taking about Iraqi Jews in Israel this should be mentioned. All that said it was right of the author to talk about the discrimination Iraqi Jews faced, I just think it would have been more accurate to show how this has been changing and it seems outdated for me to describe Israeli society as only European now.
The shame is the last bit of the book took away a bit of my enthusiasm for this book, which for most of it really did move me and connected me to my Iraqi Jewish roots. The story of her family within the backdrop of Iraq's history and politics was beautifully tolf. Given I connected with most of the book, it is still deserving of four stars, despite my disappointment in the last quarter of the book.
September 19, 2012
In the "Last Days of Babylon," Marina Benjamin provides a valued addition to the literature on the Iraqi Jewish community, both as a history and as a family memoir. Given its human perspective, the book is accessible, engaging and offers a more intimate portrait of Iraqi Jews, especially of the role of women in society, than any academic work could present.
Benjamin would better serve her audience though if she did not feel the need to offer her "unabashedly liberal, postcolonial, multiracial convictions." Symptomatic of this, she incredulously decided to devote the concluding pages of her work to condemning Israel's treatment of Iraqi Jews. Fortunately, Benjamin's views do not impair her ability to give a generally accurate historical account, though at one point she laughably describes the restrictive "dhimmi" legal apparatus formerly instituted on the Jews as "a fair deal by most measures."
Ironically, while Benjamin wrote this book to recapture her Iraqi Jewish heritage, her ideological worldview illustrates how alienated she is from her more conservative compatriots.
Despite these vexations, still highly recommended.
Benjamin would better serve her audience though if she did not feel the need to offer her "unabashedly liberal, postcolonial, multiracial convictions." Symptomatic of this, she incredulously decided to devote the concluding pages of her work to condemning Israel's treatment of Iraqi Jews. Fortunately, Benjamin's views do not impair her ability to give a generally accurate historical account, though at one point she laughably describes the restrictive "dhimmi" legal apparatus formerly instituted on the Jews as "a fair deal by most measures."
Ironically, while Benjamin wrote this book to recapture her Iraqi Jewish heritage, her ideological worldview illustrates how alienated she is from her more conservative compatriots.
Despite these vexations, still highly recommended.
February 5, 2009
I quite enjoyed this book. Unlike the reviewer below, I found the book to in fact be quite relevant to current-day events, inasmuch as I feel a good understanding of a nation's history is useful in understanding its present situation. (Admittedly, I have both an interest in history generally and in the Middle East specifically, including Iraqi Jewry, so it may be easier for me to enjoy a book like this, than for a reader who does not share those interests.)
For me one of the draws of this book was its inclusion of general Iraqi history as well as the author's specific family history -- I was able to learn more about the nation while also learning about a particular family. Also interesting was her return to modern-day Iraq to visit the tiny and declining Jewish community there -- a poignant state of affairs given how large and bustling that ancient community once was.
Readers interested in Arab Jewish history, the Jewish Diaspora, and the history of Iraq and/or the Middle East, would probably enjoy this book and the wealth of information it contains.
For me one of the draws of this book was its inclusion of general Iraqi history as well as the author's specific family history -- I was able to learn more about the nation while also learning about a particular family. Also interesting was her return to modern-day Iraq to visit the tiny and declining Jewish community there -- a poignant state of affairs given how large and bustling that ancient community once was.
Readers interested in Arab Jewish history, the Jewish Diaspora, and the history of Iraq and/or the Middle East, would probably enjoy this book and the wealth of information it contains.
October 5, 2014
I learned about a group's history, the Jews of Baghdad, and the dissolution of their community, through the eyes of a foreigh-born, daughter of the community. Well-written, although sometimes erratic, I enjoyed the history, especially as it moved more towards the modern era.
August 24, 2025
Firstly this was written in the most boring and colourless way possible-she is poor in her descriptive powers and fails to capture the colour and spirit of the narrative.
She even at one point RIDICULOUSLY asserted that the Arabs got the "short straw in the deal" of the 1947 partition plan ignoring that 78% of the original Palestine mandate was split off in 1922 by the British to create an Arab state called Transjordan. She claims that the section of the land apportioned to the Jews had 'nearly all of the citrus land and 80% of the cereal land" ignoring the fact that the Jews created the citrus and cereal land-there was no citrus or cereal land before it was created by the Zionist pioneers.
She also absurdly claims that Palestinian national identity was created in the 1920s and proceeds to refer to the Palestine Arabs as 'Palestinians' from her discussion of the conflict from the 1920s onwards when in fact it was the Jews who were referred to as 'Palestinians' and the Arabs only started to refer to themselves as Palestinians in the early 1960s.was a 'fair deal'-absurd
she seems for all her narrative about Jewish life in Iraq to ens up as an Arabist apologist.
She even at one point RIDICULOUSLY asserted that the Arabs got the "short straw in the deal" of the 1947 partition plan ignoring that 78% of the original Palestine mandate was split off in 1922 by the British to create an Arab state called Transjordan. She claims that the section of the land apportioned to the Jews had 'nearly all of the citrus land and 80% of the cereal land" ignoring the fact that the Jews created the citrus and cereal land-there was no citrus or cereal land before it was created by the Zionist pioneers.
She also absurdly claims that Palestinian national identity was created in the 1920s and proceeds to refer to the Palestine Arabs as 'Palestinians' from her discussion of the conflict from the 1920s onwards when in fact it was the Jews who were referred to as 'Palestinians' and the Arabs only started to refer to themselves as Palestinians in the early 1960s.was a 'fair deal'-absurd
she seems for all her narrative about Jewish life in Iraq to ens up as an Arabist apologist.
October 23, 2023
Never judge a book by its title or, in this instance, its subtitle. Last Days in Babylon recounts not so much the story of the Jews of Baghdad as the life and times of Benjamin's own family, filtered through her mother's reminiscences. The considerable research implied by the extensive bibliography is rarely reflected in the text. I had expected and would have preferred to find a more substantiated, less anecdotal approach to the topic. Even historic conversations are recreated verbatim. As a vicarious memoir of one family's loss and displacement it's a sympathetic, evocative, at times gushing account. If the portrait of the author's mother as a young woman with 'the reedy figure of a young Audrey Hepburn: a shy smile, a fashionable feathery bob, a limber-limbed walk ... the kind of girl who turned heads' suggests a filmstar future, the impression is immediately revised. 'Whenever she got top grades in class, she could practically see the shining path that as a successful young lawyer she would one day beat to the hallowed halls of justice.' (205) The recounted 'lost vision' that continued to move the thwarted lawyer demands the use of the editorial red pencil. A glossary of unfamiliar terms would have been helpful.
October 30, 2019
A fascinating book which is both a story of one family and also the story of a nation (Iraq) which so clearly demonstrates how the post World War I break up and division of the Ottoman Empire by European powers led to the conflicts, issues and ethnic divisions we have today. I loved the story of the family which also speaks of Jewish families in other parts of the world where once there were thriving communities, now there are sadly a sparse few families or individuals. A fascinating book and so beautifully written.
April 30, 2020
An excellent account of the gradual elimination of the Jewish community from Baghdad over the course of the 20th century through the experiences of one family. Having lived peacefully in Iraq for 2,700 years and once numbering 150,000, the Jewish population was driven out by systematic persecution and has now been almost eliminated in what amounts to an act of ethnic cleansing. Well balanced, well researched, well written and full of sound historical information.
April 28, 2019
Moving book about the plight of Iraqi Jews, leaving a very comfortable life in Baghdad due to persecution. As an immigrant how much easier to adapt to a new culture when you are young but very difficult when you are older. Regina was an intrepid woman and took the difficult but best decision for her family to leave Baghdad for a new life in England!
September 30, 2021
A well-written and engaging account of Marina's family history in Iraq/Babylon. The photos enhanced the telling, and the cultural notes were appreciated. I don't think the last chapter added to the story, and instead of letting the reader draw his or her own conclusions, she inserted her opinion about contemporary matters.
Overall, worth reading!
Overall, worth reading!
June 7, 2013
Iraq has been strong on the U.S. radar since the 2003 invasion. This book won't give Americans any great insights the Iraqi reaction to the invasion, but it will provide an excellent window into both Iraqi and Jewish Iraqi history from 1900 through the forced exile of the Iraqi Jews. The author's return to Iraq in the midst of the last war to see the remains of the once thriving community is a preview of what is now happening in Iraq to other minority communities such as various Christian sects. Since the author experienced none of the events first hand, she was clearly an expert interviewer and researcher. The photos that she sought out give an excellent feel for the material. I highly recommend the book for its richness of detail. As the title suggests, the bias is toward the family history, so if you are looking to the book for a more general history of Iraq, you will be disappointed, however, this family's history is also an interesting cultural record of the Jewish-Iraqi community during the period 1900-1955.
August 20, 2007
I don't remember adding this book to my Amazon wishlist, but it was given to me as a birthday gift and thought I'd give it a try. It was interesting, but not really very interesting, as a woman goes to trace half of her family's past in Iraq, where there are no people left from her family's community. Another candidate for the 2.5 point rating. There are no meetings of long lost relatives, and little information that is currently relevant. Given that it takes place in present-day Iraq, there was much that was depressing, but despite that, there was something interesting about the story of Arab Jews and their experiences emigrating to Israel and beyond.
September 5, 2011
This is quite a different book from ones that I usually read. It was lent to me by my friend Ruth Donnocker, who read it for a book group. It is quite interesting, telling a lot about Jewish people in Baghdad and Iraq as well. The Jews had co-existed there for 2700 years, since the Diaspora, but gradually things got worse for them, and the author's family emigrated first to Calcutta, and then to England. She tells their story, and how, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, she took a trip to Baghdad, leaving behind her husband and young daughter, to meet the dozen Jews left there. It is amazing what some of the people had to endure.
April 28, 2009
Really enjoyed this book..it was interesting to read and learn about a family in Iraq as well as a Jewish family. I have read a couple of other books about Iraq and so this was fun to add to my collection. Before reading this particular book was unaware of Jews in Iraq and this gave me increased understanding. It was hard to keep up with all of the different leaders but still got a taste for life in Iraq. Would recommend it to others.
July 19, 2011
Marina Benjamin travels to war torn Iraq in order to connect with her family's past. Her grandmother Regina brought her 2 daughters and her son to England in the 1950's. When Marina had her daughter she became interested in her Iraqi heritage. She uses her family to highlight the changes affecting the Jews in Iraq from the 1920's to 2007. Capsule account of the political and social changes that have occurred in Iraq. Personalized by showing how one family handled the changes.
August 17, 2011
I was fascinated by this little known story of the exodus of the Jews from Iraq. Benjamin researches her grandmother's life and goes to Iraq at a terrible time to try and piece together her story, not really a Holocaust story, but persecution and abuse drove a once thriving community out of the country, with only a handful left there. It is an enlightening book, a biography but even more a history book.
April 20, 2009
This history of Iraqi Jews in the 20th century is remarkable not just because of how well the author covers the topic (even traveling there after the US invasion to meet the last two dozen Jews), but because she skillfully weaves it with her own family history in a manner that is easy to read, yet feels natural.
January 18, 2011
I loved this book for the insights it gave me about the plight of the Jewish people in Baghdad.The members of my book group would not accept this book as a monthly read because it was too sad. I think that is sad.. that people in the US are oblivious to the suffering of other cultures and then do not even want to hear about it. They wanted stories with happier endings.
December 3, 2014
My very favorite kind of history: boudoir history. Mostly family history, actually, but a bonus was a whole different perspective on the birth of Israel, as well as modern day Iraq and Iran, from the eyes of a family of Mizrahi Jews. Like all good books can and should do, this one left me with a brand new perspective of the world.
June 16, 2009
Fascinating story of the last hundred years of the Jews of Iraq with added heart and texture from Benjamin's own family's experience. Moving and interesting, I was left wanting to hear more about her grandmother and mother's experience of Britain, however, so hope there'll be a follow up.
October 26, 2014
I read Last Days in Babylon because its author, Marina Benjamin, was one of my tutors at an Arvon-week. I knew close to nothing about the history of Jews in Baghdad. Reading about it through the author's family history was very interesting.
May 10, 2015
Very well written book and enlightening as a family story. I really enjoyed this book..
Marina did so much research actually in Iraq at a very dangerous time. She did so well and prepared so well.
She's an excellent writer.
Marina did so much research actually in Iraq at a very dangerous time. She did so well and prepared so well.
She's an excellent writer.
February 8, 2008
Makes you think about what happened in the Middle East way back when to today
November 17, 2015
Excellent! Really good mix of personal and political/historical.
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