Farewell to Dejla
Stories of Iraqi Jews at Home and in Exile
Cleverly elucidating the somber diaspora of Iraqi Jews, this collection of stories explores the little-publicized migration of a people escaping oppression, only to be confronted with the difficult realities of new nations and customs. Sadka's work spans Iraq, Israel and the U.S. with beautiful, laconic prose, magnifying the everyday adversity of immigrants.
These moving, impressive stories are based on historic fact inasmuch as they deal with the destruction of the world's oldest Jewish community. It is estimated that there were 150,000 Jews in Iraq in 1948; Israel has absorbed some 132,000. At the moment, there are about eight Jews remaining in Iraq, half over eighty years old.
Tova Murad Sadka grew up in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel in 1951 and then to the U.S. in 1967. She has been a correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Davar and freelance correspondent for other newspapers. A graduate from The Hebrew University, Israel in Jerusalem and from Queens College, NY, in English Writing, she published two historical novels No Way Back and The Star and Baghdad Scimitar. Presently, Tova Murad Sadka lives in Long Island, New York.
