An Introduction

Why are you interested in the Jews of Iraq?

(I get asked this a lot when I meet Iraqi Jews I hope to interview)

It has been a strange path that led me here. Born and raised in northern Ohio I never expected to travel outside the country, much less specialize in another part of the world. To be honest, I wasn't much of an academic growing up either... so finishing a PhD and becoming a college professor (as I hope to do) is likely the last thing anyone would have guessed for me. All that changed when my National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq in 2005, where we spent a year in Baghdad searching the highways around the city for roadside bombs. There is a lot I can say about that experience, but I'll stick to how that led me to where I am now. 

The most frustrating thing about my year in Iraq was my inability to interact with the people of Baghdad. Our convoy missions made it impractical and the language barrier didn't help. Everyday I observed the people of that ravaged city attempting to carry on with their lives while my comrades and I rolled through their neighborhoods in armored vehicles. I hadn't the first understanding of why I was there or why the country was in such a messy situation. Over the year I spent there I accumulated more questions and fewer answers, so imagine my frustration when, upon arriving home, friends looked to me to help them understand what the Iraq war was about.

The Middle East continues to generate questions for puzzled Americans who have little recourse to worthwhile sources to gain any sort of understanding of the reasons for the regions conflicts, much less the beautiful cultures and histories of the modern Middle East that lay beyond the headlines of the latest bombing.

I am drawn to the history of Jews in Iraq because it is a history largely unknown to Americans and it is indicative of both a defining characteristic of the Middle East--diverse ethnic and religious communities with a long history of coexistence--and the current crises facing the region that are bringing so many of these communities to an end (today there are a mere four Jews living in Baghdad, where Jews constituted a third of the population as recently as 1950). 

In future entries, I will use this blog as a platform for sharing insights that I've gained through my studies and research as a specialist in the modern Middle East. Whiles the articles I publish in academic journals will be written for a scholarly audience and have a very formal tone, These blog entries will be my opportunity to write more informally about topics related to my areas of specialty (Middle East, Jewish, and Muslim American histories) and about my current research projects, travels, and community involvement. My hope is that readers may gain some insights to help them better understand some of the important and often puzzling issues facing our world today.

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