Kurdish Asylum
Continued from Page 2
that its length merits as much con-
sideration as it received in 1979.
Ehrman's review of the Kurdish situa-
tion and the indictments of the many
resultant evils are contained in this
lengthy article, the extent of which
must serve as an encouragement to
read it even in its massive form. It is
therefore offered as an accompanying
essay on this page.
Kurdish Jews provide fascination in
their relation to the world Jewish com-
munities as an element in the global
social-political-religious aspect. In
Gateway to Judaism, Albert M.
Shulman relates the following:
Today, Kurdistan is divided
between Turkey, Iran and Iraq
and the Jews in that country are
scattered among many com-
munities. They have had a more
continuous agricultural tradi-
tion than any other Jewish com-
munity in the world. They spoke
an Aramaic dialect up to recent
times, and claim descent from
the Babylonian Jews, who
migrated there at the time of the
Exile. They practice child mar-
riage and wife purchase, and
live chiefly on the land, with a
fair share of merchants, ped-
dlers, and craftsmen.
It is estimated that at the
beginning of the 20th century,
there were about 12,000 to 14,000
in this geographic area. After
1948 most of them emigrated to
Israel, where their assimilation
was made easier because of
their agricultural background.
When they prepared for their
departure for Israel, they could
not bear to leave behind them
their beloved synagogue,
Amadiyah, built in 1249 and
named after the prophet
Ezekiel. They took the building
apart, stone by stone, and
brought it to Israel.
The New Standard Jewish En-
cyclopedia, edited by Cecil Roth and
Geoffrey Wigoder, provides important
additional facts:
Kurdistan: Mountainous
region now divided among
Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Accor-
ding to tradition, the first
Jewish settlers went to Kur-
distan as early as the time of
Ezra. The early beginnings of
Jewish immigration are attested
by the Aramaic dialect spoken
by Kurdish Jews up to modern
times; it is close to the language
of the Babylonian Talmud and
the speech of the Nestorian
Christians in Kurdistan.
Toward the end of the 19th
century, the Jewish community
was estimated to number
12-18,000, scattered in numerous
villages and townlets and living
chiefly as merchants, peddlers
and craftsmen. During the 20th
century, their number increased
considerably, amounting in Per-
sian Kurdistan alone to
12-14,000. After 1948, the great
majority of Kurdish Jews, from
all areas, emigrated to Israel,
40
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1988
many of them in or near
Jerusalem.
With immigrant settlers from more
than 90 countries, Israel is the virtual
international assembly representing
many cultures. This fusion is the most
representative ingathering of echoes to
the spiritualism that develops and re-
mains a strength dominated by the
Jewish ethos. One of the remarkable
elements in that cultural im-
pressiveness is the picturesque com-
munity from Kurdistan.
Under the title "Kurdish Jews in
Israel," the Encyclopedia of Israel and
Zionism includes the factual historical
record of the dramatic role of that group
in the Jewish State:
The community of Kurdish
Jews in Palestine dates from the
16th century, when Jews from
Kurdistan first settled in Safed.
Dozens of Sh'lihim (emissaries)
from the various communities of
Palestine had frequently visited
the distant villages of Kurdistan,
where they were always given a
warm reception and consulted
about legal and religious
problems.
The Jews of Kurdistan were
the first Middle Eastern com-
munity to settle in Palestine,
beginning to arrive there in
1812. As a result of periodic
persecutions in Kurdistan, their
numbers grew. Between 1920
and 1929 a total of 1,900 Jews
migrated from Kurdistan. In
1935 another 2,500 arrived,
bringing the number of settlers
to 8,000. They came mainly from
Iraqi Kurdistan: Mosul, Erbil
(Arbil), Zahko, Amadia, Kirkuk,
Akra (Aqrah), Sindur, Betanura,
Dehok and other towns.
Later, Kurdish Jews came
from Urmia in Persian Kur-
distan and from Jezira, Urfa,
Jarmuk and Siverek in Turkish
Kurdistan. They readily became
adjusted to life in Palestine, and
their rapid integration en-
couraged further immigration.
Entire Jewish villages (e.g.
Barashe, near Amadia) left
Kurdistan.
The first immigrants came
with official passports, but after
1925 they had to go to Baghdad,
obtain passports for Syria, and
travel to Sidon in Lebanon. Here
there was a transit camp from
which they were secretly sent,
on camelback, to Safed. Most of
the Kurdish immigrants settled
in Jerusalem, where they were
employed as menial workers:
porters, camel drivers, quarry
and construction workers,
stonecutters. Others were ped-
dlers and small tradesmen.
Prior to the establishment of
the State of Israel the Kurdish
Jews numbered more than 6,000
in Jerusalem alone. Their needs
were minimal, and they manag-
ed to make considerable sav-
ings, with which they purchas-
ed land and built homes in their
own quarters, such as Zikhron
Yosef, Zikhron Ya'akov and
Sha'are Rahamim.
The T'nu'at HeHalutz
HaBavlit (Babylonian, i.e., Iraqi,
pioneer movement), which
worked underground in Iraq
after the anti-Jewish riots of
1941, persuaded hundreds of
Jews to leave Iraq illegally for
Palestine. When a law was pass-
ed in 1950 granting exit visas to
Iraqi Jews, all the Kurdish Jews
left their towns and villages for
Baghdad and thence for Israel,
and the Jewish community of
Iraqi Kurdistan disappeared.
Failure by the media everywhere to
confirm the persecution of the Kurds
elicited and especially bitter condemna-
Human Rights
Continued from Page 2
State of Israel, including
Judea, Samaria and Gaza, was
set aside for the Jewish people,
who have maintained a
presence in the territory for
more than 3,000 years. Thus,
both of the groups living in the
land were given a fair share of
it — the Arabs receiving four-
fifths, the Jews one-fifth. Yet, in
1947, the Arabs balked at this
division. Though they had
never before even asked for
their own country and
autonomy, they expressed
outrage over the one-fifth por-
tion given the Jews. They had
their homeland, but it was not
enough. They promptly attack-
ed the fledgeling State of Israel
at its birth, and 30 years of in-
termittent bloodshed has
ensued.
"The Palestinian Arabs
who had left their homes
(voluntarily at the time, at the
request of the Arab nations
which were attacking Israel),
were deliberately left to suffer
in refugee camps by their rich
Arab brethren, who preferred
to exploit them as a public rela-
tions and political tool for their
own purposes. The PLO was
not organized until 16 years
after the State of Israel was
founded. Today, many
thousands of Palestinian
Arabs still languish in refugee
camps, while the Arab oil
states lavishly bankroll PLO
terror throughout the world.
"Why is it that the Palesti-
nian Arab issue draws greater
attention than any other strug-
gle in the world? Despite the
fact that the Palestinians have
their own homeland in Jordan
— which the Kurds do not;
despite the fact the Palestinian
Arabs are treated humanely by
Israel, with many political and
economic advantages denied
them in other Arab lands —
while the Kurds are
systematically murdered by a
PLO supporter; despite the of-
fer of Palestinian autonomy by
Israel — as opposed to execu-
tion for the Kurdish nationals;
and despite the Palestinians'
weak historic claim — unlike
the 4,000-year heritage of the
Kurds; it is the Palestinians
who receive the attention, sym-
pathy and the adulation of cer-
tain human rights activists
throughout the world.
"Incredibly, their terrorist
tactics directed at civilian
rather than military targets,
their dismemberment of
Lebanon, their cynical ex-
ploitation of their own people
as camouflage and cannon fod-
der in search of new martyrs,
all of this is accepted and en-
couraged by the bleeding
hearts of the world. Why? Does
the flag of liberation excuse all
manner of atrocity and in-
humanity? Are only Western-
style nations culpable for
cruelty and barbarity?
"We do not question the
sincerity of black civil rights
groups in the United States
which have recently opened
communications with PLO
representatives. The motives of
many of the human rights ac-
tivists who have adopted the
Palestinian cause are beyond
reproach. It pains us to inform
them that they have been
duped.
"Andrew Young has been
martyred in the eyes of the
black community for a cause
which is the enemy of those
human rights to which he has
dedicated his life. It is the
romanticized publicity given
the Palestinians which has
catapulted their false cause in-
to such great prominence. If
the facts were known, it would
be obvious to the American
public that if there is a human
rights issue today in the Mid-
dle East, it is the Kurds and not
the Palestinians.
"We would urge that the
facts — not romance — of the
Middle East situation be made
known: the truth about a
tyrannical Ayatollah; the truth
about the Palestinian
homeland of Jordan; the truth
about bombs planted in stealth
to kill civilians in public
markets; and the truth about
blackmail by oil shiekhs who
live in luxury while their sub-
jects live in dire poverty.
"The truth may make the
world see what is the true
human rights issue — and keep
all of us free."