Get your MORTGAGE at a BANK you can TRUST Judeophilia, cling to secrecy as if it were life itself. The few dozen, aging Jews live cloistered in neighborhoods scattered around the city. Few of their neighbors know their real identity, and that is the way many want to keep it. Outside the synagogue compound, a tea vendor, Hussein Riad, 24, says he is aware that Jews and the synagogue live beyond the walls. He says he has no problem with the Jews living in the area. "They let me stay here," beside the compound wall, "so what do I have to complain about?" By and large, the fire of anti-Semitism has not singed most Iraqis. The anti- Semitic chants heard round the Arab world have not marred popular demon- strations in Baghdad. Only once during this reporter's three-week stay in Iraq were specifically anti-Jewish chants heard. After Iraqi demonstrations two weeks ago in the town of Falluja, American forces opened fire on what it believed were armed men in the crowd. The next day, a small group of Iraqi demonstra- tors marched on the U.S. encampment in the area chanting, "We swear by god, we must kill the Jew." Baghdad, once a thriving cultural and mercantile center for Jews, has few signs of Jewish life these days. But the Jews historical presence is still felt. The first Jewish presence in Mesopotamia dates back to the 6th cen- tury B.C.E. when Babylonian King Nabuchadnezzer captured thousands of Jews and marched them back to the present-day Iraq. He treated them well; and until the late 1940s, it was not uncommon for Muslim men to marry Jewish women. Grocers, butchers, mer- chants and doctors mixed freely with their Jewish countrymen. But despite the ensuing expulsion after Israel's creation in 1948, several wars pitting Iraqis against Israelis and decades of Jewish life in hiding, flecks of the Jewish influence on Iraq remain. Some ancient, crumbling Victorians buildings, all that remain of Britain's colonial legacy, are decorated with Stars of David. In the Shurja mercantile section of Baghdad, which suffered some of the heaviest and most violent looting dur- ing the war, the Jewish community con- tinues to manage several buildings that were not expropriated by Saddam Hussein's government. For his part, Sofer is lonely but des- tined to die here. Asked why he never followed the rest of his family abroad, he pauses, inhales a short breath and says, "I just could never bring myself to leave my home, my country. ❑ ' WE OFFER ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGES and FIXED RATE MORTGAGES ASK FOR A NO-COST QUOTE We are available in the branch or we will come to your home! MORTGAGE DIRECT 866-500-0018 STOP BY OR CALL US Clawson 248-435-2840 Dearborn 313-274-3030 Grosse Pointe Woods 313-882L2880 Livonia 734-462-4106 Rochester 248-656-5760 Roseville 586-294-2950 Sterling Heights 586-268-5200 Southfield 248-948-8799 Waterford 248-674-4901 West Bloomfield. 248-855-6644 , Great Rates Fast Approval Sterling sterlingbank.com "We Create solutione® Ste! in Bank irust e authfiel Michigan 71 4 2 30 0y! I can't wait to get my Detroit Jewish News every week! We'll Come To You No Matter Where You Live... Delivering Your New Car... Even Picking It Up For Service Call 148,351,5114 to subscribe! Grand Blanc MOTORCARS, LTD. /' DETROIT JEW18:11 NEWS •1'N TOYOTA MERCEDES-BENZ BMW 9909 N. Holly Road • Grand Blanc • (800) 968-6968 5/16 9am - 8pm Mon & Thurs; 9am - 6pm Tres, Wed, Fri • 9am - 4pin Sat 2003 25