Growing up in Los
smugglers, loggers,
Angeles in the 1980s,
Arab tribesmen, cheese
Ariel Sabar found his
makers and the one
father embarrassing,
dyer of fabrics, his
A SOW* SEARCH , I110
regarding him as the
great-grandfather the
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uncoolest person he
mystic.
knew. He moved across
In 2005, father and
the country to attend
son traveled to Zakho
college, falling in love
together — a danger-
with and marrying a
ous time for Americans
non-Jewish woman
and Jews in Iraq —
and working hard in
and were greeted with
his first reporting jobs.
kindness; many people remembered
But when Sabar's father was called
Sabar's grandfather and could tick off
to consult on the television series The
the names of the Jewish families they
X-Files about the language Jesus might did business with; and some spoke of
have used, his son was drawn to write missing the Jewish presence.
about him.
The Sabars realized that the gen-
He quit his newspaper job and
eration that recalled Jews fondly,
moved to Maine, where his wife
remembering the brotherhood they
returned to work as a physician; he
experienced, wouldn't be around
began researching and traveling,
much longer.
tracking down relatives and family
Today, the younger Sabar, 37, and
friends.
his wife are raising their two children
Collecting an impressive amount
as Jews, playing Kurdish music at
of detail, Sabar creates a compelling
home and teaching them the Hebrew
narrative. The Jews of Zakho had little alphabet and prayers. ❑
in common with the Jews of Baghdad,
who spoke Arabic, built huge syna-
gogues and yeshivas, ran large busi-
nesses and held government jobs. In
Ariel Sabar speaks at the JCC's
the 1940s, the remote Jews of Zakho
Jewish Book Fair 7 p.m. Tuesday,
had no idea what was happening to
Nov. 11, in Oak Park and 10:30
the Jews of Europe.
a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, in West
Sabar conveys the life of Zakho,
Bloomfield.
with its storytellers, beggars, traders,
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Bard, who chose the essays from
well-known oral history projects that
recorded statements of Holocaust
survivors.
"Except when we look at the per-
sonal experiences of people who went
through it all, we can't fully appreciate
the horrors of the time. I think read-
ers going through the stories will get
a sense of what it was like to be in the
control of the Nazis!"
Bard recounts the violence as expe-
rienced by adults and children in
homes, businesses, synagogues and
neighborhoods. While the narrative
includes acts of righteous gentiles, it
also describes the mob mentality that
supported the soldiers.
"I went through hundreds of
accounts of individuals and tried to
find the ones that were the most rep-
resentative and dramatic," says Bard,
executive director of the American-
Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, based
in Maryland, and author-lecturer on
Middle East topics.
"Most of the comments are from
original recordings of interviews. To
get the book out in time for the 70th
Kristallnacht commemoration, we
couldn't track down the survivors!"
Bard, 49, started the nonprofit
American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise in 1993. His goal was pro-
moting greater interaction between
the United States and Israel, and he
secured funding from foundations
and individuals.
Some 10 years ago, he created a Web
site, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org , to
provide historical and cultural infor-
mation through more than 20,000
entries; it receives 20 million hits a
month.
"It's important to look back and
remember what the Jews went through
and what they failed to do in the
time of Kristallnacht," says Bard. "It's
important so that the same mistakes
never are made again." ❑
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