Farewell to Dejla: Stories of Iraqi Jews at Home and in Exile
by Tova Murad Sadka

In her collection of stories about the diaspora of Iraqi Jews, Tova Murad Sadka explores the migration of a people that has previously received very little publicity. The stories capture the experiences of a people escaping oppression, only to be confronted with the difficult realities of new nations and customs. In this work, Sadka’s stories span Iraq, Israel, and the United States.
The short stories and novella included in Farewell to Dejla: Stories of Iraqi Jews at Home and in Exile (Academy Chicago Publishers, 978-0-89733-581-2, 250pp, Paperback, $16.95) portray characters struggling with drastic social changes: a man about to wed tries in vain to balance family tradition with the lavishness of American life; a frail, dying woman prolongs death just long enough to triumphantly take part in the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Iraqi immigration to Israel.
Each finely crafted story serves as an elegant exposition of not only the absurdity of cultural idiosyncrasies, but also the inspiring universal themes of human resilience that transcend differences in gender, nationality, and religion.
Murad takes experiences from her own life and knowledge of the facts of 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. Murad herself grew up in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel in 1951 and then to the United States in 1967. Presently, Murad lives in Long Island, New York.