Customer Reviews

The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage (Live Girls)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I got the chance to hear author Khazzoom give a concert of Judeo-Arabic music and a lecture about the Judeo-Arabic experience while visiting Seattle recently. The author, raised in Palo Alto, California, is the daughter of an Iraqi-Jewish father. So she was raised, not with the more familiar Ashkenazi (European) Jewish traditions, customs and music, but with those of the Middle East. She explained about Sephardim ("Spanish" Jews who left the Mideast and returned later in history)and Mizrahim, Jews who never ever had left the Mideast. And there is strife among the groups, who engage in discrimination based on widely different cultural values and lifestyles, though all believe in the same G-d and follow the same scriptures.

The essays go into much detail about individual lives of women who experienced this discrimination or outright, terrible oppression at the hands of local people in their homelands -- Iraq, Iran and other places. Some of the stories are frightening; in one essay, the writer describes a horrifying massacre in Iraq. Her parents were then left literally stateless, their passports invalid and no land accepting them for refugee status. It's hard not to cry while reading this story. Others talk about a shameful treatment of returnees to Israel, and the division in the communities there. Some of the writers tried to "pass" as French Jews rather than Moroccan, to avoid being treated as an underclass exactly as African-Americans experience in the United States. These stories made me so angry.

The essays are also a unique view inside Jewish traditions that are probably as unfamiliar to most Jews as they would be to non-Jews. It was a revelation that some Hebrew is spoken with an Arabic accent, using Arabic words. I couldn't put this book down, and I think anyone interested in the struggles in the Mideast ought to read this, and definitely, if you are Jewish, you should not pass up this book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

i think everyone needs to read this book in hebrew school, so they know that dark jewish girls like me are not freaks of nature!!! i wish the book had essays by teenage girls, but i like it that a lot of the essays talk about growing up as a jewish girl in different countries. it was cool to read about the amazing things they did when they were my age.

I am one of the "dark" Jews. I remember going through the disbelief of my "jewishness" at work. I have 3 Jewish co-workers, and they all were told for 12 years "I'm Jewish" whenever they'd be talking about Jewish things. I always got "YOU ARE??? oh, that's right, I forgot" How can people "forget " for 12 years, I ask you?
I was also trying to explain to the doctor at the lab one day, when I had to have dye for the CT scan that I was Jewish, and I had understood that the dye is made form shell fish, was this correct? So, he looks at me and says "what kind of Jew are you?" So, no, this is not something that happened ages ago, the doctor "incident" happened 3 months ago; and no, I am not whining just because I am *stating* things that have happened to me.
Thank you so much Loolwa, for presenting the thoughts feelings and words which I had not been able to bring from my heart.

I bought this book for my synagogue library and sat down and read it myself in the space of two days. The essays are enlightening and disturbing; they tear the heart and encourage the Jewish family to acknowledge all of its members. Blessings on the editor and these essayists for bringing these words to us.

I came across this anthology while looking for books about about women in the Middle East. From the cover, I thought the book would be about Muslim women, but I was surprised to read the subtitle and find out it was about Jewish women! I did not know Jewish women wore hijabs, so I was drawn to the book, and I ended up learning quite a bit of new information. Also, I really enjoyed the storytelling style of writing.

This is a marvelous book -- an engaging read as well as eye-opening about a part of Jewish life that has been so much "under wraps" for most of the Ashkenazic Jewish community. I admire and salute the contributors to this book as well as its editor -- bravo for an excellent addition to the lexicon of Jewish life. I encourage everyone to read this book and realize that Jews are not all the same...we are so much more!

This is a great collection that delves into the psyche of women from the middle east. it explains their paranoia and their attitudes. Their possessiveness of what accomplishments they made and how afraid they are of losing it. It also talks about their attempts to experience the limits of the new freedom they experience as well as define themselves into a new personna now that they have the choice. This is a great story and a wonderful experience, however, the chapter that is missing is their role in Israel, the US, and the free world... not just the pain and suffering but the joy and excellence in things that the free world has availed!

i thought jews were white folks from europe, but i learned a lot about jewish diversity from this book. i agree with the reviewer below, that this book helps give perspective on what's going on today in the middle east.

I have enjoyed reading most of this book I love learning about the writers lives in their countries of origin, and their struggle to reach America or Israel. Yet I did get annoyed with some of the writers. Not all American Jews are ignorant of Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews. Most of my peers and my family have been very open to learning about Mizrachi Jews. Maybe these writers didn't look for opportunity to enrich those around them? Many of the Mizrachi Jews I knew in Israel hung out in a very mixed crowd, and it didn't seem to impead their lives. In fact they would often jokingly make fun of us poor white skinned ashkenazis when we went to beach! There have to be more positive aspects to the way Asheknazi Jews interact with Mizrachi Jews. We are all one people.

Who is a "real" African? Who is a "real" Latino? Who is a "real" anything?

In the case of this book, the question slowly unravels in an enigmatic answer of who is a "real" Jew. As a non-denominational Christian who is devoted to exploring and identifying the roots of her faith, I have always been interested in learning more about the Jewish experience, the Jews from which my faith is derived. As I searched for books about this culture, this PEOPLE, I found this gem among a sea of mainstream Jewish literature.

"The Flying Camel" is absolutely amazing. The compilation of essays is told through first-hand accounts of women who are not only Jewish but "Arab," so to speak. They are Morroccan, yes. They are Iraqi-Egyptian, of course. They are Iranian. They are North African and Middle Eastern, AND they are Jews.

Upon reading their stories, I realized that their lives had been plagued with discrimination and violence, seperation and disdain. Many, many of the stories are so identical to the plight of African-Americans in the United States. They are not tolerated, but even worse, as women in Arab societies, their marginilization is described at best, to be intolerable to the reader. Surprisingly though, their identity is even disputed amongst Ashkenazi or European Jews, which makes even the quest to piece together their real identities even more difficult and daunting.

Despite this unacceptance from the "white" or "European" Jews, the Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews boast of their unique cultures and traditions embedded in thousands of years of inhabiting their middle-eastern countries even before Islam settled in. The authenticity or "realness" of their Jewish roots is only a distraction used by their doubters to dismantle their real experiences, their real lives, their real heritage, their real faith.

I recommend this book to those wanting to learn about the Jewish experience in the Arab world, and North Africa. It is also a stark view into the daily lives, traditions, customs and lifestyles of living in the East as women and as unwanted neighbors.

As a sidepiece, I really recommend anything Yasmin Levy. She is a Spanish Jew, who uses Ladino songs to tell of the history of her people and also fuses the style into romantic love songs. Her album "Mano Suave" was my soundtrack to this book. :) Just thought I'd add that.