Customer Reviews

Last Days in Babylon: The Exile of Iraq's Jews, the Story of My Family

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I was looking for a book which told of Operation Ali Baba, the informal name for the flight of Iraqi Jews to Israel (and elsewhere) in the early 1950s. This book was informative about that time, since the author's mother, uncle, aunt and grandmother were among those who left, and ended up in London. The author tried to strike a balance between biographical, family stories and historical, geographical, political, economic details. It is a worthwhile book to help understand the background of the situation in Iraq today. She writes in an interesting and professional manner.

In the "Last Days of Babylon," Marina Benjamin provides a valued addition to the literature on the Iraqi Jewish community, both as a history and as a family memoir. Given its human perspective, the book is accessible, engaging and offers a more intimate portrait of Iraqi Jews, especially of the role of women in society, than any academic work could present.

Benjamin would better serve her audience though if she did not feel the need to offer her "unabashedly liberal, postcolonial, multiracial convictions." Symptomatic of this, she incredulously decided to devote the concluding pages of her work to condemning Israel's treatment of Iraqi Jews. Fortunately, Benjamin's views do not impair her ability to give a generally accurate historical account, though at one point she laughably describes the restrictive "dhimmi" legal apparatus formerly instituted on the Jews as "a fair deal by most measures."

Ironically, while Benjamin wrote this book to recapture her Iraqi Jewish heritage, her ideological worldview illustrates how alienated she is from her more conservative compatriots.

Despite these vexations, still highly recommended.

LAST DAYS IN BABYLON: THE EXILE OF IRAQ'S JEWS, THE STORY OF MY FAMILY tells of the author's London upbringing and distance from her Iraqi past. She rejected Iraqi-Jewish culture and her family's heritage - until she had her own child and in 2004 visited Iraq seeking her family history. LAST DAYS IN BABYLON charts her extraordinary journey and discoveries and is a fine choice for any general-interest lending library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book is very acurret of what went on in Bagdad in the Early half of the century, the author's great grand mother Salha is the sister of my grand mother georgia, so this book and author is very close to me. I enjoy reading it.and I thank the author Marina For all the effort she put in bringing thi book. Sincerely. Haskel Amit (Sehayek)