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

By Marina Benjamin

Book Overview

Marina Benjamin grew up in London feeling estranged from her family's exotic Middle Eastern ways. She refused to speak the Arabic her mother and grandmother spoke at home. She rejected the peculiar food they ate in favor of hamburgers and beer. But when Benjamin had her own child a few years ago, she realized that she was losing her link to the past.

In Last Days in Babylon, Benjamin delves into the story of her family's life among the Jews of Iraq in the first half of the twentieth century. When Iraq gained independence in 1932, Jews were the largest and most prosperous ethnic group in Baghdad. They dominated trade and finance, hobnobbed with Iraqi dignitaries, and lived in grandiose villas on the banks of the Tigris. Just twenty years later the community had been utterly ravaged, its members effectively expelled from the country by a hostile Iraqi government. Benjamin's grandmother Regina Sehayek lived through it all. Born in 1905, when Baghdad was still under Ottoman control, her childhood was a virtual idyll. This privileged existence was barely touched when the British marched into Iraq. But with the rise of Arab nationalism and the first stirrings of anti-Zionism, Regina, then a young mother, began to have dark premonitions of what was to come. By the time Iraq was galvanized by war, revolution, and regicide, Regina was already gone, her hair-raising escape a tragic exodus from a land she loved -- and a permanent departure from the husband whose gentle guiding hand had made her the woman she was.

Benjamin's keen ear and fluid writing bring to life Regina's Baghdad, both good and bad. More than a stirring story of survival, Last Days in Babylon is a bittersweet portrait of Old World Baghdad and its colorful Jewish community, whose roots predate the birth of Islam by a thousand years and whose culture did much to make Iraq the peaceful desert paradise that has since become a distant memory.

In 2004 Benjamin visited Baghdad for the first time, searching for the remains of its once vital Jewish community. What she discovered will haunt anyone who seeks to understand a country that continues to command the world's attention, just as it did when Regina Sehayek proudly walked through Baghdad's streets. By turns moving and funny, Last Days in Babylon is an adventure story, a riveting history, and a timely reminder that behind today's headlines are real people whose lives are caught -- too often tragically -- in the crossfire of misunderstanding, age-old prejudice, and geopolitical ambition.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141657204X
• ISBN13: 9781416572046
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Last day in Babylon

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)

recent history of Iraqi Jews

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.

Tells of the author's London upbringing and distance from her Iraqi past

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

Enjoyed this book

I really enjoyed this book. I was not only drawn in by her skill as a writer, but the fascinating history of the Jewish people in Iraq. After reading Benjamin's book I also have a greater understanding for what is going on in Iraq today.

Last Days in Babylon

The book was extremely authentic in detail and provided an extensive and touching history of the babylonian jews who had lived in Iraq for hundreds of years and had proposered and reached a population of 125,000 prior to their dispora that began in the 1940s'. Not only did the author provide historic detail and events by taking us through the well known street and shopping areas, and discussed many of the customs and practices of that era. She also touched on the remaining Jews in Bagdhad that lived under the constraints of Sadam Husseeinn's regime and refused to leave their homeland. This is a must read book for all descendants who are living all over trhe worlds and want to reach back anf learn of their heritage