Harif, the organisation for Jews from Arab lands, turned to verse to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Farhud, the pogrom in Baghdad in June 1941. It commissioned a poem from London poet Yvonne Green (below), who recited it at a memorial at the Knesset this week (and which you can read on p13).
Harif's Lyn Julius said "at these commemorations it is usual to have a witness tell his or her story, but we had very few people in London able or willing to give their testimonies at a public event. We asked Simon Yadoo, a RSC actor of Iraqi-Jewish descent, to read from five works published in English about the Farhud.
"Yvonne's poem complemented the readings perfectly: it encapsulates this cataclysmic event, which sounded the death knell for the Jewish community of Iraq after 27 centuries."
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