16. The Jews of Iraq with Avi Shlaim

The renowned Israeli-British historian Avi Shlaim speaks to Edgar about the Jews of Iraq and the Arab-Jews in general - an identity that was largely destroyed in the wake of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Avi Shlaim, Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford, speaks to Edgar about the Jews of Iraq, who numbered 130,000 in 1948, and what led to every single one of them leaving. It is a candid conversation in which Avi Shlaim answers difficult questions about his own past. He was born in Baghdad in 1945 to a prosperous, upper-middle class family. At the age of five they left Iraq and arrived in Israel as impoverished second class citizens.

If you want to learn more about the Iraqi Jews and their tragic plight, please check out Avi Shlaim's brilliant book Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew.

The video recorded version of this interview is available at the Kalam Podcast Youtube channel.

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