My Iraqi Jewish Grandmother's Hands
Sarah Sassoon grew up in Sydney, Australia, in an Iraqi Jewish family that spoke Judeo Arabic at home. Today she lives in Jerusalem and wears her grandmother's gold bangle, which her grandmother brought out of Iraq. That bangle inspired her first children's book, Shoham's Bangle.
Her grandmother
Wisdom without words
Her grandmother spoke little English, and Sassoon spoke no Judeo Arabic, so the two communicated mostly through touch, gestures, and food. Her grandmother never learned to read or write, but her hands were always busy, cooking, cleaning, and caring for her family, with her bangles always on her wrists.
Her kitchen
Learning heritage through food
Sassoon absorbed her Iraqi heritage at her grandmother's table: cardamom tea, cheese filled sambusak, date cookies called ba'aba tamar, and dishes like kubbeh and kubbeh bamya. After her grandmother died, Sassoon gathered her recipes, and she now cooks them for her own children.
From Baghdad to Israel
A changing world for women
In Baghdad, where there were once no banks, a woman's gold jewelry was her family's savings. In 1951, Sassoon's grandparents and their five children were among more than 120,000 Iraqi Jews airlifted to Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. In Israel, poverty pushed many Iraqi Jewish women into factory work, which opened new paths for their daughters, including schooling and careers outside the home.
Breaking the silence
Telling the story
Like many refugee families, Sassoon's rarely spoke about Iraq or why they had left. She learned her history through food, music, and language, and later through her own research. Her book is her way of passing on both her grandmother's recipes and her family's story to a new generation.
Read the full essay at the Jewish Book Council →
This summary was written by JIMENA and is based on “My Iraqi Jewish Grandmother's Hands” by Sarah Sassoon, published by the Jewish Book Council's PB Daily (March 30, 2023). The original essay belongs to its author and the Jewish Book Council.
