Born | Baghdad, Iraq, 1948 |
Today | Entrepreneur living in the San Francisco Bay Area |
Education | Degree in economics, Temple University |
Expertise | Jewish life in Baghdad in the 1950s; leaving Iraq; Iraqi Jewish identity and heritage |
Speaks to | Synagogues, young adult groups, community commemorations, and schools |
Joe Shamash was born in Baghdad in 1948 and grew up with his parents, five brothers, and two sisters in a large and comfortable home. His father was a well connected merchant who imported British goods and built a synagogue in Baghdad, and the family traced its roots in Iraq back many centuries. Joe attended a Jewish school and learned Hebrew, Arabic, English, and French. He remembers Baghdad as rich in culture and community, but also as a place where Jews could suddenly become targets during political unrest, and he was attacked as a child for being Jewish.
In 1957, when Joe was ten, his family left for New York. His oldest brother was not permitted to leave, so his parents returned to Iraq to be with him and could not get out again until 1960. For more than two years, Joe and his siblings lived in New York on their own. Only decades later did he learn that his brother Edward had used the family's resources to help other Jews escape Iraq.
Joe earned a degree in economics at Temple University in Philadelphia, then moved to California and made the Bay Area his home. He has started five companies and is the father of three. In 2012 he recorded an oral history with JIMENA reflecting on Iraqi Jewish identity and his relationship to Iraq today, and he has spoken for JIMENA at synagogues, young professional gatherings, and community commemorations. He believes the culture of Iraqi Jews, from its food to its music, must be passed on to the next generation.
Speaking Topics
What Joe talks about
1. Growing up Jewish in Baghdad
Family, school, and community life in one of the world's oldest Jewish communities.
2. Leaving Iraq
His family's departure in 1957 and two years in New York apart from his parents.
3. Iraqi Jewish identity today
What it means to be an Iraqi Jew in America, and how heritage is passed on.
4. From refugee to entrepreneur
Building a new life and career in the United States.
Select Talks
Selected talks and appearances
2018 | Beyond Bubbee program (JIMENA) |
2017 | Young Jewish Professionals, Oakland (JIMENA) |
2016 | San Francisco Main Library: Evening of Mizrahi Commemoration and Culture, moderator of Aaron Matityahu's testimony after a film screening (JIMENA, Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, and San Francisco Public Library, November 30) |
2016 | Temple Isaiah (JIMENA) |
2012 | JIMENA Oral History and Digital Experience Project: Iraqi Jewish Cultural Extinction and Identity (republished by Rozenberg Quarterly) |
These are a selection of Joe’s talks. Joe has given many more, at synagogues, young adult groups, and community commemorations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Publications and Media
Read, watch, and listen
Video
Joe Shamash: Iraqi Jewish Cultural Extinction and Identity
His JIMENA oral history on identity and his relationship to Iraq, 2012, as presented by Rozenberg Quarterly. Watch the oral history
Affiliations
Organizations
- JIMENA Speakers Bureau
- JIMENA Oral History and Digital Experience Project
Book Joe
Bring this speaker to your audience
To invite Joe Shamash to your school, university, congregation, or organization, use the Book Speaker button above or email info@jimena.org.