Semha Alwaya

Semha Alwaya was born in Iraq. Her parents were among the roughly 125,000 Iraqi Jews whose citizenship was revoked and whose property was confiscated by the Iraqi government in the mid twentieth century. The family left Iraq in 1951 and, like many Jewish refugees, lived in Israel's transit camps, known as ma'abarot. Semha grew up in Turkey, Iran, and Israel.

Semha speaks five languages: Arabic, English, Farsi, French, and Hebrew. She earned a master's degree in Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and taught Arabic and Farsi at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. She later turned to law and has run her own law practice in Emeryville, California, since 2003. Her training in language and history gives her talks unusual depth and context.

Semha is a founding member of JIMENA. She speaks and writes about her family's exile and the wider story of Jews who became refugees from Arab countries. In a 2005 San Francisco Chronicle essay, she wrote about the roughly 900,000 Jews dispossessed in Arab lands. She has been a member of Amnesty International USA, the World Affairs Council, and the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Speaking Topics

What Semha talks about

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Selected talks and appearances

These are a selection of Semha’s talks. Semha has given many more, at synagogues, community commemorations, and college campuses in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Publications and Media

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Affiliations

Organizations

• JIMENA (founding member)
• Amnesty International USA
• World Affairs Council
• Jewish Community Relations Council

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