Sunday, November 9, 2008

Reports from a playboy

Peter's new article on Iraq is really funny, albeit reporting on the death of the oldest diaspora Jewish community in the world. Whistling past the graveyard indeed.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One of the last eight Jews in Baghdad, a portly retired accountant, erupts in a bellyful of laughter when asked why he never married.

"I was a playboy. Don't write that!" he jokes, grinning. "How old do you think I am? Wrong. I'm 65! Don't write that! Write that I am 55!"
...
How many Jews are there now?

"We know them all," says the ex-accountant, counting.

There's the ex-accountant himself, plus the nephew with whom he shares a rented house in Baghdad's central Karrada district. There's the man who lives near them, the man who leads the community, the very old woman, the male doctor and the female dentist. And the man whose brother was a goldsmith.

The goldsmith married the dentist a few years ago. A few months later, he was abducted by gunmen.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

David, check out www.democracynow.org

Unknown said...

sorry, meant www.democracynow.org