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Amy S. Dane
There had been a vital and thriving Jewish community in Iraq for 2600 years, dating back to the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC. When Jacob B. Shammash was a teenager, one third of the population of...view moreThere had been a vital and thriving Jewish community in Iraq for 2600 years, dating back to the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC. When Jacob B. Shammash was a teenager, one third of the population of Baghdad was Jewish. Only a couple of decades after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, that same community ceased to exist, obliterated through persecution and exodus for survival.
The author describes his idyllic youth in a land of date palms and orange groves. He is the third of nine children from what was a wealthy business and landowning family. Jacob emigrated from Baghdad to the United States to attend college in 1947. He had no idea that his timing was fortuitous, just before the situation of his people back home became dire. Or that he would never see his homeland again.
Dr. Shammash is grateful for the opportunities he had, the successful career he built as a cardio-thoracic and vascular surgeon and pioneer of pacemaker implantation, and the family he loves. On August 8, 2017, at the age of 90, Jacob, his wife of 62 years and his family celebrated his 70th anniversary of his arrival to the United States. His account is gripping, filled with love, horror, sadness and joy.view less