Published: 23 July 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
“ONE DAY, I WANT to write a book about our family’s story,” I told my mother in my early twenties.
“Inshallah” – god willing – she replied, invoking the Arabic of our ancestors. My mother’s use of this word might make you think that my family is Muslim. But actually, we are Jewish. And for a long time, I was careful not to flaunt my unusual heritage.
Hardly any of Australia’s Jewish population descend from Arabic speakers. Most Australian Jews are Ashkenazi, that is, of European origin. But I’m not: both my parents were born and grew up in Bombay (now Mumbai), and their families came to India from Iraq.
After Mum and Dad immigrated to Australia in the 1960s, they found their place in Sydney’s tiny Sephardi Jewish community, alongside co-religionists from countries including India, Iraq, Egypt. But for me, the question of where I belonged in the Jewish community wasn’t so simple.
FULL STORY Growing up an Iraqi-Indian Jew in Australia (SBS)
