Kurdistan was once home to an ancient and vibrant Jewish community with its own unique dialect of Aramaic. But in the 20th century, forced conversion on the one hand and emigration to Israel on the other caused the community to shrink dramatically. Now the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraqi Kurds’ quasi-autonomous entity, is trying to encourage a Jewish revival. In April, the KRG even sponsored a Yom Hashoah event. Julie Lenarz writes:
The Jewish Remembrance Day for Victims of the Holocaust in Kurdistan was organized by the Office of the Jewish Representative, a special department within the Kurdistan Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, as part of a wider push by the KRG to foster a climate of peaceful coexistence among people of different religious backgrounds. . . . Last year, the government . . . appointed official representatives for all [its] religious communities, . . . including Jews, Mandaeans, Baha’is, Kaka’is, Shiite Muslims, and Zoroastrians. . . . This is an unprecedented initiative by a Muslim-majority government in the modern Middle East, where minorities are often systematically persecuted or worse. . . .
Sherzad Omar Mamsani, the KRG’s first Jewish representative, has been tasked with a monumental challenge—the revival of Kurdistan’s ancient Jewish history and culture, which was suppressed 70 years ago. . . .
Mamsani is more than a token appointment. . . . “Unlike [Iran], we see Israel and Kurdistan as the two countries in the Middle East where people of all religions and identities can come together and coexist peacefully,” Mamsani told me. “Religious freedom in the region is severely restricted, and nowhere in the Islamic world do religious minorities enjoy the same rights they enjoy in Israel and Kurdistan.”
Read more on Tower: http://www.thetower.org/article/in-iraqi-kurdistan-a-jewish-past-comes-to-life-sherzad-mamsani/