Recalling bloodshed in Baghdad

Harif, the organisation for Jews from Arab lands, turned to verse to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Farhud, the pogrom in Baghdad in June 1941. It commissioned a poem from London poet Yvonne Green (below), who recited it at a memorial at the Knesset this week (and which you can read on p13).

Harif's Lyn Julius said "at these commemorations it is usual to have a witness tell his or her story, but we had very few people in London able or willing to give their testimonies at a public event. We asked Simon Yadoo, a RSC actor of Iraqi-Jewish descent, to read from five works published in English about the Farhud.

"Yvonne's poem complemented the readings perfectly: it encapsulates this cataclysmic event, which sounded the death knell for the Jewish community of Iraq after 27 centuries."