The book tells the story of Yona Sabar, a Kurdish Jew from the ancient town of Zakho in Iraq, who grew up speaking Aramaic, the language of Jesus, in a community that had existed for 3,000 years. In the 1950s, amidst rising tensions, Yona emigrated to Israel with thousands of other Iraqi Jews. The narrative follows his journey to becoming a professor at UCLA and his son Ariel’s, the author, attempt to bridge the gap between his modern American life and his father’s rapidly disappearing Kurdish heritage. It is a story of family, memory, the struggle to preserve a unique culture, and the complex relationship between a father and son.
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