Heart of a Man Part III

Rivka wiped the tear from her eye as she read the last part of her mother’s letter over once more,

“I am so happy to announce that your baby sister Liesel has finally given birth. After two miscarriages since we came to Israel, Liesel has finally managed to stay strong enough to deliver. You should see Ari. He is walking around with his neck held high as an ostrich.

Liesel was in labour for over 18 hours and it was blessing that she made it through. She has been so ill. She cannot weigh more than 88 pounds. I shall not dwell on that, you know the story of the hardships we suffered leaving Iraq and our home in Baghdad and I am afraid poor Liesel took it the hardest. I am so thankful that she was able to find such a good man as Ari. We thought she would never get over losing her betrothed back then. Rueben would also have made a wonderful husband for my precious little girl.

All of that is past now and I know I must move on and be thankful for every precious day we have on this earth. Liesel is finally happy, she and Ari have a beautiful baby girl. They have not settled on a name yet. Liesel wants to break with tradition to name her daughter a name that is not even in the family. She is thinking about Janais, meaning for G-D has answered her prayers. Ari still believes in tradition and she should respect the family and name the child Avigail after his grandmother. They promised Ari’s grandmother that their first daughter would carry her name and now that the baby is born Liesel has changed her mind. Ari does not want to go back on their promise, the grandmother is old now, and Ari is the only grandchild. If they don’t do it now, she may never know a baby named in her honour. But you know your sister, when she gets something in her head, no one can get it out. It may be that they will not know until the simcha bat, when Ari presents the baby to the rabbi and announces her name.”

Rivka carefully folded the letter and put it back into the envelope and slid it into her dress pocket. Today was her turn to entertain the ladies in her sewing quarters. They were a group of 15 ladies in total, all Muslim women, not one of them Jewish.

It was a blessing to her that her family thought it important that she learn Arabic as a young girl. For if not, she would not be able to communicate with her dearest Arabic lady friends today. They were all ladies of means. They were the wives of Assad’s colleagues from the courthouse, and his office building.

Though all Iraqi Jews’ first language was Arabic, beyond that, if she had not learned Arabic, she would never have met Assad and been able to make her new life in Bashra. She would be in Bagdad with her family until that awful day when they had to leave their home behind.

Rivka could still remember Liesel’s piecing scream. Her sister was determined that she would not leave Rueben behind. It was such a terrible, terrible time. Liesel had to be dragged away with Rueben promising to follow as soon as he was able.

The memory of the anguish in Liesel’s eyes would stay with Rivka the rest of her life. Their own mother stood by helplessly as she looked on while their father and brother had to pry away Liesel’s tight grip from around Rueben’s waist. They had very little time to get her into the car and off Israel. Assad stood firmly at Rivka’s side through all of this and she too could feel his pain.

Rivka was unable to cry that day; she was unable to feel anything. She was numb inside. It all came out in the aftermath; she had pains in her stomach for years. She had bad dreams and restless nights for years as well. Rivka would not cry. She made her life; she decided to live as an Arab man’s wife. Did she even have a right to mourn over her family when she could have remained with them instead of taking an easier path? Rivka felt this was her burden to bear and hers alone. She created her own destiny and she would live it out.

Assad was very fond of King Faisal II yet Rivka had to wonder where was the king when all of this was happening? Where was the King when the Jews were expelled from Iraq? Why were 150,000 Iraqi Jews forced out of Iraq and why were a million Jews forced from most Arab lands? Rivka never did understand politics, if a country was ruled by a monarchy then how was a Prime Minister so evil as Rashid Aaly Al-Gaylani given so much power that in 1948, he could just rip her family and her life a part? Assad explained to her on an intellectual level but he never spoke to her on emotional level. She knew he felt the anguish possibly equaling her own, yet it was just easier for the both of them not to talk about it. It was too hurtful to bring it up. The past was the past and it should remain there.

Assad was able to smuggle the family out of Iraq just before the current wave of trouble began. He was trying to arrange for Rueben and his family to get through as well, but the Iraqi government beat him to it. Rueben, along with his brother and father were imprisoned; none of them were ever heard from again. Rivka did not know if Liesel was aware of all this or not. She wondered if Liesel’s wounded heart would remain broken.

Rivka had lost contact with her family directly after they left for Israel. The country was new, it had just came into existence, it was largely underdeveloped and although this new land of the Jews opened up their hearts to the Jews of the Arab world, they had nothing much to offer them in terms of living. The new arrivals lived in refugee camps, in tents under the harshest of conditions. There was very little food and very little gainful employment. Assad with all his connections still could not find out how the family was doing. Israel was poor and needed money to develop. It could not accommodate the refugees in the style that they had been used to. It was only this year in 1954, six years after they departed that contact with the family was finally made. It was a miracle that they all survived. The family struggled financially since they left everything behind. Now they were finally situated in a proper house. Yusef was still a bachelor and Liesel married in 1951.

Rivka debated as to whether or not she would tell Assad that she received a letter from her mother. The letter was written in haste and smuggled out of the country by a person that Assad did not even know she knew. If he found out she had done this, he would not be happy. She was taken a big chance by getting this sporadic information from her family. It was dangerous, perhaps downright foolhardy. If the government ever found out she had communication from the expelled hated Jewry trouble would surely befall upon Assad and their family.

Furthermore, putting aside the political feeling of the day in her country, she also knew he bore the guilt of marrying her and thus separating her from her precious family. Rivka also knew what her husband really meant when he made that revelation on Friday night. He could never fool her. Yes, it was true that he did not want his boys to grow up in Iraq. The Iraq of the future would not be the Iraq that he knew and grew up in. However, he was also thinking of the events in Iraq that had already transpired. He did not mention the Jewish expulsion because he did not want to hurt her by bringing up these painful feelings once more. Rivka was not stupid, the truth is the truth and Sami and Micah were Arab children and they were also Jewish as well.

She could hear the hustle and bustle going on downstairs. The servants were receiving the guests. She must compose herself, go downstairs, entertain the ladies and pretend like nothing happened. No one must know of her inner pain especially her best friend Nudar who was Assad’s best friend’s wife. If she mentioned anything to Nudar it would eventually get back to Hamid and then pass on to her husband. She had to stay strong for the whole family she had no other choice.