In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing their beloved Iraq to the new state of Israel.
Today the once flourishing Jewish community of Iraq, at one time numbering over 130,000 and tracing its history back 2,600 years, has all but vanished.
Why so? One explanation speaks of the timeless clash between Arab and Jewish civilizations and a heroic Zionist mission to rescue Eastern Jews from backward nations and unceasing persecution.
Avi Shlaim tears up this script. His parents had many Muslim friends in Baghdad and no interest in Zionism. As anti-Semitism surged in Iraq, the Zionist underground fanned the flames. Yet when Iraqi Jews fled to Israel, they faced an uncertain future, their history was rewritten to serve a Zionist narrative.
This memoir breathes life into an almost forgotten world. Weaving together the personal and the political, Three Worlds offers a fresh perspective on Arab-Jews, caught in the crossfire of Zionism and nationalism.
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Neil Shah is an Audie-nominated and multi AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator who has recorded over 250 audiobooks spanning across almost every genre, as well as numerous long-form journalism articles. AudioFile magazine has commended him for “an absolutely mesmerizing listening experience” and as “an outstanding narrator who adds a healthy dose of personality to each of the characters.” As a classically trained actor, he has appeared off Broadway and on regional stages, as well as in film and television. He records from his home studio in Oregon’s beautiful Wine Country.