My Fathers Paradise Chapter Summary

The main point of this book review will be to summarize the main points and parts of My Fathers Paradise, while giving insight in to specific Jewish customs visited throughout the novel. In addition, the themes of Jewish unity and Jewish diversity will be visited. Finally, this book review will highlight my own connection to this novel, and will analyze how my own experience with Judaism was heightened and altered after reading this book.
An ancient community of forgotten Jews lived in a hidden corner of the world, the mountains between Kurdistan and northern Iraq. This community went forgotten, unnoticed for close to three thousand years. Different from other Jewish people, this community held on to the ancient language of Aramaic, and lived to be some of the only people whom still spoke, and understood the language. The community consisted of religious, mostly illiterate people, many of whom held on to simple jobs such as fabric dying. To these people, Yona Sabar was born.
After the founding of Israel in the 1950’s, Yona Sabar emigrated with his family, and over 100,000 other Jewish people from Iraq. This was one of the world's largest, and also one of the least known diasporas. Due to this emigration, the Kurdish Jews' culture and language
However, as his first generation, American son Ariel grew up, he rejected his traditions, as reminded him of a strange distant immigrant heritage, one which he felt no connection to. Ariel lived in dismay of his own heritage until the birth of his own son. In shortened terms, My Father's Paradise is Ariel Sabar's journey to piece together the past and the present, and to connect his own heritage to his modern day life. Throughout the novel, Ariel and Yona travel through a war torn Iraq to find the remainder of Yona's birthplace. Ariel, learning about his own heritage along the way, makes a point to bring to life the town of Zakho. Through this, he discovers, and tells family's