Sandur, Iraq

Sandur, also spelled Sundur (, ), was a village in Iraqi Kurdistan, approximately 70 miles north of Mosul, near Duhok, on the way to Amediyah.Commentary, Volume 8
American Jewish Committee, 1949. pg. 557. First a historically Christian village, it later became an agricultural settlement inhabited by Kurdish Jews.

History

In ancient times, the village had been inhabited by Christians and was later inhabited by Kurds and Jews after the Christians deserted it.

In 1849, Sandur was described as an extensive village, containing over 100 Jewish households, with a few inhabited by Kurds. By the first half of the 20th century, the village was entirely Jewish.Mordechai Zaken
Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan: A Study in Survival
BRILL, 2007. pp. 129–132. . All the village lands belonged to Jews, who worked in the vineyards and orchards growing pears, plums, pomegranates, and apples.

In 1933, there were about 60 Jewish families.Arthur Ruppin
The Jews in the Modern World
Macmillan and Co., 1934. pg. 159. niversity of Michigan, January 29, 2008./ref> In 1934, Benzion Israeli found 800 inhabitants and wrote that "Sandur is a state of its own... this is a Jewish village, an autonomous Jewish republic." In 1935, Walter Schwarz visited the village and gave a detailed report. He noted that it was inhabited only by Jews and that the fields and vineyards were well kept and yielded good crops.

Mordechai Zaken, who investigated the history of Kurdistani Jews in previous centuries, explained why some reports described the village as entirely Jewish, while others mentioned Muslim Kurds living on the outskirts. Apparently, the Kurds working on the Sabbath disturbed the Jews, so the Jewish residents requested a judge from Mosul to order the Kurds to relocate outside the village. The Kurds agreed, but the Jews had to buy their houses, which they did.

After Iraq gained independence in 1932, the position of the Jews began to deteriorate.Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski
Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study
Lexington Books, 2007. pp. 116–122. .

In July 1941, it was reported in the ''Jewish Digest'' that the leader of the village expressed his wish for the 50 families living there to "sell their village and immigrate to Palestine".

During the Allied occupation of Iraq and in the backdrop of the Farhud, sporadic attacks on Jews continued throughout World War II. On December 17, 1942, anti-Jewish riots resulted in the murder of eight Jews in the village.

In 1943, Friedrich Simon Bodenheimer visited Sandur for an evening. He found the atmosphere disturbed by the "unfriendly attitude of the neighboring Kurdish villages." He claimed the Jews could not even sell their land, as the Kurds said, "We will soon get it for nothing!"

With the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the situation worsened for Iraq's Jews, who were portrayed as Zionists. Their freedom of movement was restricted, and many lost their jobs. In 1949, there were still about 100 families living in Sandur.

On March 9, 1950, a law was passed that effectively depicted Jews as unprotected aliens. Soon after, rural Jews faced increasing economic hardship and felt increasingly vulnerable. In early June, it was reported that neighboring villages were threatening to murder the people of Sandur unless they left. The villagers were among the first wave of Jews who left the countryside for Baghdad to sign up for emigration.

Within the next few years, the remaining 500 Jews of Sandur emigrated to Israel.(Sondor) סונדור
''kurdishjewry.org''. In Israel, the former inhabitants of Sandur founded the moshav of Sde Trumot.

See also

*Kurdish Jews in Israel
*Israel–Kurdistan Region relations

References

{{Authority control

Populated places in Dohuk Province
Historic Jewish communities in Iraq
Jewish villages in the Ottoman Empire
Assyrian communities in Iraq