Benjamin MeTudella in northern Iraq

I have spent the past few days in Mosul (a city on the Tigris in northern Iraq) sitting around waiting for convoys to arrive from Irbil. Not very exciting stuff. But by coincidence I have been reading the travel diary of Benjamin MeTudella a 12th century Jew who traveled from Spain the middle east, then Asia and North Africa.

Like "D" and I on our last trip through Spain, he passed through Barcelona and Gerona on the beginning of his journey.

Here is what he has to say about Irbil and Mosul:

[From the place where Noah's ark is, near the synagogue of Ezra where Jews come to pray on the 9th of Av,] it is two days to Mosul, which is Assur the Great, and here dwell about 7,000 Jews, at their head being R. Zakkai the Nasi of the seed of David, and R. Joseph surnamed Burhan-al-mulk, the astronomer to the King Sin-ed-din, the brother of Nured-din, King of Damascus. Mosul is the frontier town of the land of Persia. It is a very large and ancient city, situated on the river Hiddekel (Tigris), and is connected with Nineveh by means of a bridge. Nineveh is in ruins, but amid the ruins there are villages and hamlets, and the extent of the city may be determined by the walls, which extend forty parasangs to the city of Irbil. The city of Nineveh is on the river Hiddekel. In the city of Assur (Mosul) is the synagogue of Obadiah, built by Jonah; also the synagogue of Nahum the Elkoshite.

The ruins of the city of Nineveh are now in the city of Mosul which you can see from the FOB.

Metudella stopped in scores of cities, where he enumerated the number of Jews in each one and the historical sites, artifacts and lore that each had. It is unclear what he was doing on his travels. Was he looking for Jewish havens? Was he looking for Jewish connections in other cities for trade? His motives are unknown, but it certainly must have been an exciting adventure.

Update: I am not the only one who has been reading Tudella's diary lately.

CH Goldstein

COL (CH) Goldstein spoke in our shul (B'nai Avraham) in Brooklyn Heights last Succos. He had some great Iraq stories.  He is the only person in the US Army with a full beard. It _was_ weird seeing that. Article about him here.

Canada's Jewish Chaplain

Though Canada has a pretty small armed forces, the fact that they now have their first Jewish chaplain since WWII is still surprising.

Jewish military cemetery

Oldest Jewish military cemetery. Story here about confederate cemetery.

Life on FOBs - getting around on FOBs

In case you are wondering how we get around in FOBs, we don't all drive tanks, Humvees, and MRAPS. 

 

When we are on a FOB, and some of them can be very big, it is often hard to get around.  When you are on a base in Iraq you have a few options.  Personally I bicycle when I can.  I bought a used bicycle from the Arab market on JBB pretty cheaply when I was there and have been using it ever since.  Each unit has a very limited number of vehicles that everyone must use and it is pretty tough to get access to it all the time and I hate always bothering the people with the keys.  When I take the keys it often means that the soldiers have to wait to do something that it often more important.  So unless you want to walk a lot, bicycling is a good option.  It is a bit annoying when you have to bicycle in the rain or dust storms though.  But it has not been too much of a problem for me yet.  It is sometimes really unpleasant in the summer heat when you are wearing a uniform.  My unit is kind of resourceful and we got a few "gators", so our guys get to drive in those. 

 

Lager FOBs have buses, or vans, that travel on specific routes.  JBB has quite a few, Speicher has one or two.  Some more remote smaller FOBs have none.  On Speicher there is a very nice culture of people stopping their vehicles on the side of the road when someone is walking and offering them rides.  It happens to me quite often.  Almost no one minds going out of their way to drop someone off.  The heat is oppressive and lots of people are pretty good about it.  I made an interesting friend or two that way. 

Once, on a smaller FOB I have quite literally walked up to a complete stranger in civilian clothing at the airport (what we call a PAX terminal) and asked where some place was.  Turns out it was a local interpreter who just gave me a ride straight to where I was going.  

Flying from FOB to FOB is a whole different story. There are whole procedures you go through for getting flights, and many can be quite adventurous.  I have ended up in the wrong city or wrong country through no fault of my own.  It happens.  Then you just stay where you are until they can get you to where you have to go.  Obviously I have to be sketchy on details about this and about what follows.  If you go from the FOB to the nearby city, that is if you "go outside the wire" you would almost definitely take an uparmored vehicle.  Obviously I can't give details, but it is safer than it sounds.  Same for convoys.

Burglary in monticello

Who knew that there was a JWV post in Monticello?  Too bad they are plagued with problems like this?