The Tobacco Keeper

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On 3 April 2006, less than one month after an armed group had kidnapped him near his home in Al-Mansour City, the body of the Iraqi composer Kamal Medhat was found near the Jumhuriya Bridge that crosses the River Tigris in Baghdad. Iraqi newspapers reported the fact of his death without going into detail. The real twist in the tale came when US Today News reported that Kamal Medhat was none other than Yousef Sami Saleh, of the Qujman family, who’d emigrated to Israel in 1950 during Operation Ezra and Nehemiah — that is, after the decision to strip the Jews of their Iraqi nationality and confiscate their property. He had married Farida Reuben, and their son Meir had been born in Iraq a year before he’d emigrated.

Yousef had found life in Tel Aviv unbearable and, in 1953, he’d escaped to Iran via Moscow, using a forged passport in the name of Haidar Salman. In Tehran, he’d married Tahira, daughter of a wealthy merchant named Ismail al-Tabtabaei, and she had given birth to their son Hussein. In 1958, he had returned with his family to Baghdad, where he’d remained until 1980 when, as an Iranian national, he was expelled to Tehran. His wife Tahira had died during the journey. His son Hussein had been held in prison for more than three years and upon his release he too had been deported to Tehran, where he had tried in vain to find his father.

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