Bill reportedly also forbids 'financial or moral assistance' to Jewish state, raising concern for Iraq's Jewish community; British Jewish leader from Iraq calls bill 'barbaric'

Journalist and novelist Sigal Samuel honors her Iraqi Jewish heritage with picture book about Osnat Barazani, whose life was a real-life early Yentel story set in the Middle East

Some 400 families of Jewish descent still live in Iraqi Kurdistan, once home to a thriving community; some now practice their faith in secret, while others have converted to Islam

A chance meeting with British geologists spurred many of Kurdistan's Jews to move to Israel in the early 1900s, where they made an impression on its founders

Some 20 Jews gather in Al-Qosh to light menorah in celebration of Jewish festival, decades after most of community left for Israel

The 1,500-year-old building was for centuries the site of a major Kurdish Jewish pilgrimage each year on the holiday of Shavuot