Rachel Wahba

Writer, Speaker, Psychotherapist

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To Emigrate or Not to Emigrate

Jan 22, 2016

To Emigrate or Not to Emigrate

I am an immigrant. As a progressive my first inclination is to say of course, open all borders, keep America a free country, and by all means, may all the oppressed peoples of the world enter our gates. After all, the Statue of Liberty was the closest thing to a goddess for my mother. My Iraqi mother and Egyptian father applied for immigration to the country of their dreams. As Egyptian nationals without any family in the United States, we waited twenty years before we were c

Yitbach el Yahud

Jan 15, 2016

Yitbach el Yahud

Islamic fundamentalists are preaching “Itbach el Yahud,” slaughter the Jews, cries my parents lived with in their native Egypt and Iraq. Today Jews in France are fair game for radical Islamists. Vows to destroy Israel crowd the Internet. The world is not paying enough attention. Today I live in a country where our leaders cannot link “political Islam” with “terrorism” or “Islamic” with “terrorist.” Abbas and Fatah are seen as “moderate,” unbelievable deals are made with Iran

Rachel Wahba is a writer, psychotherapist, and co-founder of Olivia Travel/Companies. An Iraqi -Egyptian Jew, born in India, she grew up in Japan.

The many dimensions of

displacement and exile are a constant theme in her work as a writer, therapist, and in her activism as a Mizrahi Jew who grew up stateless.