During a reunion at Habonim Dror’s Camp Tavor in Chicago, a woman approached Michelle Azar and told her she had a fascinating life story. Azar jokingly replied, “I have a show about it – ‘From Baghdad to Brooklyn.’”
At the time, the actress and singer, who is married to Rabbi Jonathan Aaron, didn’t actually have a show, but the comment sparked the idea of creating a solo performance to tell the story of her parents. “My father is Iraqi and my mom’s side is from Poland, so I was always aware, growing up, that my family’s background is distinctly different,” she said. “While I was at Habonim Dror, we were asked to investigate our origin. Many [of the children] were Israelis, but I felt I had a different story.”
Azar’s parents do indeed have a different love story. Back in the day, most Jewish couples met and married within their own community and country of origin. But when Shaul Azariahu met Marsha Singer, who grew up in Brooklyn to an immigrant family from Poland, it was love at first sight. The couple married just two weeks later.
“My father finished his IDF service and then he was working for El Al just to get a ticket to America so he could marry a rich girl, but then he met my mother,” said Azar. “She wasn’t rich, but she had a beautiful voice, and he fell in love with her energy. My poor mom had to tell her mom that she was moving to Chicago right after the huppah, because my dad got a job in Chicago.”
Azar’s parents are still happily married nearly 60 years later, and their love story no doubt inspired her to follow her heart. After earning a BFA in Drama from New York University, Azar followed a Zionist calling and moved to Israel, where she met her husband. The couple decided to get married within two weeks, though they waited a year before having their huppah. “I think I was also the same age as my mom was when she met my father.”
The couple eventually returned to the United States, where Azar built a career in television and film – including appearances on “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “How to Get Away With Murder” – while remaining deeply connected to Judaism and Israel.
A few years ago, as Azar and her husband were listening to live music, she heard an oud – an Arabic lute – and found herself weeping. The oud’s origins trace back to ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and Persia, evolving from even older instruments such as the Persian barbat and becoming central to Middle Eastern music.
“I realized that it was a portal for me. Music has the ability to help us feel vulnerable, connected to something without words,” said Azar. “So I started investigating and learning about the two different sides of my heritage.”
Azar said she delved into the past, listening to Umm Kulthum’s music and reading her grandmother’s journal. “My Bubbe, Ada Pickelney, was born in Ratchke, Poland, and was a very shy and nervous child. Her mother died on the boat to Ellis Island when Ada was 13 years old, and she and her youngest brother finished the journey to meet their father in New York City alone.”
Through the journal, Azar learned about Ada’s fear of her father, which led her to live with her sisters in Brooklyn, where she found solace in academia and acting.
In her one-woman show, Azar portrays her grandmother as well as her mother, father and herself. In the playbill, Azar describes herself as someone who learned how to sing and dance before she could talk or walk. “From an early age,” he bio reads, “she knew she felt most alive when performing or immersing herself in anything Jewish.”
Azar wove her grandmother’s journal writings into the performance alongside music, movement and song, blending the sound of the oud and Umm Kulthum with her own Hebrew singing and Eastern European melodies.
“My mom and my grandma were singers,” Azar said. “I do a mashup of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and the love story of how she met this otherworldly Iraqi Israeli man. We all have different cultures living within us.”
Azar will perform on Jan. 15 at Temple Emanuel, where her husband serves as the rabbi. She will then go on tour with “All Things Equal,” a show about the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and plans to bring her solo show back to Los Angeles.
“From Baghdad to Brooklyn” will also feature Yoni Battat, an oud player who will be in town to perform at the Pico Union Project Jan. 18. “He brings such an incredible life to it and authenticity because of his whole background,” Azar said. “And he sings too, which is incredible.”
That idea — of multiple identities coexisting within one person — is something Azar hopes resonates beyond the stage.
More recently, those questions have become deeply personal. Azar spoke about a moment involving her daughter, who is currently in an MFA program. At a campus event, a Jewish author presented a sharply critical talk about Israel. “The sources she cited were Al Jazeera and TikTok,” said Azar. “It just absolutely infuriated me. She was promoting this in front of tons of people, Jewish and non-Jewish, very avid listeners.”
Sitting in the audience, her daughter felt compelled to speak — not in protest, but in search of dialogue. “She wanted to find like-minded people to talk about the shared history that feels completely missing from the narrative.” That moment underscored both the urgency and the fragility of Jewish storytelling today — especially when foundational histories are left out of public discourse. “My father’s family came from Jerusalem, was kicked out and ended up in Iraq and they were always trying to get back,” she said. “That is enormously true. And the fact that that story is completely removed from so many conversations, that’s a problem.”
Ultimately, “From Baghdad to Brooklyn” is not about finding answers, Azar emphasized, but about sparking a conversation. The 50-minute show blends stories, songs, movement and humor to create what she hopes is a tender space, one where people can rest, listen and recognize themselves in one another.
“We have to slow down and learn who each other is. We just need to hear each other’s story, to humanize each other.”