The origins of kleicha can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, where the ancient Sumerians would prepare this cookie to celebrate the New Year and Ishtar, one of the more prominent goddesses in ancient Sumerian mythology, (Nasrallah, 6). Spring represented rebirth and renewal, which coincided with Ishtar's power of fertility. To honor the goddess, ancient Sumerians would bake qullupu, the kleicha's ancestor. These cookies were shaped to resemble a full or crescent moon that symbolized the arrival of Spring, which was often marked by the first full moon in late March or early April, (Nasrallah, 6).

The cultural significance of kleicha, the first full moon, and the arrival of Spring influenced the cultural traditions of the world’s prominent monotheistic religions. The Old Testament of the Bible referred to the goddess of Ishtar as Ashtoreth or Esther. Ancient Jewish communities in Iraq would prepare qullupu for Purim, a holiday that “[celebrated the time when the Jewish Queen Esther saved her fellow Jews in Persia from extermination,”(Nasrallah, 5). Like the celebration of the New Year, Purim often occurs during the Spring around the sighting of the first full moon. The ancient Christians prepared the cookies to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which also occurred around the first full moon in April or late March. Additionally, earlier Muslim communities based some of their religious holidays, which featured kleicha, around the appearance of full moons.

In contemporary times, Iraqi followers of the Christain, Jewish, and Muslim faiths still prepare the kleicha for their religious holidays. Muslims often bake this date cookie for Id al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadhan, and ‘Id al-Adhha, a feast that honors the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca, (Bambling). For both events, families frequently consume the cookie throughout the day. It is also common for Muslim families to make extra kleicha to share with friends and neighbors during these holidays.

When there was a well-established Jewish community in Iraq, Iraqi Jewish communities would bake kleicha for Purim, (Bambling). However, the Jewish version of the kleicha differs from the Christians and Muslim versions, because the Jewish version is shaped into a round disk that gets pressed in wooden molds.

Chaldeans, Assyrians, and other Christian groups in Iraq prepare kleicha for Christmas and Easter.

"She made cookies with dates that were spiraled for Easter. If you’re raised Catholic you don’t eat three days before so we couldn’t touch the kleicha. After midnight mass we’d stuff ourselves with [those cookies]." -Frank Charron, my uncle

Other countries in the Middle East have added their own take on the cookie. Muslims from Iraq spread the cookie as they traveled to Saudia Arabia for the annual Islamic pilgrimage, Hajj. Saudi Arabians adopted the cookie and replaced the date filling with camel fat and honey (Nasrallah, 7).

Iranians have their own version of a date-filled cookie, which they call kuleech or koloocheh, (Nasrallah, 7).

Another prominent date and walnut-filled cookie in the Middle East is maamoul. Unlike kleicha, maamoul are made with semolina flour. However, like kleicha, maamoul are often eaten at religious feasts for both Christain and Muslim groups in the Middle East.

In China stuffed cookies pressed in wooden molds, similar to the Jewish version of kleicha, are consumed for the Mid-Autumn festival,(Nasrallah, 7).

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 3 million Iraqis have fled the country due to years of conflict, political instability, and violence, ("Iraq Refugee Crisis: Aid, Statistics and News: USA for UNHCR").

Many Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries, like Jordan or Turkey, while others have traveled as far as Australia or the United Kingdom, (“Iraq Refugee Crisis: Aid, Statistics and News: USA for UNHCR”). Regardless of their location, the Iraqi community still bakes kleicha as a way to preserve their culture, religion, and historical traditions.

Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are among the top date-producing countries in the world, accounting for 69 percent of total global production (Zaid). In particular Iraq, the birthplace of the kleicha cookie, accounts for 7.3 percent of global exports, “exporting nearly $77.5 million worth of dates,”(Pariona). Nearly 80 percent of the dates exported from Iraq went to India, (Pariona). Egypt, on the other hand, produces the most dates out of any country in the world and accounts for nearly 17 percent of global date production, but only 3 percent of global date exports (Pariona). Therefore, one could conclude that the date is an important staple in the Egyptian diet since farmers grow it primarily for the country’s own needs rather than exporting the commodity for profit. Dates are also grown in other countries in the Middle East as well, including Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and are exported to other countries. However, the fruit is an important staple in many cuisines in the Middle East, so many of the countries that harvest the fruit produce it for their citizens to enjoy, in addition to exporting the fruit for profit.

On the other side of the world, the arid and hot climates in Mexico and some regions in the United States (U.S.) provide optimal growing conditions for the date palm tree. Dates are not a prominent staple in either Mexican or U.S. cuisine, however, they are cultivated to export to other countries. California is the primary state that produces dates in the U.S., where the date industry is valued at $31.5 million (“California Dates and Date Production”). During the years 2017-18 the U.S. exported 21.8 million pounds of dates, which were valued at $67.1 million, to Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom (“Dates”). However, during that same period the U.S. imported over 75 million pounds of dates from Israel, Pakistan, and Tunisia (“Dates”). The U.S.’s need to import the fruit could reflect the country’s preference for the type of date (such as Medjool dates) and lower costs (“Dates”). For instance, in the Coachella Valley in California, where over 90 percent of dates are grown in the U.S. (“California Dates and Date Production”), dates are sold at $10 per pound due to the intensive labor that harvesting of the fruit requires (Yos). Imported dates, on the other hand, are sold at a cheaper price, most likely due to low wages that workers in other countries receive (Libsker).

The cultivation process of dates is labor-intensive, but the conditions provided for date cultivators in Israel transcends into the realm of unethical. Israel has built a series of date plantations on occupied Palestinian land and often relies on Palestinian people, particularly children, to cultivate the dates (This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice). Palestinian workers on these plantations often earn less than $2 per hour and had their pay withheld from them for months at a time (This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice). Workers are required to climb trees, which are over 40 feet tall, for at least 8 hours a day and cannot take a break, (This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice). Palestinian children are often subjected to these labor conditions because, “employers perceived them as quick and light, so they could climb trees faster,” (This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice). Nearly 7,000 children between the ages of five to seventeen are working on these plantations and are not entitled to insurance or pension when accidents happen (This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice). As one employee noted:

I know that at any moment I can fall and die, or fall and become [permanently disabled], break an arm or a leg. So, we work with one hand and hold the tree with the other. It's terribly hard. Your body cramps up. The people are nervous, afraid. The whole time you are crouching, on your feet. (This Ramadan Make a Date with Justice)

In regards to consumption, it’s widely accessible to all socioeconomic groups in many countries in the Middle East, since the fruit is a prominent food in those cultures. However, in the U.S., the food is widely consumed among Muslim Americans and individuals of Middle Eastern and North African descent (Yos). The fruit is becoming more popular among middle-class individuals as more Americans recognize the immense health benefits of the fruit (“Dates”). Yet, individuals in lower socioeconomic classes in the U.S. may not have the financial means to purchase the fruit, given its one of the more expensive fruits in the country (“Dates”).

Over the last 50 years, especially more recently, there has been a shift in production methods of the date fruit due to climate change. Increased temperatures, changes in precipitation and soil salinity, and constraints on water resources are a few of the effects of climate change that threaten date palm production in the Middle East (Mezahi). Increased temperatures have created an infrequent pollination cycle for date palm trees. Some farmers have reported witnessing their date palm trees produce the fruit in February while others have stated that their trees are doing so in May (Mezahi). The changes in production not only have altered the taste of the fruit, but also the economic status of the countries that produce the fruit. A new model from CLIMEX found that the income from date palm production in the Middle East decreased from 1990 to 2000 due to climate change. In addition to the effects of climate change, pest and disease control also has impacted the production of date palms. These pests vary from rats to snails and other insects but are notorious for interfering with the fruit’s pollination cycle thus impacting the overall production cycle of the date palm (“Proposal for an International Year of Date Palm,”).

It’s important to mention that this fruit remains “one of the main sources of income for the inhabitants in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world to make their ends meet,” (Baaghideh). Thus, the altercations in weather patterns that affect the production of the fruit threaten the stability of the economy for many countries in the Middle East that rely on this fruit to support their country, especially small farmers. One could even make the assumption that this threat posed by climate change could affect Iraqi communities’ ability to make the kleicha cookie given that climate change impacts the production and an individual family’s ability to afford the date fruit, the star ingredient.

As a result, these altercations caused by climate change and pest and disease control have contributed to the development of new technology regarding the production of the date palm fruit (Shabani). The fruit is typically harvested with manual labor, where workers climb the high rising trees to retrieve the fruit, (“Proposal for an International Year of Date Palm,”). However, to address the challenges brought by pests, some scientists have engineered a new tree that allows farmers to use other agricultural methods that manage the pests (“Proposal for an International Year of Date Palm,”). These methods vary but include using “drip irrigation and pesticide usage,” (“Proposal for an International Year of Date Palm,”). As for climate change, farmers have resorted to different pruning methods that allow dates to be stored for longer if the fruit was cultivated earlier than its traditional cultivation season (Mezahi).

The current and future threat that these pests and climate change have created for the date production and distribution industries has led researchers to seek other methods for producing the fruit. For example, a group of researchers from King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) began a project that utilizes genome sequencing to create new breeding strategies for the date palms that make the trees more resistant to the effects of climate change. While the researchers remain hopeful about the sequencing, the project remains in the early stages due to “lack of molecular tools and challenging nature of date plant,”(Staff). Other technologies that are in development include increasing distances between trees to prevent pest intervention or improving gene banks to make the fruits more resilient towards climate change (Ibrahim, 4006).

Other studies have suggested changes in the location of date palm production in addition to developing new technologies. In fact, one study identified Morocco, Central Sudan, Egypt, Eastern Mozambique, Central and Western United Arab Emirates, Southern Iran, and Eastern Pakistan to have suitable climatic conditions for date production (Shabani). That being said, the changes in date palm production will impact the distribution of the product, especially if the location of production changes. While these changes in distribution have yet to be witnessed, researchers are currently advising for governments and agricultural organizations to cooperate so they can “identify areas for cultivation of this profitable crop in the future,” (Shabani) to ensure that these changes will not gravely affect the economic status of a particular country or region of the world.

Recent technological advancements from genetically engineered foods have become a controversial topic in many Muslim cultures because there remain disagreements on whether genetically engineered foods are “halal,” (Atalan-Helicke, 664). In regards to gene-sequencing of date production, reservations about genetically engineered fruit could have a significant impact on the consumption of dates in the future. This is important to consider as dates are a cultural and religious staple to the Muslim community. For the holy month of Ramadan, many Muslim communities often break their fasts by eating dates.

Dates also form the basis of many savory and sweet dishes of different dishes in the community. Returning to my concentration for this portfolio, the kleicha, many Muslim communities in Iraq make the cookie to consume at Eid al-Fitr. Therefore, the possible advancements in technological developments from date production could bring about a cultural shock to some Muslim communities across the world. 

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