Dr. Manu Khodadad was born in Iran in the Capital of the 5^th province – Kermanshah. At that time Iran was separated into 10 provinces.  He is ethnically Kurd and part of the Kurdish tribe. There were 50-60,000 Kurdish villages at that time.  He is from a family of 7 children.  His older brother passed away from measles before he was born and that devastated his father as his father was very attached to his late brother.  When Dr. Manu was born, his resemblance to his late brother gave him a special attachment and relationship with his father. 

 

When he was 4 ½ years old he contracted typhoid disease.  His dad was friends with a Jewish doctor,  Dr. Habbib – which means “Beloved”.  This doctor visited with him twice a day while he was sick and had an amazing bedside manner – showing a kindness and caring way of treating his patient.   He would greet Dr. Manu  with “Hows my brave lion cub” - even though he was quite weak and emaciated.  From a very young age, Dr. Manu  wanted to be a doctor just like Dr. Habbib. 

 

Dr. Manu grew up in Iran when both the Jews and Baha’is were targeted. As a child he was bullied by other children.  Only 10% of the population was Jewish.   Shia Muslims had a month of mourning where they would walk around the town beating their chest and whipping themselves with chains in a frenzied manner.  During this time, there was great fear among Jews and Baha’is.  The Chief Rabbi at the time met with Dr. Manu’s dad and they discussed what to do to help ensure and protect the 120-125 Jewish families.  His father brought 10 Jewish families each with 3-4 kids to their home, each family of 5-6 shared one bedroom and each family then took turns cooking for everyone in the house.  The government issued 100 rifles with 10,000 rounds of ammunition to protect the tribe from the Shia’s.  They hired 6 men to walk the roof of the home with the rifles to protect the families inside. In the end they were able to return all 100 rifles and ammunition to the government without 1 single shot used. 

 

His medical school in Iran was 6 years and he then decided to further his education in the US.  His wife came here first and the plan was to learn more in the US and return to Iran. They first arrived in Cleveland.  His first impression when he came here was that there were no walls separating the homes -the yards were all connected and he realized this must be a safe place. His second was that all the hospitals he came across were NOT government owned and operated but they were religious based and run by foundations or the religious group and he loved this. His third impression was the people here had real freedom of religion and speech.

 

He then came to Chicago to work at Resurrection Hospital and Loyola and spent time at Michael Reese Hospital. 

The first vacation he ever took was to VA and FL.  They drove and spent time in S. and N. Carolina.  He was shocked to see the segregation in restrooms for black and white only.

 

After 3 years he went to Canada to do research.  He came back to US and was hired by a Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY.  In Kentucky, he had to be a citizen to get a full license to practice medicine and he only had a temporary license there.  So he came to Illinois and started his own practice.  Not one single patient ever refused to go to him because he was from Iran, not one single physician refused to refer to him because he was from Iran. 

 

He decided to become a citizen of US.  He returned to Iran in 1977, his wife was offered a position in a top university there.  They considered it for a moment but with all the fighting they decided to return to US.  The Hamani tribe at that time confiscated all their property – they received a letter of notice when that occurred saying, they could return and go to court to try to get it back.  Which he knew would not end in their favor and was more of a ploy to persecute them if they returned. 

His wife Jenna  majored in Cell biology and anatomy and has PHD from Northwestern in Molecular Biology.  Dr. Manu retired 10 years ago as a surgeon. Eighty percent of his practice was Oncology.

 

Dr. Manu provided an amazing perspective of his life and the major events in his life that shaped who he is, what he values, what brought him to Highland Park and why he loves this country so much.  It was a beautiful presentation!