Breaking Salonica’s Silence, Uncovering Conversos, and French Jews en Israël

13 FEBRUARY 2015                                                  In Memory of Sir Martin Gilbert, z’l, most recently the author of In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands

In 2014, international recording star Enrico Macias announced that he would be making aliyah. Born in Constantine, Enrico, along with most of Algeria’s Jews, fled to France shortly after the murder of Cheikh Raymond, his father-in-law and musical mentor.  Click here to watch the Diarna Geo-Musem’s Insights video about Cheikh Raymond’s record store and Enrico’s journey (Photo courtesy of Ilan Costica)

“French Immigrants To Israel Bring Part Of Home With Them”   By Emily Harris, NPR While French Jews previously moved to Israel primarily on account of Zionist principles, today’s more numerous olim often cite security, and unlike past arrivals are abjuring assimilation. Living in French enclaves, the “majority of French Jews… have roots in North Africa….  Avraham Azoulay, 51, was born in Morocco and moved to Toulouse, France, as a child. He felt his heritage set him apart. ‘When I came to Toulouse, I felt first and foremost a Jew. But everybody told me you’re Moroccan. So I said I’m French,’ he recalls. ‘Later they said you are a Jew. Israel is the only place I can be a Jew and an Israeli. I feel like I arrived at the right place.’”

In 2014, international recording star Enrico Macias announced that he would be making aliyah. Born in Constantine, Enrico, along with most of Algeria’s Jews, fled to France shortly after the murder of Cheikh Raymond, his father-in-law and musical mentor.  Click here to watch the Diarna Geo-Musem’s Insights video about Cheikh Raymond’s record store and Enrico’s journey (Photo courtesy of Ilan Costica) “French Immigrants To Israel Bring Part Of Home With Them”  
By Emily Harris, NPR

While French Jews previously moved to Israel primarily on account of Zionist principles, today’s more numerous olim often cite security, and unlike past arrivals are abjuring assimilation. Living in French enclaves, the “majority of French Jews… have roots in North Africa….  Avraham Azoulay, 51, was born in Morocco and moved to Toulouse, France, as a child. He felt his heritage set him apart. ‘When I came to Toulouse, I felt first and foremost a Jew. But everybody told me you’re Moroccan. So I said I’m French,’ he recalls. ‘Later they said you are a Jew. Israel is the only place I can be a Jew and an Israeli. I feel like I arrived at the right place.’”
 

“Hispanic Catholics rediscover Jewish roots”  By Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Hearld Some Hispanic Catholics are discovering why they don’t celebrate Christmas or eat pork, relatives are buried within a day of death, and their women cleanse themselves in a river after their menstrual cycle: they are descended from Anusim, Jews who were coerced into converting to Catholicism and continued in the confession even after escaping the Inquisition’s clutches by fleeing to the Americas.

Moses Lvovich Maimon’s 1893 painting, “The Marranos,” depicts a secret Passover Seder held by Conversos (B&W excerpt shown above).

“Hispanic Catholics rediscover Jewish roots” 
By Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Hearld

Some Hispanic Catholics are discovering why they don’t celebrate Christmas or eat pork, relatives are buried within a day of death, and their women cleanse themselves in a river after their menstrual cycle: they are descended from Anusim, Jews who were coerced into converting to Catholicism and continued in the confession even after escaping the Inquisition’s clutches by fleeing to the Americas. 

 
Moses Lvovich Maimon’s 1893 painting, “The Marranos,” depicts a secret Passover Seder held by Conversos (B&W excerpt shown above).
  Site of the Week: The Shrine to Shlomo ben Lhens in the Ourika Valley, Morocco
 

“Speaking on Salonica’s Sacred Ground”   By Devin Naar, The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies Built atop what was “once [an] expansive and historic Jewish burial ground,” Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, was silent for over seventy years about the fifty thousand Salonican Jews deported and murdered at Auschwitz. Now, thanks in part to the efforts of Professor Devin E. Naar, there is a memorial commemorating the annihilation of this community, who constituted “the largest Ladino-speaking Jewish community in the world,” and the obliteration of physical remnants of “the centuries-long Jewish presence in this once cosmopolitan city— from the more than three dozen synagogues to the vast Jewish cemetery—… partly at the initiative of local Greek Orthodox residents and leaders themselves.”

Devin E. Naar, Chair of the Sephardic Studies Program at the University of Washington and an ASF Representative on the Center for Jewish History’s Academic Advisory Board, stands amidst Aristotle University’s new Holocaust memorial (Photo courtesy of Iosif Vaena)

“Speaking on Salonica’s Sacred Ground”  
By Devin Naar, The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

Built atop what was “once [an] expansive and historic Jewish burial ground,” Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, was silent for over seventy years about the fifty thousand Salonican Jews deported and murdered at Auschwitz. Now, thanks in part to the efforts of Professor Devin E. Naar, there is a memorial commemorating the annihilation of this community, who constituted “the largest Ladino-speaking Jewish community in the world,” and the obliteration of physical remnants of “the centuries-long Jewish presence in this once cosmopolitan city— from the more than three dozen synagogues to the vast Jewish cemetery—… partly at the initiative of local Greek Orthodox residents and leaders themselves.” 
 

Announcement: The polls are now open for the 37th World Zionist Congress (WZO) elections. The WZO decides on the allocation of funding for Jewish educational programs in Israel and around the world. ASF Board Member Rabbi Elie Abadi, M.D., is leading the only Sephardi slate, “Ohavei Zion – The World Sephardic Zionist Organization,” which is committed to “shar[ing] the beauty of our Sephardic Heritage with our Jewish brethren.” Josephine Mairzadeh, ASF’s Director of Development, is also an Ohavei Zion candidate. Click here to learn more about the WZO and Ohavei Zion. Donate now and your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF “Connect, Collect, and Celebrate” Sephardi culture throughout the year with engaging programs and compelling publications. 
 

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Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.

The American Sephardi Federation’s Sephardi House is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011).

American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 294-8350


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