A previous issue of la Djente featured a review of my nonno Alfredo’s wartime diary, “We Are Here! We Are Alive!” (thank you Gloria Asher for the glowing review!). The diary sheds light on a network of unassuming heroes who saved my grandfather’s family from the Shoah. Yet this diary represents only a fragment of a much larger unpublished memoir, spanning Alfredo Sarano’s childhood in Izmir to his final years in Bene Berak. The bulk of that memoir unfolds in Rhodes to wh

Dos shakás para azer reir, partajadas por Nissim Ashkenazi en Ladinokomunitá. Editadas por Miriam Sherman i Aaron Shapiro. Se respektó la ortografía orijinala de Nissim. Djoha kon su Azno (Djoha and his donkey) Shaká 1 Un djóvino, manseviko ermozo, se kieriya kazar, i kada ija ke presentó a su mama, diziya, “no”. Fue ande una kazamanteria (mujer chalishkana, ke save i entiende sovre kazamientos i relasiones, matchmaker) . Le disho al mansevo, “Deves de bushkar una ija ke

Un dia mi madre de b”m me tomo i mos huimos a vijitar ande la vizina la mas vieja ke morava en la pansyon. Le aprometi a mi madre de tomar el tefteriko i el Alfabet i kopiar unas kuantas ojas kon muncho dikkat (atansion). En fin mos huimos ande la vizina. Yo estava okupado kon mi lisyon, ma kon una oreja estava sintiendo lo ke estavan avlando. La vizina mos ofrio likum turko. Kuando le trusho el kafe turko, mi mama le demando "A Madam Ayui no la vide oy." Mme. Ayui era la pat

En 1920, askeres inglezes, en eskavando en Salhiyé, Siria, toparon paredes kon pinturias muy antikas. Sigiendo kon su lavoro por munchos anyos, deskuvrieron la sivdad de Dura-Europos, ke fue abandonada después de un asedio en 256 o 257 kuando fue kuvierta kon lodo i arena. Algunos yaman a esta sivdad la “Pompeya del desierto” porke esta kuviertura la konservó muy bueno. En los sigientes anyos, los arkeólogos deskuvrieron munchas fraguas ke amostran ke ayí bivían endjuntos

Abudaraho, also known as bottarga, is a unique delicacy among the Jews of the Ottoman Empire Abudaraho, made from salted and cured fish roe, has a centuries-old history. Research on this delicacy reveals that abudaraho was produced by the Phoenicians more than 3,500 years ago. Ancient Egyptians were curing mullet roe (called al-butarikh by the Arabs) as early as the 10th century BCE in Egypt’s Nile Delta. The name abudaraho, one of many Sephardic spellings, was likely origi

Turkish Haroset In all honesty, I have never met a haroset I didn’t like, and there are probably nearly as many different haroset as there are Jews! I always have three or four at my Seder and sometimes a guest brings their own favorite. Haroset is that mixture at Passover Seders that is evocative of the mortar and bricks the Israelite slaves made and used to erect Pharoah’s warehouses and other buildings (although probably not the pyramids, but that’s another story). The