This book traces the largely overlooked history of the Sephardic Jewish pioneers who settled in the Belgian Congo during the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on archival records, period biographical notices, family testimonies, photographs, and genealogical research, it brings together some 220 meticulously documented biographies of merchants, traders, industrialists, and entrepreneurs from Sephardic families, primarily originating from the island of Rhodes. Their

Venice, Italy Over the years, Fern and I have traveled through Europe on vacation, and some of our strongest memories come from the times we've unexpectedly run into fellow Sepharadim along the way. This past June we were in Venice, Italy. On our visit, we made a point of walking through the Jewish Ghetto. Of the five synagogues still standing there, only two can currently be toured: the Turkish and Greek, and the larger Spanish and Portuguese. Our guide mentioned that she he

Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai z"L As we experienced the awesome day of Yom HaKippurim, we find ourselves living through a moment in which the very idea of Jewish national return has become the subject of intense debate. Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are increasingly intertwined in the public discourse, while Jews themselves are once again asking fundamental questions about Jewish identity, peoplehood, sovereignty, and the meaning of the Land of Israel. At such a moment, understanding

An artistic rendering of Don Isaac Abravanel August 1492. An armada of sorts anchors in the port of Naples. Nine Spanish caravels of the same class that will soon carry Columbus to the New World. However, these ships are laden with adventurers of another kind: a thousand Sephardic refugees, packed up like sardines in a can. A sympathetic onlooker watches them disembark. “They were like wraiths,” he will recall. “resembling corpses in all but the power of motion.”[1] Their I

Seahorse fountain La Kay Ancha in the heart of the historic Juderia (Jewish Quarter) of Rhodes Visiting the island of Rhodes has always given me a sense of longing. There’s something in the air, especially in the early hours before the sun rises, when a cool breeze moves through these empty, quiet streets. The place feels suspended in time, it seems. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a lingering absence that cannot be replaced, as I take a deep breath and begin my morning wal

The Historic Casino of Rhodes By 1945, Jews were a rare sight in Rhodes. The Shoah had come over the island like a rogue wave in the night. In just a few short days, a thousand years of Jewish life and memory were swept into the sea, much of it lost forever. But in January of 1949, a different kind of Jew came up from the Aegean and strolled up to Rhode’s Grand Hotel of Roses. Today, this hotel persists as a dreary casino, but back then “The Roses” was bustling with activity

A photo of a young Rhodian Jewish boy of the Angel family, wearing the Star of David on the lapel of his coat. The Nazi menace decimated European Jewry, and its tentacles of hatred and violence reached even to North Africa and the Middle East. Jews of all backgrounds were victimized, and many stories about murdered family members remain as the heritage of Jews throughout the world. In our family-whose roots were in the Sephardic community of the Island of Rhodes-we also have

The Holocaust Memorial of Rhodes, located in the courtyard of the old Jewish neighborhood (La Djuderia) As editor of La Djente, it is especially meaningful to introduce this issue dedicated to the Sephardic Jewish community of Rhodes, a community whose story feels deeply personal to me, even four generations later. Jewish Rhodes first existed to me as a far away dream. A word in Ladino about the kehila. A recipe of bourikitas my grandmother made without measurements. Stories

The Skopje Holocaust Museum features a display of Macedonian Jews killed in the Holocaust. In this regard it resembles other such ones like the DC Holocaust Memorial or Yad Vashem. It’s the rest of the exhibits that distinguish it in depth. My favorite Holocaust museum in the world is located in Skopje, North Macedonia. This may seem an odd place for such an institution. Few people know of the rich Jewish history of the country, nor that 98% of the Jews in Macedonia were murd

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

Most Ashkenazim consider Sephardic Jews to be exotic yet somewhat naive, given to colorful garb and spiced food and characterized by sincere yet simple religious devotion, with perhaps more than a dab of Kabbalistic superstition thrown in for good measure. Their rabbis, too, are mild-natured individuals, innocent of worldly knowledge and perspicacity, who may be good at rote memorization but are third-rate in intellectual depth. Not long ago, even some talmidei-hakhamim held

An original handwritten fragment of Maimonides’ Mishne Tora, held at Cambridge The Greek word mythos, from which we get ‘myth’, ultimately means ‘storytelling.’ It embodies a more emotional experience. Such impassioned retelling contrasts with logos, rational thought. Myths are stories that are accorded a higher significance by people’s belief in them, factual or not. The Jewish tradition is full of mythic stories, from the biblical to the contemporary, and the communal to th

Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh (1822-1900) Nineteenth century Livorno was home to a unique thinker whose life work centered on unity. Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh (1822-1900), whose parents were natives of Fez, Morocco, was orphaned at an early age. His guardians saw to it that this precocious child received a well-rounded education in Jewish and general subjects. Although as a young man he entered a business career, his real love was for religious and scientific thought. He went on to

The cover from the 1917 Brotherhood Gala brochure (Courtesy of David Saffan) The common answer today is: Yes. Even the Brotherhood’s own website indicates that the organization was established as a “volunteer mutual aid and burial society.” But Ladino publications of the era tell a slightly different story. During the early twentieth century, economic challenges, political changes, and war compelled many Sephardic Jews to leave the Ottoman Empire. Between 1908 and 1924, a

Benoun Torah Crown from the Kehila Grande of Rhodes For decades, artifacts and photographs related to the Jewish community of Rhodes have been carefully collected as part of a personal and communal mission to preserve its rich history for future generations. And despite the tragic deportation and murder of nearly all its Jews to Auschwitz, it is our role as their descendants to honor and remember their life stories, thus preserving the community’s legacy now and forever. Tha

Republished with permission from the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust Photograph of Rabbi Leon J. Pessah...

Correspondence clipping from Congregation Mikveh Israel discussing the plight of recently arrived Sephardic Jews to Philadelphia from the...

A historical document that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the management of Jewish property in Greece during the Nazi Occupation...

One of the unresolved questions in the study of the history of the Jews of Greece relates to the devastating impact of the Holocaust. How...

Newly catalogued archives of the Jewish Community of Izmir, Turkey On December 17, 2024, an invaluable treasure of Jewish heritage was...