Interview with Los Muestros (Our Own) - Albert Maimon

Albert S. Maimon

EM: Tell us a little about yourself - what was it like growing up as the child of Sephardic immigrants from Turkey? What was life like in the Seattle Sephardic Community as a kid?

Albert Maimon: I was born in 1941 and I had a very privileged childhood. My mother’s father was a Hazzan, and my father’s father was a Rabbi. My father himself was a volunteer in the synagogue for many years. My mother was one of twelve and my father was also from a big family, and everyone really lived in the same neighborhood of Seattle. My dad was also the partner in a grocery store where all the community members went and was a center for activity. People would echar lashon (chit chat), etc. So I had the great benefit of being born in that environment.

My mother’s parents were born on the Island of Rhodes, and my father’s parents were from Brusa, in what is today Turkey. When I was growing up, there were two synagogues in the Sephardic community, one for the Jews from Rhodes and one for those from Tekirdag. So when I would walk down the street and one group of people would see me and say “oh! Entero Scharhon - you look just like your mother,” meaning part of the Rhodesli community. Another group would say “oh no no, entero Maimon - you look like the Turkish side,” so of course I couldn’t be a little bit of each! It was an intermarriage at the time!

We lived in an area called the Central District, where there were a lot of Ashkenazim as well. We were friends and got along, but we didn’t necessarily go to each other's homes often. I was in the first class of the Jewish Day School in Seattle, and during recess time we would play games and break into groups. One way we would break up into teams often was between the “Ashkans” vs. “the Frogs,” which was our code for the Ashkenazim vs. the Sepharadim!

What was your first real exposure like outside of the Sephardic world?

After my time in Seattle, I went to Yeshiva University, which at the time was sparsely populated with Sepharadim. When I went to YU, the Jewish texts I had already learned in Seattle were being taught in my class year, so I was already ahead. I also signed up for introductory German, and the Talmud class was in Yiddish, which I didn’t speak. However, because I was taking German and knew the text already, I was able to get by and hold my own. One day, I happened to not review the material before class very well, and the Rabbi teaching it would often ask each of the students to read a section during the class. When he got to me, I really didn’t do well with it. So he then asked me in Yiddish, “Maimon, durest de a Turk! - Maimon, what are you, a Turk?” and I didn’t understand it at first, so one of the students said Maimon, you’re not reading very well, you’re reading like a Turkish person (which was a form of insult at the time). So I said in my broken Yiddish “Rebbe, vein a Turk! - Rabbi, I am a Turk!” And we all laughed and he realized what I meant. I know this happened to my cousin Rabbi Solomon Maimon zt”L, and it happened to me too!

As a side note, in 1959, I don’t remember who, but I believe I in fact received a scholarship award from the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood! So my connection goes even farther back than we all thought! 

EM: You've spent much of your adult life deeply involved in the Sephardic world through various roles. Why have you invested so much of your time and energy into Sephardic life?

I have spent much of my life involved in the community. When Sephardic Adventure Camp started, I was a teenager, I started as a counselor assisting Rabbi Maimon zt”L. My communal service has not been exclusively focused in the Sephardic world, but it's just been a part of me that I have to do it; there is a clear need for it and I have to step up. I have to be involved. It’s who I am really.

EM: What would you say are some of your favorite Sephardic customs and traditions? Ladino phrases that you grew up with?

AM: Ya Basta! - It’s enough. Kaminando i Avlando - Walking and Talking. Me Yoyo ke te venga - the place I heard that from and the place where I still use it, would be on Friday night when I would receive a blessing from my parents and today I still give a blessing to my children and grandchildren. My parents added that onto me when I was and I kept up the tradition. Though there were times when you weren’t behaving so well, and it would be used as a more reinforcing term.

A lot of Jewish holidays stick out in my mind, particularly meals around Shabbat, the Passover Seder, the Rosh Ashana Seder, Frutikas, these all spoke to me growing up. It really shaped me and the importance of family in my life. 

EM: Did you speak to your family in Ladino or English?

AM: I didn’t speak Ladino when I was growing up. In fact my parents used the language to have conversations among themselves. Then like many others, I took Spanish in high school. But the language was always around me, and I slowly absorbed it. When I started learning it properly on my own, maybe 50 years ago, was when the Me’am Loez was translated into Hebrew and English. On Saturday afternoons, I started teaching a class in Me’am Loez. I would take the Ladino and others would take the Hebrew or English, so that offered me an incredible opportunity to learn it well. I’m much more familiar with the written word than the spoken word. But I can certainly get by.