1492 – The Exodus from Spain.
In 1992, my wife and I vacationed in Turkey during Passover. Prior to leaving I connected with the Quincentennial Foundation (Celebrating 500 years of Jewish life in Turkey) and asked them to hook us up with a Jewish family for the first Seder night. The NY office faxed my request to Istanbul, and at the latter office was a volunteer college student named Zelda Barocas. She excitedly got the fax and asked her parents to invite us, which they did.
The Istanbuli Barocas family’s excitement was palpable as they invited all of the elder tias and tios as well as Zelda’s young adult cousins to join us. I discovered the family had been using the Turkish language Agada for the last couple of decades. In our honor, they dusted off the old Ladino Agada for use that night. I became the evening’s translator. The older folks spoke Turkish and Ladino and the younger adults spoke Turkish and English. I shifted back and forth from Ladino to English all evening (I don’t speak Turkish). At the end of the meal, and after much wine, we sang “Un Kavritiko,” laughing as we mixed up the stanzas. It was the most unusual and best Pesach ever!
I was sad to realize that the younger generation had lost the traditional Ladino Sephardic Passover and language. We at the Brotherhood are hard at work to stem the tide and keep our culture and language alive. Our communal Exodus strives to regenerate the beauty and love of our identity with new technology and global interactions. This is currently being accomplished through our Sephardic Digital Academy, social media, trips and interactions with national and international communities, our weekly newsletter La Boz Sefaradi, the production of this Magazine - The Sephardic Brother, and new generational events.
We are also now reestablishing many committees to assist in our mission. Our Managing Director, Ethan Marcus, has been a driving force in helping achieve the vision of our Executive Committee and the Central Council in a resurgence of our culture and language. That is the Sephardic Brotherhood’s Exodus to the “Promised Dream” to keep our heritage alive.
My wife Ellen and I wish you a meaningful Seder and a Pesah Alegre - Moadim LeSimha!
Irving Barocas
President
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