En Onor de Janice, Isaac and Meir Binyamin Ovadiah i ala Okazion de los 20 Anios de la Kaza Sefaradita (1)
(Note: much of this instalment first appeared in the 5759 New Year's Issue of Sephardic House Newsletter, and is reprinted here with Dr.Janice Ovadiah's permission.)
Chiko Los Muestros de los mis ojikos, (2) Guayas! Guayas! (3)
The bad news is I missed the New Year's issue of *Los Muestros* (sob!)
My nose was so buried in a 1924 issue of*La Vara,* that I hardly realised the New Year was upon is! The good news is...well, there is much good news! I hope it is not too late to share with you the following thoughts :
Aniada buena a todos mis lektores!!! Ya salio el anio viejo i agora mos arivo el anio muevo de 5759. Sueto a ke la aniada entrante sea el empesijo de una aniada de salud, de alegria, i de buen entendimiento entre famiyas i entre todos los judios del mundo.
Komo ya savran munchos de los lektores, esta aniada es muy espesiala para la kazika Sefaraddita aki en "la Gran Mansana" (Nu York.)
No solo ke mos arivo anio muevo, ama tambien mos yego una mueva kriaturika
al mundo! Este enverano pasado, a Doktora Janice i a su marido Isaac Ovadiah, ke son dos joyas del Dio, les yego un muevo ijo, ke se yama Meir Binyamin. Ke venga el ninio en la buena ora! Ke mos sea el bien venido, i ke se engrandeska para savidura, novia, i buenas echas ! (4)
Surely this is the nicest New Year's present Janice and Isaac have ever received. In honour of their new baby, I would like to write a few words about the blessings that a child brings to his parents, and about the special duties parents have toward their children.
Ya es bien savido ke no es posivle de entenderlo al Dio baruh hu, siendo sus pensamientos no son muestros pensamientos (5).
Although God's ways are unfathomable, our sages have struggled to understand his reasons for creating humankind. One of the mystical explanations offered for the creation of man, and indeed for the entire universe, focuses on the desire to give; God created us out of an overwhelming desire to bestow upon us his many blessings.
Parenthood, too, in its highest ideal, stems from the desire to give, to love and to nurture. And thus, having children is one of the highest forms of imitating God.
As I scanned the advice columns of my grandparents, Bula Satula and Ham Avraham, I noticed that they did not discuss parenthood and childhood in ways that would inspire us today. Back then, in the 1920's and 1930's, many Sephardic leaders, including my Grandparents, strongly advocated the assimilation of their children and community into American ways of life. "Ke se ambezen el Inglez, ke se agan sitisenes,"(6) They would counsel. In her column, "Postemas de Mujer,"
my Grandmother Bula Satula cautioned Sephardic women not to be satisfied with superficial adaptation to the United States: "Amerikanisasion no kere dizir pudra, lipstik, kaveos kortados i otros lusos demudados. Una delas primeras kozas i antes de todo ke las mujeres muestras deven azer, es de embezar al tanto ke posivle a avlar la lingua del paiz, para kitarsen de hova, sea en la kaza kon los vezinos i sea en la plasa kon los ombres i las mujeres."(7)
Similarly, my grandfather, addressing his male readers in hiscolumn "Postemas de Ham Avraham,"(8) inveighed: "Nuestros ermanos en jeneral deven a todo presio i sakrifisio esforsarsen a devenir sitizenes, siendo es de sus dover komo moradores dela Amerika, paiz ke les dio ospitalidad, avrigo, lavoro, mantenision, i otros derechos i oportunidades, de abandonar alora sus respektivas suditansas, i jurar fidelidad ala bandiera Amerikana i ala republika."(8)
Of course, Sephardim did indeed follow this advice. By the 1930's manySephardic immigrants and their children had achieved a great deal of prosperity. Though the Great Depression of 1929 and the early 1930's set many of them back for
years, the process of Americanisation was extremely rapid, and within a few decades most families had moved out of the impoverished Lower East Side to Harlem and to more affluent suburbs. Intra-marriages between Ashkenazim and Sephardim proliferated, and gradually, Sephardic children were forgetting their language, Judeo-Spanish. By 1948, the last American Ladino newspaper was forced to cease publication because of a dwindling readership. The Ladino press, in the words of scholar and professor Jane Gerber, had become the
"victim of i ts own success."(9)
Of course, looking back, we are proud that our ancestors overcame many adversities and learned English, became Americans, and struggled to escape poverty and achieve prosperity. But today we have new challenges.
Today, as Sephardic leaders and parents, we strive not to further our Americanisation, but on the contrary, to retain and preserve our language, our culture, and our very identity as Sephardic Jews. According to scholar Joshua A. Fishman, the most successful way of preserving an endangered language and culture is through cultural institutes.(10)
Sephardic House (in the USA as the Institut Sépharade Européen, in Europe - note from the editor) provides for us such a medium. Through its varied and imaginative programming, including movies, lectures, cultural dinners,
tours of the Lower East Side, concerts, cooking lessons, and on and on, Sephardic House represents an ideal tool for the preservation and continuity of the Sephardi heritage in its many facets. Sephardic House and organisations like it are indeed exemplary of this goal.
If I had one wish to express to Janice and Isaac on the arrival of their new baby, to Sephardic House on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, and indeed to all of my beloved readers, it would be : that the languages and cultures of Sephardic and Eastern Jewry be maintained; that Sephardic and Eastern Jewish history, especially of the Ottoman Empire, be an important focus of our education and our children's education; and that we strive to preserve and
pass on this heritage to the entire Jewish community, Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike.(11)
According to Jewish tradition, the letters of each Jewish year bear special significance. The initials of this Hebrew year are "taf, shin, nun, tet," or "tashnat." In honor of Janice and Isaac and their new baby, let us usher in 5759 as "tehe shenat niflaot taf," (12) the year of the child. May this "year of the child" as well as the 20th anniversary of Sephardic House, remind us that perpetuating the Sephardi and Mizrahi legacies must develop within both our homes *and* our Organisations. My blessings to Janice, Isaac, Meir Binymanin, and Sephardic House on these two very happy occasions. May you all continue to flourish!
Kon los kualos kedo tu, Amiga Serenika, (13)
Nota a los Meldadores-Note to the Readers
Amiga Serena always loves to hear from her readers. Send your letters to: Amiga Serena -c/o Moise Rahmani - Los Muestros
Important Note: Amiga Serena reserves the right to print all oral and written correspondence from readers, unless anonymity is specifically requested.
(1) "Anxieties of a Granddaughter. A New Year, A New Child. In Honour of
Janice, Isaac and Meir Binyamin Ovadiah and on the Occasion of the 20th
Anniversary of Sephardic House." All translations are from the Ladino, except where noted.
(2) "Little Los Muestros of my litle eyes."
(3) "Woe! Woe!"
(4) "Happy New Year to all of my readers!!!
The old year has already departed and now the new year of 5759 has arrived.
I hope the coming year will be the beginning of a year of health, happiness and of understanding between families and among all of the Jews of the world.
As many probably already know, this year is very special at little
Sephardic House, here in the "Big Apple" (New York.) Not only has the new year arrived, but a new child has also arrived to the world! This past summer, a new child, whose name is Meir Binyamin, arrived to Dr. Janice and her husband Isaac Ovadiah. May the boy arrive in an auspicious hour!
We welcome him and hope that he grows up for Torah study, marriage and good deeds." [The latter three wishes represent the traditional Jewish blessing recited upon the birth of a child.]"
(5) It is well known that it is not possible to understand God, blessed be He, being that his thoughts are not our thoughts.
(6) "They should learn English, they should become citizens."
(7) "Pet Peeves of a Woman."
(8) "Americanisation doesn't mean face powder, lipstick, pageboy haircuts
and other various luxuries. One of the first things and before all else that our women should do is to learn as much as possible to speak the language of the country, in order to fulfil their duty, whether it be at home with neighbours or in public among men and women." "Hova" is Hebrew for "duty."
(9) "Pet Peeves of Ham Avraham." Ham is the Ladino pronunciation of the Hebrew word, "haham," which for Sephardim denotes rabbi.
(10) "Our brothers in general should at all costs and sacrifice force themselves to become citizens, being that this is their duty as inhabitants of America, the
country that gave them hospitality, shelter, work, sustenance, and other rights and opportunities. They should thus abandon their respective citizenship and swear loyalty to the American flag and the republic."
(11)Jane S. Gerber, *The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic
Experience,* New York: The Free Press, p.270.
(12) Joshua A. Fishman, *Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages,* Clevedon-Philadelphia-Adelaide: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 1991.
(13) Many of the ideas from this column are excerpted from Aviva Ben-Ur's address at the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood Scholarship Awards in June of 1996. This address was later published in the Brotherhood's newsletter, *The Sephardic Brother.* Amiga Serena has received permission from Dr. Ben-Ur to borrow these ideas, and thanks her profusely.
Amiga Serena tambien rengrasia a Dr. Tio Isaac Yerushalmi, ken le dio ayudo kon el Ladino.
(14) "May it be the year of the wonders of children."
(15) "With which I remain your, little Amiga Serena."