In Memory of Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, A”H, a descendant of Spanish-Moroccan and French-Algerian Sephardi parents, who served the Allied cause in WWII, overcame anti-Semitism to attend medical school in the US, and later earned Venezuela’s only Noble Prize (Physiology of Medicine, 1980).
Sephardi Ideas Monthly is a continuing series of essays from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought that is delivered to your inbox on the second Monday of every month.
In this month’s issue we turn our attention to one of the least-known Sephardi communities in the Americas, Venezuela’s Moroccan Jews. Jasmina Keleman finds a culinary angle to tell their fascinating and tragic story in her essay from Tablet Magazine, “Finding the Flavors of Morocco in Venezuela.”
How did Moroccan Jews end-up in Venezuela? While the French influence on North African Jewry is well-known, it’s often forgotten that Spain invaded and occupied the Moroccan port-town of Tétouan in 1860 and then established a protectorate in a slice of northern Moroccan land in November, 1912. Thanks to the Spanish presence in Morocco, a minority of Moroccan Jews continued to speak Haketia, a form of Judeo-Spanish that migrated with the Sephardim in 1492 and that came to include elements of Hebrew, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic, and modern Spanish. In the late 19th century, some of these Haketia-speaking Moroccan Jews looked to improve their lot by moving to a Spanish-speaking region with better commercial prospects, and thus it happened that a community of Moroccan Jews settled in Caracas, Venezuela.
Venezuela's Moroccan-Jewish community was bolstered by other Jewish migrations throughout the 20th century, and reached a peak of 22,000 in 1999 before democratic socialist strongman Hugo Chávez took power and planted the seeds of Venezuela’s (and the community’s) contemporary collapse. It is estimated that only 7,000 Jews remained in the country by 2015 and considerably fewer today after several more years of political repression, rising anti-Semitism, and heart-breaking scarcity.
Estrella Benmaman cooking oriza
(Photo courtesy of Asmina Kelemen/Tablet Magazine)
Keleman approaches the story of Moroccan Jewry in Venezuela by visiting a unique “restaurant” run by Estrella Benmaman on the southern outskirts of Caracas:
On the last Thursday of each month, Benmaman, 54, turns her home into Paladar Estrella, serving the Moroccan recipes that she grew up helping Mama Mery, her Fez-born grandmother, prepare. Paladar literally means ‘palate’ in Spanish, but is also used to describe an underground restaurant that is run out of a home.
What does Benmaman prepare in her covert kitchen? Dishes like, “oriza… a wheat stew that Sephardic Jews have been eating since at least the 13th century.” As Keleman notes, “She once found a recipe for oriza in a cookbook that said it stemmed from a 13th-century Andalucian manuscript.” That said, Benmaman doesn’t blindly follow the traditional pattern:
While exalting the history, she allows herself license to alter the recipe in anyway her palate sees fit at the time of cooking. This evening that meant topping the thick stew with perfectly caramelized onions and including chunks of beef.
Very few in economically ruined Venezuela today can afford Benmaman’s $12 modern Moroccan dishes. It’s an ironic twist, because Benmaman’s family only migrated to the country thanks to Caracas’ mid-century, prosperity: “Spasms of violence leading up to Morocco’s independence coincided with an economically booming Venezuela. By the early 1950s… Mama Mery was living in Tangier with Estrella’s mother and three younger children. Older daughters lived in Israel, Canada, and Venezuela. The sister in Venezuela was the happiest, so the family reconstituted itself in Caracas.” That boom is now a distant memory, as Venezuela’s implosion informs everything. Nearly all of Benmaman’s family has left the country.
On one level, the story of the Banmamans is, as Keleman writes, another chapter in a traditional Jewish tale of migrations.
After hundreds of years in the Maghreb and more than 60 years in the tropics, her family has once again joined a larger exodus. More than half of Venezuela’s Jewish population is estimated to have left in the past 15 years. Her parents, aunts, and uncles are dispersed among the very countries that in the 1950s were deemed less desirable. Both of her daughters joined their father in Peru after graduating high school.
On another level, however, Benmaman’s story also serves as a reminder of what happens when human beings are deprived of political and economic freedom. Sephardi Ideas Monthly shares Benmaman’s tale, and the tale of Venezuela’s Moroccan Jews, with Jasmina’s sensitive portrayal of a crumbling community, “Finding the Flavors of Morocco in Venezuela.”
The featured sage for the month of December is Hacham Eliezer Papo
(1786-1828).
Born and raised in Sarajevo, R’ Papo was appointed rabbi and head of the rabbinic court in Silistra, Bulgaria in 1820. While leading the community of Silistra, R’ Papo wrote a number of books, including his most famous work, Peleh Yo’etz, an alphabetically ordered book on morals.
R’ Papo is also famous for being the teacher of Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, an 19th century proponent of Zionism who taught Theodore Herzl’s grandfather. R’ Papo sought to move to the Land of Israel, but was prevented by an illness that took his life at the young age of 42.
In the passage below from Peleh Yo’etz, R’ Papo encourages acts of lovingkindness for Jews and non-Jews alike:
One should open one’s hand from time to time with a worthy gift, in keeping with how the LORD has blessed him, and do so for all people, for they are all human beings. This is the way for one to increase peace, love and goodwill, obtain a good reputation, and gain the respect of others; this will be considered as a great deed.
One should open one’s hand not only for the People of Israel, but for non-Jews as well, as King Solomon, may he rest in peace, says, “Send your bread forth upon the waters; for after many days you will find it.”
CONTEXT
Since Biblical times, from Abraham’s journey to Egypt and the later Israelite captivity under the Pharaohs, the Jewish People have had close ties with Africa. Some Jewish communities in Africa are amongst the oldest in the world, dating back more than 2,700 years (Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria). Today, Jews and Judaism in Africa show an ethnic and religious diversity and richness almost unparalleled on any other continent.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
A circle of emerging African leaders and researchers will analyze a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to the history and contemporary situation of Jewish Africa, including the role of Jews and the need of Jewish voices in African civil society, the development of Jewish space, perspectives on old and new African Jewish identities, and encounters between Jews and non-Jews in contemporary Africa.
TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED
Jewish heritage in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Uganda, and South Africa; Black African Judaism; the Future for Judaism in Africa; and preserving the memory and heritage of African Judaism in the 21st Century via the Diarna Geo-Museum and Atlas of Jewish History initiatives.
The central idea is to approach these topics from the point of view of Jewish African leaders. In doing so, the conference seeks to provide a platform and create a meaningful network of researchers and Jewish African leaders.
The American Sephardi Federation, Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, and American Jewish Historical Society present:
A Festival to celebrate Ladino, the remarkable language also known as Judeo-Spanish.
Sunday, 10 February, 2:00-5:00PM Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Please register here
or call: 1.800.838.3006 Celebrate Ladino in the company of highly acclaimed musicians and writers. Hear clarinetist Danny Elias; author Jane Mushabac's story, Seven Songs; composer Avi Amon's musical fantasy, Salonika; scholar Bryan Kirschen speaking on Ladino's rich culture; Rabbi Nissim Elnecavé on wisdom tales; and the Alhambra Ensemble's Songs of Courtship, Love, and Holidays with oud, violin, shawm, dumbek and voices.
Since 2013, when Israel's 5th President Yitzhak Navon endorsed Zelda Ovadia's idea of International Ladino Day, celebrations have been held in Jerusalem, Seattle, Istanbul, Madrid, Dallas, Forest Hills, Boston, and other cities. February 10th marks the Second Annual International Ladino Day at the Center for Jewish History.
Ladino is a bridge to many cultures; it's a Spanish language that includes words in Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, and more. The mother tongue of Jews in the Ottoman Empire for 500 years, Ladino was the home language of Sephardim worldwide in the early 20th century.
Although today Ladino is only spoken by a small fraction of Sephardim, the interest in the language and its culture is experiencing a resurgence through distinguished university programs, publications, concerts, and events of many kinds.
Thursday, 11 October, at 7:30PM Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Admission is complimentary! The Philos Project and American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to “Nosotros," an exhibition composed of pieces by Latino artists celebrating the shared history and culture of Jewish and Latino communities, and expressing hope for a more positive future. Latin American artistry is rich with Sephardi and Crypto-Jewish allusions and symbols.
The exhibit is titled “Nosotros,” the Spanish word for “us,” and all of the art represents the growing relationship between the Jewish and Hispanic communities in New York and around the world. The exhibit is one of the many things Jesse Rojo, The Philos Project's Hispanic Affairs Director, is doing to bridge the gap between Hispanics and the Middle East.
Rachael Reynolds, a graduate from our 2018 Philos Leadership Institute (PLI) cohort, is one of the featured artists. She will be showcasing portraits she took on PLI that compare the lives of Christians living freely in Israel to the lives of Christian refugees in Jordan. Through her project, Rachael is not only advocating for the protection of Christians in Arab states, but also elevating Israel as the model for state protection of religious freedom in the Middle East.
We look forward to seeing you!
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