Los kaminos de una komunidad
Posted by Abravanel, the Blog στο 11/03/2007
The Judeo-Spanish People/Los Djudeo-Espanyoles
This small book written by Richard Ayoun, was published in 2003 by the French governmental department of Veteran Affairs (DMPA), the Museo Djudio de Salonik, UNESCO and is an excellent start for those wishing to learn the history of the Sefardic Jews, ie the Jews that were expelled from Spain in 1492 and in a great extent ended up in the then Ottoman Empire and created in Salonika the biggest and most important sefardic community after 1492.
In its 81 pages one finds the history before 1492, the Expulsion, the history during the Ottoman Empire, the Alliance Israèlite Universelle chapter, the imigration, their extermination during WW2 and the lives today. It is well structured, includes many nice photos and has some information which even I wasn’t aware of. An example being René Cassin, one of the most important contributors to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Nobel prize winner…and a sefardic jew.
It’s a great introduction on sefardic culture and if you manage to get one of the 9500 copies consider yourself extremely lucky. Thanks to Google you can get the djudeospanish version though unfortunately it’s text only – just click here.
And as a bonus you can find out more about Abravanel! :)
Abravanel, the Blog 
omadeon said
After so much persecution, it is no wonder that Jewish people have survived and became so successful in many fields. I spent the whole night reading such material (tomorrow is Saturday, so it’s OK) and find that my basic understanding of many aspects of Jewish history, identity, and also success is correct.
My conclusion is that the Great Lie of Christianity, that Jesus rose from the dead _literally_, caused anti-semitism to intensify right from the beginning. I am not a materialist; nor an idealist. I believe that it’s highly possible that other dimensions exist in this universe where strange things do happen, including the possibility of reappearrance of astral bodies or souls or whatever. But the «basic lie», acted as a licence to kill those who were incriminated in their entirety. Hence, antisemitism followed. And because every action causes a reaction, because everything suppressed, persecuted or forbidden, is essentially strengthened, the Jewish community became stronger and stronger; more capable of survival and inventiveness and solidarity and so on…
We (who were not born Jewish) must LEARN from your survival, must END your persecution, must LOVE those of you who stand up for Human Rights. Because -strangely enough- if we want to «love Christ», the Basic, Historic Christ, is YOU.
This is metaphorical or philosophical talk, nevertheless. It does not give any right to a state we all know to treat a new minority unjustly, and if it does, it is also quite wrong; repeating historical mistakes, essentially those mistakes which every kind of injustice involves.
Strangely enough, by communing with your community, we also liberate outselves from our own metaphorical death, which is the loss of justice. Only then, can the excesses of certain modern Israeli policies be mitigated or eradicated. Only then, can we prosper, like the Jews, TOGETHER with the Jews, and also try to make Islam softer and more tolerant, more humane.
Jewish people have done their duty as regards the creation of NEW humanistic thinking and philosophy; Therefore permit me to add, that in their own way they continued the path of Ancient Greek philosophers, in another way. We are among a handful of cultures that deserve some respect; Jewish, Greek, Chinese, to mention but a few. None of us is superior, but our thought-patterns had positive effects on the evolution of humanity; we should also be humble to other cultures not as advanced as our own, if we want to sustain these qualities.
We must also safeguard the well-being of Palestinians; the cost of this well-being is LOW; the cost of not caring for them is VERY HIGH; risking more and more evils. Let’s give priority to the needs of those who are hungrier than ourselves, and forgive them for being angrier than ourselves.
A new day is dawning
Shalom
G.S.