Day 3: Jackie Handaly - Sephardic Holocaust Survivor speaks out

During our visit to Yad Vashem this afternoon we also met Jackie Handaly, one of the few Sephardic survivors of the Holocaust who miraculously survived the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz and other concentration camps during World War II. Handaly was one of the 50,000 Jews living in the Greek port city of Salonica and in his early teens when the Nazis deporting him and his family to Auschwitz to be murdered. His parents and siblings were exterminated at the death camp but due to miracles he ended up working in the camp’s kitchen which allowed him to survive. Toward the end of the war, he was involved in the death marches out of Auschwitz and sent to other Nazi death camps which he again managed to survive.

At the end of the war a little less than 2,000 Greek Jews from Salonica survived the genocide with the majority of the population being completely obliterated by the Nazis. Handaly said that Greek Jews perished and suffered tremendously because unlike their Ashkenazi brethren in the death camps, they could not understand the German guards speaking to them nor could they endure the tremendous frozen temperatures of eastern Europe.

The following are three different videos from Handaly’s story I captured during his re-telling of his experience at the hands of the Nazis…










- Karmel Melamed

Day 3: Visiting Yad Vashem - Holocaust Remembrance

This afternoon, the SEC’s seminar participants visited Israel’s national Holocaust memorial at “Yad Vashem” where they paid their respects to the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide during World War II. We traveled through the new museum and uncovered countless documents, photos and artifacts from the Holocaust. Often times scholars and teachers fail to convey the stories and impact of the Holocaust one the Sephardic Jews of Europe. At the same time the SEC’s seminar group learned more about some of the Sephardic victims of the Holocaust who primarily hailed from the large Greek port city of Salonica (a.k.a. Thessalonica). During 1943, roughly 50,000 of the city's Jews were deported to concentration camps, where most were murdered in Nazi death camps such as Auschwitz in Poland. On a sad note the group came across train tickets that Salonica Jews were actually fooled into purchasing so that they would pay for their death trips to Auschwitz. At the end of the war a little less than 2,000 Greek Jews from Salonica survived the genocide with the majority of the population being completely obliterated by the Nazis.

The sights and sounds of inside the Yad Vashem were often very difficult for those in our group to experience. I saw a number of them wiping away tears through out the entire visit. What was personally heartbreaking for me was to see the photos of the more than a million Jewish children who were murdered by the Nazi genocide. I couldn’t help but imagine what lives these children would have lead, or what achievements to humanity they might have been able to accomplish had they grown up or other ways in which they could have changed the world. The loss of so much innocent life was a tragedy for the Jewish people but also humanity because of the sheer magnitude of human life totally erased.

At the same time our tour guide for the day also made clear the message of many Jews worldwide and Israelis that Jews when it comes to the Holocaust that they will indeed never again allow another entity to eradicate them as the Nazis had had done. Acknowledging the Holocaust also helps all Jews (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) reinforce their sense of Zionism because of their determination to fight back and defend themselves when dictators or other extremists have had a chance to kill them off.

The below are just some of the snap shots I captured during our visit to Yad Vashem.

-- Karmel Melamed

Day 3: Israeli journalist Meir Uziel

Grandson of Israel’s first Sephardic chief rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Uziel and now a well known newspaper columnist, Meir Uziel came to the SEC this afternoon to shed light on the life of his famous grandfather. “Ha-Rishon Le-Eretz Ziyyon” is Uziel’s best-selling biography of his grandfather that highlights the late rabbi’s interactions with British officials who controlled Israel before its establishment and his ability to use diplomacy properly in his role. Uziel also indicated that his late grandfather also have a modern view of the Torah and application of Sephardic traditions (halacha).

-- Karmel Melamed

Day 3: Shuraki’s quest for Sephardic social activism in Israel

One of the few Sephardic group’s in Israel that is seeking to train Israeli rabbis to better address social needs in their society is Memizrach Shemesh. This morning Rabbi Yizthak Shuraki, the Memizrach Shemesh’s Director of the Rabbinic training course, outlined some of the activities his organization is undertaking to help transform the mentalities of the country’s rabbis—which may ultimately help the people of Israel. Shuraki said the overall objective of his program was to offer rabbis in Israel with the knowledge and training to resolve issues of identity and serious social problems instead of merely addressing smaller topics of keeping kosher, or keeping the Sabbath or traditions. One success story Shuraki outlined was of a religious rabbi who had completed the program at Memizrach Shemesh and returned to his community to encourage young religious men to complete their high school education. This effort would result in enabling religious men in Israel to be able to earn a living, instead of being trapped in poverty or the welfare system.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Shuraki’s program is the fact that it welcomes rabbis who are both Ashkenazi and Sephardic and hail from various levels of religiosity in the country. Interestingly, Shuraki’s program began in 2004 and 36 rabbis since then have completed the program since then. Participants of the S.E.C.’s summer seminar said they were impressed with and interested in Shuraki’s program being introduced in the U.S. for American rabbis.

Day 2: Sephardim putting the “rock” in Israeli rock n’ roll music!

Author and Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi is perhaps one of the most well know and respected writers in Israel and the U.S. when it comes to analysis of Israeli politics. But tonight after his presentation for our group at the S.E.C. here in Jerusalem, I was impressed with the depth of his knowledge and passion for Israeli rock music. At the same time I was more surprised to learn that Sephardic music in Israel, since the birth of Israeli rock n’ roll in the late 1960s, has gradually become the main influence for today’s rock music in Israel. “Israeli music is now a nice mixture of Sephardi and Ashkenazi music,” said Halevi who is also a fellow Shalom Hartman Institute. “In the 1960’s and 1970’s, there was a music revolution that brought Sephardi music and culture into the mainstream Israeli society”.

Halevi explained that before the 1967 “Six Days War” no Sephardic music was played on Israeli radio stations and Israeli rock n’ roll music was extremely secular. “After that war, young Israelis put down their accordions and picked up the electric guitar,” said Halevi. “There was a slow push back from Sephardi musicians with the introduction of Greek music and other ‘cassette’ Sephardic music from outside the mainstream”. Halevi also said that Israeli rock in 1977 also became more influenced by Sephardic music after the election of prime minister Menachem Begin who really had embraced Sephardic Jewry as a part of the fabric of Israeli society. Since then Halevi explained, Israeli rock music has gradually become infused with a greater message of spirituality as well as a Sephardic melodies, instruments and poems.

Halevi “rocked” out with us by playing various Sephardic influenced Israeli rock n’ roll songs for our group. This is video footage of Halevi discussing the impact of Iranian-Israeli rock singer Meir Banai on contemporary Israeli rock music and his most recent hit song “Lecha Eli” which is originally a religious song typically sung during Yom Kippur…