Wedding Cake

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A recent call by a minister in Sudan, the new government calling for the Jewish People to return to the country of return and the citizenship has shone a light on a small but once thriving community. Oral historian Daisy Abboudi, itself descended from Sudanese Jews, was in conversation with the members of the community and collect your photos.

David Gabra can still remember the exact date he left the Sudan. "Twenty fifth of may 1965," he said, with certainty, when it comes to his departure.

at the time, things were increasingly difficult for the Jewish People because of the growing anti-Semitism.

"It was a mess. I remember one time, we closed ourselves in our home, and they threw stones at us on our homeland. "

David, he decided to no longer stay in the country.

the Rapid increase, rapid decline", I closed my [textile] store at nine o'clock in the night, as usual, I said, my friends, my neighbors: "See you in The Morning . "And Then I went directly to The Airport and went to Greece. "

From there he went to Israel.

David's departure was part of a movement of the Jewish People , saw a community to have believed numbered 1,000, reduced only for a couple of years previously on only a handful of 1973.

that was the result of a changing political situation in Sudan from 1956. A rising anti-Israel sentiment in which most of The Jews felt safe there.

This rapid acceptance reflected its rapid growth in only a few decades earlier.

The majority of the Jewish community, descended from those arriving in Sudan in the early 20Th Century , but there was a small Jewish presence in the country.

in 1908, a Moroccan-born Rabbi Suleiman Malka arrived in Khartoum with his wife and two oldest daughters, at The Request of the Jewish authorities in Egypt, which is monitored by the community in its southern neighbours.

In a Family Portrait taken in the early 1920s, Rabbi Malka will be seen that in addition to his wife, Hanna, and surrounded by some of his children and grandchildren. He wears traditional clothing of the region - an open robe, under called a jubba and a second robe, known as one of the entari. He favors these clothes in the course of his life, even though the rest of His Family , and the community opted for a more Western-style.

The rabbi came to serve, to the little old community, as well as a growing number of Jews from the whole of the Middle East , including Egypt, Iraq and Syria. They were built on the new railway line, the lists of British colonists, the connection of Alexandria in Egypt, Khartoum.

Many small merchants trading goods such as textiles and Gum Arabic - an important Food Additive from the Sudan Acacias. Settling along the Nile in The Four cities of Khartoum, Khartoum North , Omdurman and Wad Medani, 200 km (125 miles) South of the capital, their business began to blossom soon.

Rabbi Malka 1949 died, and it took seven years to find a suitable replacement in the Form of Rabbi Massoud Elbaz, who came out of Egypt in 1956.

A photo of The Family in the year 1965, recorded shortly before they left Sudan, shows Rabbi Elbaz, who, with his wife Rebecca and their five children.

"My Father was a very simple, very modern Rabbi. Very Nice , to joke, always, and everyone liked him very much," said Rachel, his oldest daughter, sitting on The Right side of the photo.

The parish was deeply traditional, though not overly attentive, which means that while they celebrated the feasts and kept some of the Jewish dietary laws, most of them lived mundane life.

the municipality of stuffed for weddingsAs grew, it built a synagogue in Khartoum in 1926. Located on one of the Central boulevards in The City and in the location, with up to 500 people, it was a clear statement about their new economic and social stability.

weddings, symbolizes the basis for a new generation, were well-celebrated in the synagogue.

"The whole community used to the plug inside, one on top of The Other . It was a great event," said Gabi Tamman, who now lives in Switzerland.

In this photo, a guest at the wedding of Gabi to Lina Eleini in the synagogue in 1958, the intensity of the occasion and recognized as a Rabbi Elbaz recites a blessing over wine.

Wedding-cake dress while the synagogue was the spiritual home of the community, the social life revolved around the Jewish recreation Club.

Middle and upper class society in the Sudan was made up of many interrelated yet distinct groups. As well as the Jewish community, it is thriving was Greek, Syrian, Italian, Egyptian, Armenian, British and Indian communities in Khartoum and Omdurman, its sister city across the River Nile . Each of these is a social centre, or "club had could make", in the capital, where they play cards, chat, and linger in the evening hours.

in December of Each year, the various clubs would take turns to host a lavish ball, it was an opportunity, Fundraising, show and have fun with colleagues and friends.

Flore Eleini, who is now 93 and living in Geneva, she remembered well.

"Everyone who wanted to could go to a fancy-dress costume. It was like a masquerade ball, and she had a prize for the winner. It was Very Nice .

"once I went to the cake as A Wedding . This was a famous costume. "

Cezar Sweid had his Bar mitzvah, or coming-of-age ceremony, in 1958. A picture of The Party after The Ceremony in the Jewish recreational Club followed The Ceremony shows him with his parents and some of the guests tucking into an elaborate cake with chocolate.

Professional catering was extremely rare and usually fell to The Women of the community cook for these great events for the whole family.

"Everyone helped me, with this Bar-mitzvah, all women. We used to all be friends," said Frida Sweid, Cezar's mother.

"A person is good with kibbeh [served with meat stuffed dumplings], so she did that, it is very good with qaiysat [a fried meatball encloses a Boiled Egg ] so you did, and so on.

"Then we had nine turkeys roasting on a spit at the end of our garden... and we didn't put them in The Club , it was far. We have it all. "

Jewish children in Christian schoolsThe majority of The Jews who were in the Sudan fairly wealthy, so that you socialized in the rule, with the Sudanese elite and pay were able to, their children attend private schools.

children whose parents could not afford the fees were either subsidised by the more prosperous members of the community have, or leave school early to start working on it.

Almost every Jewish young Comboni visited the College, which was a private Catholic school in Khartoum run by the Italian priest.

discipline was strict and to promote competition. Jack Tamman (second from left) snapped playing in the school, up the camera with his classmates.

Jewish girls in the Sudan had more selection. A popular alternative to the Catholic sisters' school, Unity High School , an English school based on Christian principles.

the photo of the graduating class of 1948, sitting with a British teacher shows the diversity in this part of the Sudanese society at the time.

Margo Iskinazi (above left) was a Jew, during your class, the Egyptian Copts, the Armenian Christians were comrades, Greek Orthodox, and the Sudanese Muslims.

"It was so far advanced," Ruth Synett reflection said about the level of teaching at Unity High School , which she attended in the early 1960s.

"in those days came I to England [aged 10] I had mastered already, geometry, algebra, All That stuff. "

Growing hostilityIn in 1956, after Sudan's independence and the Suez Crisis a year later, as Egypt, the Invasion of great Britain, France and Israel, The Mood in the Sudan began to move.

Support for pan-Arabism, Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser grew up. As a result of this and the anti-Israel rhetoric that they are engaged to be married, is started in the atmosphere for the Sudan, and Jews, more uncomfortable.

Jews have been targeted in The Press , the falsely accused, the fifth column, and there were other signs of discrimination

In 1956, a Jewish girl attending a party with her parents was when it was announced that there would be a competition to crown the next Miss Khartoum. She was shy, but reluctantly agreed to enter the beauty contest, which she won.

"Miss Khartoum got you entered in Miss Egypt , but then they found out that she was Jewish, and they took the title away from her," daughter, who asked to remain unnamed, explained.

From the year 1950, the community had been clubbing and buy tickets for its poorest members to leave Sudan and begin a new life in the newly founded state of Israel.

By 1960, most of The Jews working in the professions had left the country and settled in Israel, the UK, the USA or Switzerland.

Those that owned businesses were to leave the next, although at this stage, always have an exit visa was more difficult.

at the end of the year, only a handful of Jews remained, and most of them lived in Wad Medani, Far Away from the political heat of the capital.

judaism, sudan, anti-semitism

Source of news: bbc.com