Welcome to Rhodes –
the Island of Rhodes, that is, not Rhode Island! Rhodes is a small island near
the coast of Turkey. Rhode Island is one of the New England states. Interestingly,
there is a connection between the two. An Italian explorer in the 16th
century thought an island off the east coast of America looked similar to
Rhodes, for the coastline and beautiful beaches that make up both of these lands.
And after seeing pictures of the beaches and castles in Rhodes, I am ready to
take a trip there myself! In the meantime, however, I may have to make do with
Newport on this side of the world.
Why am I writing
about Rhodes, and how did I even hear of it? you may ask. I have the good
fortune of working with Mrs. Emily Alhadeff, who moved to Baltimore from
Seattle right before Covid made its entrance into the world. Working side by
side with Morah Emily in our preschool classroom in Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim
Talmudical Academy, I am privy to hear about the fascinating culture that is
part of the Alhadeff family. They are descendants of Jews from the Island of
Rhodes, where almost everyone has the last name of Alhadeff!
Especially around
Yom Tov time, when we teach the preschoolers about the upcoming chag, I would ask Morah Emily about
their family’s minhagim (customs). At
the same time, I started noticing articles in newspapers about this island.
After speaking with Emily’s husband, Mr. Jeffrey Alhadeff, I learned quite a
lot about this historically rich country and its ancient Jewish community, as
well as about the dedication of its descendants in retaining their heritage. I
was intrigued because, despite my very strong Hungarian background (both my
parents!), my father, a”h, did live
in Spain for many years, as did my brother and I when we were very young.
* * *
I thought Rhodes
would be an appropriate topic for the month of Kislev because it belongs to
Greece, and the dominant language is Greek. Rhodes has a rich and fascinating
history. Due to its location in the Aegean Sea along major sea routes – and at
a crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – Rhodes has been ruled by Persians,
Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks.
But how did the Jews get there? Let’s go back in
time and take a historical visit to Toledo, Spain. The year is 1492. King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issue the Alhambra Decree that all Jews must
renounce their faith and convert or leave Spain. After a Jewish presence in
Spain for nearly 1,000 years, this next step in our people’s history is quite
painful. Many Jews attempted to hide their Jewish identity as Anusim or Conversos.
Then there were
those who fled to the surrounding countries. One such country was the Island of
Rhodes, which was part of the vast Ottoman Empire. Turkey was welcoming to the
Jews and gave them many benefits. The Sefardim arriving in Rhodes found a community
of Romaniote (Greek-speaking)
Jews, who had lived there since the galus
of the Bayis Rishon (first Temple). Benjamin of
Tudela, who traveled throughout the known world in the 12th century,
wrote of a 500-member Romaniote Jewish community on Rhodes. Later, when Sefardic
Jews fleeing persecution in Spain began to arrive in ever-increasing numbers, their
Sefardic Jewish culture eclipsed that of the Romaniote Jews, who lost their
identity.
* * *
Mr. Alhadeff told
me that the Jewish people in Rhodes spoke Ladino, a dialect of Spanish and
Hebrew, as a way of maintaining the connection to their Spanish heritage, not
as a barrier to separate them from the gentiles, which was the function of
Yiddish for the Eastern European Jews. A chief rabbi led the community and
would often correspond with the rabbanim of the time in Yerushalayim. Ladino
was such a part of the daily religious functioning that Rabbi Reuven Yehuda
Yisrael, the chief rabbi, translated certain tefillos and piyutim from
Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, Rabbi Ibn Gabirol, and others. Sometime in the late 1800s,
Jewish visitors came from abroad, and the community was exposed to modernity.
This brought education for the masses, coupled with assimilation; as a result,
people stopped speaking Ladino.
Immigration to
America came in waves, for economic reasons, with many people moving to Seattle
because of the fishing opportunities there; that was the occupation for many
Rhodian Jews. Many people moved to Egypt, the Belgian Congo, and then to the America
and Israel. Seattle is full of Alhadeffs as that was a name exclusive to
Rhodes. At one point, they were all related, but that is no longer the case.
Upon moving to
Seattle, around 1910, the Alhadeff clan and many others established a
community, including schools and shuls with the nusach of Rhodes, which is neither Sefard nor Ari but something
else. Originally, there was a Talmud Torah-type school after public school
hours. In the 1960s, the first Torah day school was opened. Then in the 1990s,
Sefardic tefillah was included at the
school, with separate minyanim for those who davened nusach Ashkenaz and those
who davened the nusach of Rhodes.
* * *
Emily told me about
some interesting minhagim of the Jews
of Rhodes. They include eating sugar instead of honey on Rosh Hashanah. They
also have an elaborate seder-type ritual
of simanim. I was lucky enough to
taste a delicious latke-style delicacy that was made from leeks!
For Chanukah,
otherwise known as Fiesta de las Kandelikas, the family lights one menorah
instead of each child lighting his own. Like the Ashkenazim, they eat fried
foods, and there is plenty of those on the Rhodian menu. My research took me to
the online magazine called eSafard, which listed such foods as crispy cheese
puffs (fritadikas de patata); fried fish (peshkado frito) and
potato chips accompanied by egg lemon sauce (agristada); and
leek, potato and fresh herb fritters (keftes de prasa i patata)
with a garlic dip.
Chanukah desserts include crispy
doughnut puffs bathed in honey syrup, bimuelos, that harken
back to Moorish Spain. Other treats are pastry puffs topped with honey, nuts,
and cinnamon (piticas); a sublime rosewater-scented
rice pudding (sutlach); chewy almond and sesame
seed brittle (boulukunio); and exquisite almond
confections (masapan). Also offered are Turkish delight, lokum, and halva. These sweets are
some of the dulses d’alegria – sweets
reflecting joy and celebration – at the Alhadeffs’ table.
When it comes to
Pesach, Rhodians do eat kitniyos, but
not rice, and they use regular matzah as well, and there are many elaborate minhagim throughout the Seder. In fact,
Mr. Alhadeff is working hard on publishing a Haggadah that follows the Rhodes
tradition. Upon taking a glance at it, one notices that the transliterated
spelling of the Hebrew is quite different than both Ashkenaz and Sefardi
pronunciation!
Shabbos lunch is
also different than what we’re used to! I spoke with one of the Alhadeff
children, who regaled me with the Shabbos delicacies of Rhodes. Get ready for
some dairy delectables! In Rhodes, the custom was to daven at netz, sunrise. On Shabbos day, when the
men returned from shul, it was breakfast time, so instead of cholent and
potatoes that Ashkenazim enjoy or the chamim
that Sefardim have, the Shabbos meal in Rhodes consisted of milchigs for the desayuno, breakfast.
The Alhadeffs enjoy
a crescent-shaped, boureka-type pastry filled with potato and cheese. Some are
called empanadas, while others are
called bork or bulemos. Another dairy delicacy is guisado (pronounced quzhado), which is made from spinach and
cheese, and in this Alhadeff’s words, “There’s no comparison to the spinach
kugel. This is more delicious.”
After hearing
about all this food, my mouth began to water, but I was still fleischig. Thank goodness the topic was
changed and I learned of another minhag,
also related to Shabbos but not to food. In Rhodes, the custom was that when
one would greet a fellow Jew, the responder would try to greet with something
even nicer. For example, “Shabbat shalom”
was answered with “Shabbat shalom umevorach.”
On Yom Tov, one would wish “Moadim lesimcha”
and to be answered with “Chagim uzmanim lesasson.”
This speaks of the
great warmth that permeated the Rhodian culture and one that filled this little
Alhadeff family member with pride about her heritage. This same sentiment of
pride echoes that of her father, specifically in regard to the use of Ladino,
not just in the mundane conversation but also in the holy one of tefillah. Mr. Alhadeff feels that Ladino
is not only a significant part of their culture but also symbolizes something
more than that. It represents what the fleeing Jews from Spain personified,
which was their mesirus nefesh (devotion) to their mesorah (heritage).
At the end of the
day – Rhodian, European, Middle Eastern, or American – it doesn’t matter where
you come from. It’s all about speaking the same language, which we all know to
mean as serving Hashem and keeping His mitzvos.
Chanukah alegre!
A lichtige Chanukah! Boldog Hanukat! And of course, Happy Chanuka!
