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My Father,
My People, and Their Long Journey Home
Claudette E. Sutton
Terra Nova Books
June 13, 2014/ ISBN 9781938288401
Biography
Reviewed
by Elise Cooper
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Farewell,
Aleppo: My Father, My People, and Their Long Journey Home,
by Claudette E. Sutton, is a book relevant to today’s
headlines where Syrians are persecuted for their religious
beliefs. This is a story of a not too distant past when all
religions lived and worked together, ignoring their differences.
But it is also the story of how times changed and once again
Syrian Jews faced persecution resulting in the disappearance
of a two thousand year old Jewish community that once thrived
in Syria.
The author takes the reader on a courageous journey as she
tells the story of her father whose world changed with the
winds of World War II. It became clear that life as the Syrian
Jews had known was ending with the tide of Anti-Semitism.
Her father, Meir (renamed Mike), and his brother, escaped
to Shanghai, China where they stayed throughout the war. People
get a glimpse of what it was like to be in a community so
culturally different; yet, able to seek out others in the
same category. She skillfully shows how many Jews displaced
by the war sought refuge here because of the city’s
openness. After the war her father, seeing business opportunities
deteriorate, made plans to immigrate to America.
The most interesting parts of the book are Sutton’s
description of her father’s arrival in America and the
Syrian Jewish community thriving in Brooklyn, New York. While
there was only about twenty to thirty thousand Jews in Syria
at the start of World War II there is now about seventy thousand
living in Brooklyn. A powerful quote, shows the attitude of
those living in America, “To my eyes, it seemed that
their Syria had not so much been left behind as relocated
to Brooklyn. Our identification as Syrian Jews seemed defined
not so much by place as by the culture they took with them.”
The point is emphasized that what mattered was not the land
but the traditions: the food, the Arabic language spoken,
not Yiddish or Hebrew, and the tight knit group formed.
Because Sutton’s mother was from the Washington D.C.
area and her father needed a job he relocated his family to
Maryland. Unfortunately, Sutton’s immediate family lost
some of the culture, although they did preserve the food and
language. Having to navigate between different worlds the
author describes in the book how she felt like a “cultural
hybrid, a cross between our shared heritage and my secular
upbringing. I was a purebred member of this community, and
a visitor to it.” Readers understand how her own family
did not see her as an integrated member since her immediate
family was not Kosher and did not keep many of the Syrian
Jewish traditions. Yet, she also felt different from her Jewish
friends since she did not participate in European Jewish traditions
such as eating Matzo Ball Soup and Kugels, or speaking Jewish
and Yiddish phrases.
It becomes evident that Farewell, Aleppo: My Father, My
People, and Their Long Journey Home is a story of how
people are shaped by their past. Their identity is based on
the family history. Through her father’s world Sutton
is able to find her own roots, threading together how her
world was influenced by the Syrian Jewish culture. This book
is a must read for anyone who wants to explore this rich culture
that many people do not know very much about.
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