“They went through hard times during the Depression. People were poor, but they always had that optimism that they were going to make it. They didn’t give up. They had humility. They never forgot the humility. The people of our generation never grew up poor.”
– David “Hurdle” Tawil, excerpt from Episode 3: Life in Bensonhurst
Last October, approximately 3,000 excited community members gathered at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center to view The Syrian Jewish Community, Our Journey Through History: Episode 2, Coming to America 1900-1919, produced by The Sephardic Heritage Museum. This magical evening will never be forgotten by those who were able to attend.
Community members were privileged to hear first hand stories of how our grandparents left families behind in their native Syria and travelled for months on crowded boats to start new lives on the poverty-stricken Lower East Side in New York City.
This emotional and educational film is just one of many in a film series that will educate and inspire community members of all ages to be proud of their roots and the religious traditions and true ethics of our forefathers.
This monumental film project has been in the works for more than four years. Its goal is to preserve the history of our forefathers who lived in Syria for thousands of years, and to trace their lives and exodus from Allepo and Damascus in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Nearly 300 unforgettable on-camera interviews have been conducted to date. Many of our community’s elders and founders opened their hearts to recount their struggles, while offering valuable lessons.
The Sephardic Heritage Museum has gathered tens of thousands of archival photographs, along with rare home movies of the community in Bensonhurst, Ocean Parkway, Bradley Beach and more. Never before has this amount of material on our history been amassed in one place.
This film series depicts Jewish life in Aleppo and Damascus and discusses our community’s greatest rabbis and leaders; how and when our synagogues and yeshivahs were built; the early businesses in our community; how our ancestors celebrated holidays, the pizmonim we’ve grown up with; our community’s earliest charitable organizations; World War II, the rescue of the Syrian Jews and more. These stories will now be passed down from generation to generation as a way of preserving our rich history, educating and inspiring our children, and preserving our legacy for the future.
The film picks up where Episode 2: Coming to America left off. The Syrian immigrants left the crowded tenements of the Lower East Side for a more comfortable life in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Settling down together in just a few square blocks, they built a close-knit community modeled after what they had known in Aleppo, complete with their own shopping district on the famous Bay Parkway. There, they raised their families with the old-world values of charity, honesty, hard work and religion.
The episode goes on to tell more fascinating stories including the building of Magen David on 67th Street in 1921; the arrival of Rabbi Matloub Abadi and Rabbi Murad Maslaton; the appointing of Rabbi Jacob Kassin as Chief Rabbi in 1933; education and Talmud Torah; how the community coped during the Great Depression; the early days at Coney Island; and Syrian customs and religious traditions.
Join us on October 9, 2011 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall to see Episode 3. Doors open at 5 pm; the show starts at 6 pm. Tickets range in price from $30 to $200. For more information call (212) 721-6500.
Stay tuned for Episode 4: The War Years, 1939-1945, which depicts our community on the home front and on the battlefield during the Second World War.
