To the Editor:

It is seldom that articles on the life of Sephardic Jews in America appear in the Jewish press. It is therefore the more regrettable that, on so rare an occasion, an inexcusably distorted view be given, as in the article by Leonard Plotnik, “The Sephardim of New Lots,” in your January number.

That article is offensive in its many inaccuracies and distortions. In his desire to add color, the author has attributed to the Sephardic Jews of New York City, and more specifically to those living in New Lots, Levantine habits which might have been seen fifty years ago but which no longer prevail even in the Balkans.

Mr. Plotnik leaves the impression that the Sephardic Jews in America, living under old-time superstitions, keep to themselves, isolated from their Ashkenazi brothers, whom they look upon with contempt and derision. This is in sheer conflict with the truth. The Sephardim of New York have for many years worked together with the Ashkenazim in such general Jewish causes as the United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bond Drives, the Federation of Jewish Charities, ORT, HIAS, the Jewish National Fund, and other great Jewish organizations which the Sephardim support as individuals, through their congregations, and through their trade organizations.

Half a century ago, when the modern Sephardi immigration to this country began, the Sephardim had inevitably, at first, little contact with New York’s mass of Yiddish-speaking Jewry, because the mother tongue of the Sephardic Jews who came from the Middle East was Spanish, Greek, or Arabic. . . . However, as the Sephardic Jew rapidly learned the language of the country and the Ashkenazic Jew made English his main instrument of communication, the Sephardic Jew drew close to his Ashkenazic brother, so that today the Sephardim and Ashkenazim work together not only in philanthropic causes but also in labor unions, employers’ associations, and social clubs, and marriages between members of the two groups are very common.

Mr. Plotnik loses sight of the fact that the Sephardic immigration to the United States from the Middle East began only about fifty years ago, so that there is only one American-born adult generation of Levantine Sephardim, and not two, as he claims, while the mass settlement of the Ashkenazim in America is much older. The Sephardic population of the entire city is not more than 50,000, in the general Jewish population of over two million. It is obviously unfair to contrast the accomplishments of two groups so unequal in number. Mr. Plotnik further gives the impression that all Sephardic life turns around the “coffee house.” The Sephardic coffee house is altogether a thing of the past in New York. Similarly, the so-called water pipe, the “narghile,” as far as its use by Sephardim in America is concerned, is a museum piece.

The author makes the utterly baseless and absurd assertion that the wearing of the “Magen David” has a very special meaning for the Sephardi, signifying his separateness not only from the world of the Gentile but from the world of the other Jews as well. If the Sephardic Jew wished to accentuate his difference from his Ashkenazi brother, he would hardly use the Magen David, which is a symbol of Jewish unity.

Moreover, Mr. Plotnik’s assertion that a Sephardi holds his Ashkenazi brother in contempt is cruelly false. For a brief period, the difference in language between the two groups made “Zug, zug,” (“Speak, speak”) the remark of the Ashkenazi that was most often heard. Today it is forgotten, and the term “Yudak” as a designation for an Ashkenazi is quite unknown. It is equally preposterous to state that the Sephardim conceal or shy away from the word “Jewish.” It is used wherever it is called for. Thus the name of our community is the Central Sephardic Jewish Community of America, and the name of the largest Sephardic Landsmannschaft is the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America.

It is not the custom of the Sephardim, as Mr. Plotnik reports, to place food stuffs on the coffin coverings after an interment in the cemetery, or to spend a whole afternoon there eating after the funeral, or to carry on ceremonies all day long at an unveiling, with professional caterers taking care of the refreshments. All this is nonsensically untrue. The only custom that exists is to follow the ritual called for in the providing of the “mourner’s meal.”

It is nothing less than scurrilous when Mr. Plotnik accuses the Sephardim of looking down on the Ashkenazim as a “mixed multitude” of Jews who are descended from the rabble of Jerusalem and whose blood has a mixture of the Slavic element. It is equally an untruth that Jewish communal leaders ever went to Friday evening services in the mosques.

It is also not a fact that soon after the close of the 16th century the Jews of the Ottoman Empire sank to the rank of the ignorant laboring classes. Until the beginning of the 20th century they played an important part in Turkey and the other Middle Eastern countries, comparing most favorably with the role played by the non-Jews. They were often leaders in commerce, industry, banking, and the professions, and they were held in high regard by their non-Jewish compatriots. The influence of the Jews in a city such as Salonica was so great that on the Sabbath commercial activity practically ceased for much of the entire population of the city. These conditions existed up to less than fifty years ago.

While the HIAS has done outstanding work in assisting Jews from the Balkans newly arrived on these shores, just as it assisted Jews coming from other parts of Europe, it cannot be said, as Mr. Plotnik states, that passage of the Sephardic immigrant was paid by the HIAS. The Sephardic immigrant from Turkey in the 1900’s came to this country with his last pennies and made a place for himself in this country through hard work, perseverance, and character. . . . Nor is it true that the Sephardic women were of lower-class origin or illiterate.

It would have been very expedient if all labor problems affecting Sephardic workers and employers could have been settled in the coffee houses, as Mr. Plotnik claims. In fact, the Sephardic worker or employer is not a law unto himself; he forms a part of the great labor movement of this city. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union counts among its delegates and representatives many Sephardic men, and Sephardic employers have for over a quarter of a century been among the leaders in the skirt, blouse, and dress manufacturers’ associations. Some of them have played important parts as consultants to such government agencies as the National Recovery Administration, Office of Price Administration, and War Production Board.

Mr. Plotnik is also very confused as to the type of community organization under which the Sephardic Jews lived in the Ottoman Empire. Their community organization was unified under the leadership of a Chief Rabbi and spiritual and lay bodies which regulated their religious, educational, communal, and social activities. The communal committees even had government-enforced powers to tax members. Naturally, such a set-up could not be duplicated in America. The Sephardic organizations here built up, as did the Ashkenazim, patterns of organization based on Landsmannschaft.

It is simply not a fact, as stated by Mr. Plotnik, that Sephardim from different groups did not, until recently, intermarry. Not only did Sephardim intermarry irrespective of their cities of origin, but they also have intermarried quite frequently with Ashkenazim. It is equally untrue that Sephardim from Turkey would not eat or worship with other Sephardim.

The author of the article is in error, too, about the date of the founding of the Central Sephardic Jewish Community of America. This was organized in the year 1941 under the influence of the late Dr. Nissim J. Ovadia, who served as its chief rabbi until his death in the following year. Rabbi Isaac Alcalay, who had come to the United States in the year 1942, then became the chief rabbi of the Community.

For Mr. Plotnik’s information, it may be stated that all the Sephardic synagogues of New Lots are open not only on the High Holy Days, but on every Saturday, and some are open every day of the year. Moreover, New Lots has long had at least one Sephardic Hebrew school, and the Sephardim in New Lots have duly ordained rabbis who have given years of service and leadership to their community.

We hope that at some future time the author of the article, exercising a more scrupulous concern for facts, will study the life of the Sephardim in this city. Then his report will assuredly advance Jewish unity in America.

David Politi
President, Central Sephardic
Jewish Community of America
New York City
[Mr. Plotnik will reply in the April issue.]

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