המשפחה בבירות

In the very beginning, we lived in a building which was owned fully by Jews, and every night we would meet up. There was the the Hayim family and Roni Mann, Joseph and Roza Baghdadi and mami, Yvonne and Marius Grego. We would have dinner together every night, the children would play together and the family would be together for many years. I even remember in the…what’s it called? The civil war that was in Lebanon in 1957 (?) how they were firing. We we were sitting at our neighbour’s place and bullets came through the windows. But we were always together until…later, the building got old, and everyone moved to a different place. My father decided to live with Muslims. We were in the Ayn El-Mreisseh neighbourhood. In our building there were the Negri and Mahlab families. And I communicate with all…with many people from the community, the community. And we fulfil and preserve things from home, the Lebanese Jewish traditions. The holidays, the Lebanese food from my mother. And at home we weren’t kosher. My father worked with the French. He grew up with the French. And I felt a bit foreign, not like everyone. But we would go to the neighbours place, listen to the holidays and listen to kiddush, go to the synagogue. My uncle was very, very, very religious. He worked at the synagogue. And he would smuggle Jews coming from Syria to Israel via Beirut. He would hide them in the synagogue and help them flee. Today there are very few Jews in Beirut. I have two cousins who live in Beirut and married with non-Jews. And I’m in communication with their children and with them.