RelatioNetRILE40SOTU

Rina and Salman Levy

Date: June 7^th 2019

Blog Number:

Interviewer's names: Roy Treves, Aviv Hoshen

Emails: roytreves@gmail.com , avivhoshen123@gmail.com 

Rina

Family Name: Levy

First Name: Rina

Childhood name: Irene Bokobza

Father's Name: : Hai Bokobza

Mother's Name: Julies Bokobza

Birth Date: May 5^th 1940

City during the holocaust: Sousse

Country during the holocaust: Tunisia

City in Israel after arrival: Kfar Saba

Current Address: Ha'avoda 1 Kfar Saba

Zip Code: 4437201

Tunisia – Sousse

The Jewish community in Tunisia dates back to Roman times.  Jews both flourished and suffered under the different regimes that ruled Tunisia like the Christians, Ottomans and eventually France.

Tunisia was a French colony from May 12, 1881 until March 20th 1956. Jews of Tunisia were influenced by the French and embraced their revolutionary ideas: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity unlike the Muslims who resented the special privileges given to the Jewish community by the French Colonial Administrators.

Sousse and the other cities in the area were divided into two seperate areas, one was characterized with European culture and the other with Arabic and Jewish culture. There was a very clear separation between the different cultures. There was no interaction between the Europeans and the Jewish community except for the market area. The people who lived in Tunisia didn’t have anything provided to them by the government. services such as healthcare and education were only available through private businesses.

In May 1940, when France fell to Germany, the Tunisian's longing for independence was stirred up. They took their frustration out on the Jews. In June 1940, as the result of the French and the German armistice the French Protectorate of Tunisia became part of Vichy France. The Jews in both Tunisia and Vichy France faced restrictions. In November 1942, when Germany and Italy invaded Tunisia, there were about 100,000 Jews living there.

The Nazis implemented anti-Semitic policies such as forcing Jews to wear the Yellow Star of David, fines, and confiscation of property. However, Italian authorities demanded that the Vichy government refrain from confiscating the property of the 5,000 Jews in Tunisia who held Italian passports. More than 5,000 Jews were sent to forced labor camps where 265 are known to have died, 160 Jews who lived in Tunisia were sent to extermination camps in Europe. These steps were meant to be the beginning of the destruction of the Tunisian Jewish Community.

Before the War

Rina was born in Sousse in Tunisia in 1940 to Hai and Julies Bokobza.

Rina's Parents

Rina and her family lived in an apartment in a big building located in Araoya 27. Everyone had a key to the building’s gate. Rina described it as a massive gate

The Key to The Gate

During their free time and on Saturdays the adults would visit each other and sometimes play games like Domino and the children would play games like soccer. The husbands talked to the husbands and the wives talked to the wives.  Rina played with other children but avoided going to the beach as it had people walking with clothing which was considered inappropriate in the Jewish community in Sousse. The Jewish children played among themselves but were not allowed to play with the Arab or Christian children as it was not customary.

On a regular work day, the father would go to work in the morning and the mother stayed at home with the children. The housemaid helped her with the chores. There was a housemaid and a nanny. The housemaid did many chores but did not cook (since it wasn’t customary), and the nanny took care of the children (washed them, help them put on clothes, put them to sleep, iron their clothes). Rina’s nanny’s name was Aysha, and Rina says she was a “lovely lady”.

A Doll which Reminded Rina of Aysha

Rina’s father had 4 brothers, each one lived in a different city, only the oldest brother and Rina’s father lived in Sousse. They lived 2 streets away from each other. Her father had a shop that sells clothes wholesale. Rina’s mother had 7 siblings and like her husband's brothers, each one lived in a different city. It was customary that whenever a woman marries a man, she would move to live with him wherever the husband makes his income.

Rina’s family was religious. They celebrated all the Jewish holidays, ate kosher, dressed decently and followed Jewish guidelines. In the holidays like Passover, the extended family came to the oldest brother's house and had “Seder Pesach” there.

During the War

During the war, Rina was an infant. When the Germans arrived in Sousse, they forced Jewish men to work by filling trains with coal which transported Jews. It was hard work which demanded a lot of physical power, and Rina’s father was one of the workers. Shortly later, some Jews who were working in the tunnels got an idea which would help them avoid the hard exhausting and dangerous work. They cut their foot with a knife and wrapped garlic around the wound. This resulted in an infection which prevented them from working. At first, only a small amount of Jews have done this, but it didn’t take long for this to become common. One Jew who knew about it decided he wanted to take advantage of the situation and told the Germans about the Jews who intentionally injured themselves. The Germans decided to gather all of the Jews who were working in the tunnels and cut their foot as collective punishment. The man who told the Germans about the plan was publicly executed.

Rina’s father’s foot was cut and he carried a scar for the rest of his life.

Soon later, around 1942-1943 Rina’s father realized his wife and children cannot stay in the house during the war and must find a hiding place. He sent them to live with the “Mukhtar” (The city’s mayor) until the war was over. Rina’s father and the Mukhtar were very close friends. Because Rina’s father was rich, he was considered to be in a high social status, so he was able to be close friends with the Mukhtar even though he was Jewish. The Mukhtar protected Rina’s mother and her children throughout the war and once it was over they returned to live with Hai.

After the War

Rina's Certificate of Graduation from Alliance

At the age of 9 (1949), Rina went to study at a school for nuns which was for girls only. There she suffered from anti-Semitism from her teachers. For example, her teacher asked only the Jewish students if they completed their homework, and because most of them didn’t have previous knowledge in French, they almost never completed them. Whenever they didn’t complete their homework, the teacher would take a pair of donkey ears and stick them on a piece of cardboard and wrap it around the students’ head. On their back, she would stick a sign saying “Je suis un Âne” meaning “I am a Donkey”. Rina stopped attending that school in 1950.  Rina began her studies at the “Alliance” elementary school in 1952 and completed her studies in 1953. It was the first time Rina received a formal education.

The journey to Israel

In 1948, when the state of Israel gained independence, the Jews in Tunisia were told they should make Aliyah to Israel, and in the 1950s the Jews started moving to Israel. Because there were many Arabs in Sousse, who were upset with the establishment of the state of Israel, some of them took out their frustration on the Jews. This resulted in violence, stolen property and a constant feeling of threat to the Jews in the area. These events motivated many Jews to make Aliyah to Israel.

A plate Rina kept from Ma'abarat Mensi

Rina’s family left Sousse in 1953 without telling anyone, not even the extended family and the Mukhtar. They told everyone they were going on vacation in Tunis. Whenever they really went on vacation, they let the Mukhtar keep their house and clothes shop until they came back, however this time they never returned. They left to Tunis and from there they boarded a ship to Marseille and stayed in camp d’arainiase until 1954. Later they boarded another ship to Israel and arrived in M’abarat Mensi (picture provided below) in December of 1954 and lived there for a year.

Ma'abarat Mensi

In 1955 Rina’s Family arrived in Shikun Mizrahi in Kfar Saba. Rina went to Bar Ilan school but stopped shortly after because there were no teachers except for children her age. She started working in the industrial area and cleaned animal skins. She met Salman (her husband) there and they married in 1965. They lived 1 year in Bnei Brak and returned to Kfar Saba in 1966 to Ha’avoda Street 1, where they live today.

Salman's parents

Salman

Family Name: Levy

First Name: Salman

Father's Name: :Aharon Levy

Mother's Name: Naima Levy

Birth Date: October 30^th 1937

City during the Farhood:Baghdad

Country during the Farhood: Iraq

City in Israel after arrival: Kfar Saba

Background of the Jews in Iraq

 Up until 1932 there was a British mandate on Iraq. During the mandate the British saw the Jews as different from the Arabs, they preferred having connections and friendships with Jews, that let to Jews having  more privileges than Arabs, the Arabs, something.in 1938 the Iraqi government was  influenced by the Nazi and Fascist parties, therefore the hatred  towards the  Jews grew and both of the above caused the Farhood.  In 1940 the  In Iraq of those days ,the thirties, the majority of the Jews in Iraq were better off than the non-Jews. For example many Jews were home owners unlike the majority of non-Jews. 

 "Farhood" - the massacre of Jaws in Iraq happened between 1940-1943. In those years, King Razi ruled .He went from one city to another claiming it’s a regular visit, it was like a routine. people  announced that the king had come and therefore  they had to prepare and gather around for his arrival. All of whom attended and welcomed the king were either Arab or Jewish men, everyone except for the Jewish women and girls who remained in their houses because according to the Jewish society there women cannot be seen in public events.

 The king went through but did not understand why the neighborhood decreased. The king's soldiers went into the houses to look for whoever did not go out to honor the king ,of course they knew that it was the Jewish women so they took most of them out to the street, then for no reason they raped them and killed them. This happened in the same exact order in other cities in Iraq like  cycle of viciousness.  

In Iraq if you had foreign citizenship you weren’t obliged to join the army. Many Jews had a foreign citizenship so they came to a recruitment office and showed that they had foreign citizenship then paid 50 dinars and were released from the army. The moment Iraqi authorities began to understand that the Jews are trying to escape the army they transferred all of those Jews to their foreign citizenship’s country.

Among the Jews in Iraq the only Zionist figure he knew was Moshe Shertok [Sharett] . When the Iraqis found out about him it was forbitten to have any connection to him because he was considered an Israeli politician and so was considered an enemy of Iraq . Thus whoever speaks to him or have connections with him is  considered  a traitor. There is a story about a Jew named Ades, He was the richest in Baghdad ,a lot of Jews were asking him for loans. One day the Iraqi government  decided that he was a in contact with  Moshe Sharett [Shertok] , so the Iraqis captured him they thought it was as if Ades recognized the State of Israel. They took Ades when he was alive, tied him to a horse cart and called everyone who had garbage to come and throw it at him, they took all his property [thousands of dunams of land] and after a couple of hours they killed him on the basis of betrayal . In 1947 Before the establishment of the state of Israel, the Jews of Iraq were not allowed to immigrate to Israel. Therefor Jews have decided  to flee Iraq.

 In 1948 Israel's victory in the War of 1948 cused  the hostility towards the Jews to increase but  Jews were not allowed to immigrate to Israel. Therefore people did illegal immigration to Israel  As a result of the illegal immigration Jews had to sell their assets, especially their homes. The Iraqis knew that they were all going to leave for Israel, so they paid them a low price for their house and properties, people lost a lot of money.

Salman’s life before the Farhood : Early Childhood:

Salman grew up in a house on Sheikh Yitzhak Street in the center of Baghdad. Salman had 5 brothers and two sisters, he was the sixth child. 2-3 people shared a bed and sometimes slept on the floor.

Salman's father, Aharon Levi, was a goldsmith. He went to work every morning. His mother was a housewife who would stay at home with his sisters who helped here with the chores like cooking and cleaning.at 12-13 they learn to sew. The younger brothers stayed with their mother while the older ones went to the Jewish  school “Midrash Rabbah for Ben Ish Chai” in Baghdad. His family lived a traditional Jewish lifestyle, celebrating the holidays as a family with Iraqi food.  they went to the grave of Yehezkel the prophet every Shavuot

The Pogroms and the Massacre:

1940: Salman says it was terrible to see it as a child and remembers that his neighbor's daughter was taken. In Baghdad, about a half of the Jewish women were raped and slaughtered. After Baghdad it happened in most cities in Iraq like a cycle of viciousness. At that time Salman's father was deported to Persia because he owned a Persian passport,. His mother remained alone with him and his siblings. It was a difficult time,  there was no one to support them in terms of money for food, living and bills. They could have starved to death if it wasn’t for his uncle , whom was in good financial shape at that time, that helped them. Every month they would receive money from him. this is how they lived for 9 years.

1941- 1944: When Salman was young he studied at a religious Jewish school called "Midrash Rabbah for Ben Ish Chai. The boys had to study Torah and observe the commandments while the girls weren’t obligated to go to school.

1944: "Alliance" schools have just opened their school in Iraq ,headed by Professor Bonfils, and were looking for students. Salman was 7 years old. Prof. Bonfils came to Salman's school and asked them if they could bring him children they think deserve to attend an academic school. In “Alliance” they spoke and taught in French, Salman says that they did not know French but the school promised to teach them French. After the principal of the Jewish school recommended Salman “Alliance” took him to interview him. In the interview Salman got the Idea of the kind of person they wanted, a good student who knows how to read and write. After a week they told Salman he was accepted. The richer people whom their children attended “Alliance” helped the poor like Salman and dressed him in a suit. He remembers it up to this day. In the Alliance he chose three subjects: French, Biblical studies and history. he studied there for 4-5 years.and today he can sing some of the songs they taught at Alliance .

Zionism after the Farhood and making “Aliyah” (immigration):

1947: Because Jews were forbidden to Immigrate, Jews began to flee Iraq, including his aunt. she packed all her belongings at night and on the afternoon of the day after she pretended to be cooking and in the middle of the cooking with the gas still on, she took her belongings and ran away on foot towards Israel.

In 1949 The Iraqi authorities begat deporting Jews with foreign passports, they didn’t want any additional Jews in their country.   Salman and his family were deported to Persia because of his father's Persian passport .the authorities put them in a bus and drove them to the border of Persia. Salman describes life in Persia as good ones, not the best ones but like they had before the “Farhood”. The Jewish Agency was already in contact with the King of Persia  so Jews were allowed to stay there for a year and then move to Israel

 1950: Salman lived in Persia for about a year in suburbs far from the nearby city in homes that are decades old, but were good enough to live in. After a year Salman and his family  were put on a plane and when he they arrived to Israel, they put all of them in  "Shaar Aliya" , a transit camp. They were put in a crowded tent. “We really slept on each other," he says.” From there we went to a transit camp near the Kaplan neighborhood in Kfar Saba”, 15 minutes from Tel Aviv. Salman was 13 at the time.

the transit camp near the Kaplan neighborhood in Kfar Saba

Life in Israel:

1950: The border with Jordan was where the Green Line passes today and as a result the Jordanians occasionally shot at them for no reason. To this day he remembers that the Iraqi Jewish community did not complain about the conditions they lived in. "It was hard but we got used to it and got along." He adds that Iraqi adults did not usually know how to write and read in Arabic, so they asked him to write letters for them. By charging money for writing letters  he got money for his family. his parents couldn’t work in israel, they had no permit because the Israeli didn’t recognized their education, so they didn’t get work permit .Why not? this is how he lived till1955 . At the age of 18 Salman was recruited to the IDF to the “Golani” brigade,

1956:  after a year of training he fought in the “Suez Crisis” war.  Salman got shot and was severely injured .After  healing he was  released from duty. He worked at a wheels factory ,there he first met his future wife, Rina.     He saw her leaving for the day and asked her if she works there, she answered yes, and told him she’s in a hurry for a date. “I was disappointed” he said. the day after he asked her how did it go, she replied by saying how she couldn’t find the right man????. He finished the story by saying: “ I answered the same, we decided to try one date and the rest is history”.

Today Salman lives in Kfar Saba with his wife Rina, they have 3 children and 10 grandchildren, Salman goes to the nearby Synagogue  "Beit Dorshi" every day and learns Halacha. In addition to living traditional Jewish lifestyle, he educates his children and grandchildren on the values he believes the most, Don't complain and serve in the army as a combat soldier. All of his children have served as combat soldiers Including his daughter who was an officer in the IDF and is getting married next month. His oldest grandson is an Officer as well, the next one is training for the army  and the rest are too young. Salman says he is happy with his family and very happy about the fact that last year he got recognition as a Holocaust survivor. 

A certificant indicating Salman is recognized as a Holocaust survivor.