No 139 - October 2019

ABSTRACTS

Robert Romano
Ruben Romano : in search of a grandfather lost…
His grandson Robert tells us about the tragic fate of Reuben Romano, this wealthy Salonicien who lost everything, his property, his country, before ending his days in Auschwitz. Robert Romano brought together a few testimonies and memories of his own, has investigated the origin of his name, a surname of Jews but also Christians, which has always been very common throughout the Mediterranean basin and, today, well over.

Gilles Boulu & Alain Nedjar
Livourne, at the crossroads of family itineraries. The example of Busnach’family.
With the help of numerous sources including the archives of the Jewish community of Livorno and in particular the exceptional and unprecedented series of preserved ketubbot registers (1626-1890), the authors were able to reconstruct the complex routes and the genealogy of the Busnachs originating from Oran, arrived in Livorno in the 17th century. Some among them will emigrate to Tunis and Algiers before returning to Livorno. They will give the famous traders allied to the Cohen Bacri during the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. It appears that Livorno, land of welcome for Jewish merchants is the hub of these migrations in the Mediterranean.

Nadia Hofnung
Darmon family in Oranie, a commitment for France

This story (from 1710 to our days) took place in Ottoman Middle East and the settlement of France in North Africa. Through the story of Diane Esther Darmon and her husband Sadia Darmon, we get back in time until the leading figure of Rabbi Mordekhaï Darmon (1740-1815), a co-founder of jewish community of Oran (1792). We discover the tragedies that the Jews of Mascara, of Tlemcen, of Oran have lived. This story hightlights the part of intermediaries played by eminent people such as Amram and Mardochée Darmon, as a military or a court interpreter

Anne-Marie Faraggi Rychner
Faraggi family, from Salonica to Paris

Three passports kept in the family archives summarize the journey of the Faraggi family : the first is Ottoman, the second is Greek and the third is French.The history dates back to the 18th century in Salonika, Ottoman city, and ends with the annexation of Thessaloniki by Greece at the end of 1912. In 1917 a fire ravage the entire Jewish quarter.These two factors triggered the desire to emigrate and the family Faraggi arrived in Paris in 1920.

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