This sequel to Lagnado’s first memoir, “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit,” follows the same trajectory as the first – the memoir starts in Cairo where the Legnados lived as members of a large, prosperous Jewish community before they immigrated to Brooklyn, New York. But this second memoir shines the spotlight on different family members. This time around Lagnado spends very little time on her father who was the subject of her first memoir. Instead, she focuses on both her mother’s life and her own.
She starts by recounting what she has learned about her mother’s childhood, describing in detail her mother’s mother and the life and culture of Jewish women in the Levant. She relates how her mother, highly educated with a satisfying career, felt obligated to give it up when she married. The marriage was problematic from the start. The author’s father felt free to do what he wanted whenever he wanted to; her mother became a passive, depressed housewife and mother.
Once Nasser came into power most members of the Jewish community fled, many going to Israel and the United States. Lagnado’s father resisted leaving until conditions were just about impossible and they immigrated in 1963 when the author was 7, settling in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York amongst other Jewish immigrants from the Levant.
In subsequent chapters the author elaborates on growing up in Brooklyn in the midst of a socially conservative, insular, transplanted immigrant Jewish community from the Levant where the cultural ties to their home countries were strong. Like in many immigrant groups, parents tried to keep the old ways, replicating customs they grew up with, including founding both religious and educational institutions that were designed to mirror those they left behind. Lagnado notes that some children stayed close to their parents, happy to abide by their wishes, choosing mates from within the community and settling close by. But in some families, like in her own, there was an ongoing tension between conducting their lives the way they had in the past versus embracing American customs and values.
Her father, partly because of a fall and botched surgery in Cairo, never attained the stature he had in Cairo, and sat by, a tired old man, while his family defied him. His children went to American schools and colleges, and his wife decided to go back to work. But although the author’s mother enjoyed her work at the Brooklyn Public Library, it was clear that the cultural shift was difficult and wearing on her. Especially upsetting was that Suzette, their oldest daughter, although still unmarried, moved away shortly after they arrived in America never to live with them again.
The author was very close to her mother who allowed her some freedom, but not enough. She would not let her mother's and the community’s old-world values stand in the way of what she wanted - the chance to embrace America, and to take advantage of what it had to offer. She succeeds in this struggle, becoming a well-established journalist and writer, but toward the end of the memoir she looks back. She revisited old friends from the community now dispersed, some living in Israel. She found many of them living lives very similar to the lives they led when they were growing up in Bensonhurst. While she cannot imagine living the lives they lead, she envies their feeling rooted in their traditions and clear-headed about the choices they made. She feels especially sorry about the tragedy of her mother's life: being caught between two worlds, not comfortable in either one.
To read the post in this blog reviewing Lagnado's The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, click here.
To read an article about the displacement of Jews from Arab countries, click here.
People
Family
Descendants of father’s side of Laniado rabbinic dynasty of Aleppo, Syria
Shlomo Laniado – rabbi in 17th century
Leon Lagnado - married Edith Lagnado
Suzette Lagnado – daughter of Leon and Edith
Sasha – son of Suzette
Cesar Lagnado – son of Leon and Edith; married Monica
Carolyn and Evelyn Lagnado – daughters of Caesar and Monica
Isaac Lagnado – son of Leon and Edith
Lucette Lagnado – daughter of and Edith; married Douglas Feiden
Maternal family
Selim Dana – married Rachel Dana (his niece)
Alexandra Dana – daughter of Selim and Rachel married Isaac Matalon
Edith Matalon – daughter of Alexandra and Isaac; married Leon Lagnado (see above)
Felix Matalon – son of Alexandra and Isaac
Edgar Dana – Alexandra’s brother; married Marie
Rachel Dana – daughter of Edgar and Marie
Farida – half-sister of Alexandria
Rosee – half-sister of Alexandra
Lily – daughter of Rosee
Edouard – half-brother of Alexandra
Lily Halawani – cousin of mother (daughter of Rosee, above?) exact relationship not clear
Salomone Silvera – relative, relationship to side of family unclear; married Sally
Davide Silvera – son of Salomone and Sally
Rachel and Pico Hakim – relatives, relationship to side of family unclear
Rosette Hakim – daughter of Rachel and Pico
Friends, Acquaintances and Members of the Jewish Community Past and Present
In U.S.A.
Rabbi Harry Rubin
Miriam, Deborah, Rebecca, Rochelle and David Rubin – children of Harry
Abraham and Adele Cohen
Leah, Gracie, Esther, Margarita Cohen - daughters of Abraham and Adele
Rebecca Cohen Choueka – daughter of Abraham and Adele; married Eric Choueka
Rita Douek
Karen Alter
Marlene and Avi Ben Dayan
Celia Garzon Weinstein - Moshe Garzon's sister
Moshe Garzon – Celia Garzon Weinstein's brother
Joseph Hannon
Sarah Menachem
Rabbi Baruch Ben Haim
Rabbi Saul Kassin
Lillian Mosseri
Carin Roth
Eugene Gold
Wendy – daughter of Eugene
Henry Finkelstein
Cyrus Wolf
Laurie Wolf Bryk– daughter of Cyrus; married to Eli Bryk
Lanie and Jackie – daughters of Laurie
Trudy Wolf – daughter of Cyrus
Dr. Sydney Diamond
Rabbi Sam Horowitz
Fortune Cohen
Gladys – sister of Fortune; married Saul
Rabbi Rafael Benchimol
Kim Amzallag
Leah Iny
Stella Issever
In Egypt (or roots in Egypt)
Alice Suarez – married Yussef Cattaui
Indjii, Aslan, and Rene, – children of Alice and Yussef
Nimet Cattaui – granddaughter of Alice and Yussef
Michel Alexane – son of Nimet
Stephane Cattaui – grandson of Alice and Yussef; married Maria Livanos
Indjy Cattaui-Dumon – granddaughter of Alice and Yussef
George Cattaui – nephew of Yussef
Florence Sutter – gggranddaughter of Alice and Yussef (exact relationship unclear)
Moise Cattaui
Odette Harari
David Harari – son of Odette
Yussef “Sousou” Makar
Sarah Naggar Halawani
Desi Sakkal
Ninette Toussoun
Rabbi Haim Nahum
Dr. Baroukh Kodsi
Maggie Wahba
Carmen Weinstein
Victor, George, and Haim Haboucha
Places
Egypt
Cairo
neighborhoods: Garden City, Sakakini, Haret-el-Yahood, Heliopolis, Zamelek, Maadi, Fustat
L’Ecole Cattui – Sakakini
Le Sebil Jewish school
Cicurel Department store
Orozdi-Back Department store
Shepheard Hotel
L’Hopital Israelite
Groppi’s
Temple Hanan
Ben Ezra Synagogue
Gazira Sporting Club
Villa Cattaui
Alexandria
Neighborhoods: Sporting, San Sefano, Sidi Bishr
Delices
Ras el-Bar, Egypt
Aslan Hotel
USA
Brooklyn, New York
Neighborhoods: Bensonhurst, Brighton Beach, Park Slope, Ocean Parkway
Shield of Young David Synagogue (David Magen)
Ahaba ve Ahava synagogue
House of Jacob Academy (Beis Ya’akov)
Berkeley Institute
Five Towns, Long Island, NY –areas: North Woodmere, Hewlett Harbor
Gates of Prayer Synagogue, Manhattan
Fifth Avenue Synagogue, Manhattan
Deal, New Jersey
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