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In Loulou’s house together with Roula we celebrated Jewish holidays. There I could feel it was a holiday. Where I am today, I can’t. At home we would invite friends and we didn’t have a maid. I would prepare everything by myself. But my husband never warned me in time. Because I would have to clean, to take out the silverware, nice table cloths, prepare the salads etc. At that time everything was prepared by the housewife: the mayonnaise, the Ikra salad. And I worked all day.
Albertos and Loulou had hidden in Athens, like the grandparents. Take into account that Alberto on Pesach, used to go where Marie was hiding and where Loulou was too, somewhere in Erythrea, and I don’t know where Loulou was – he had to prepare the matzah by himself, without yeast – and bake it in the oven, so he wouldn’t have to eat bread. They really sounded like true Sephardim, especially the grandparents, who spoke Greek in a singing way.
During the holidays Albertos read in Hebrew, and there was a deadly silence. I didn’t understand, and maybe Loulou didn’t either, and even the grandparents didn’t know Hebrew. They were Spaniards and spoke Spanish between them, more than Greek. In the Book it is spelled out what is the order one must follow during the celebration: how to set the table, and what exactly one ought to do. One has to pick some lettuce, the lamb’s leg, the egg, the charoset, the matzah, cut a piece and eat it with charoset, and put the rest under your table towel.
Loulou cooked nice Jewish dishes. Meatballs from chicken breast, and those made of leek and spinach. Albertos wanted everything to be precise, and looked for detail. This is the way to cut the lettuce, the matzah should be placed over there, and the charoset over there.
I learned how to cook beans with fried onions, and sardines with eggs. And of course peche en salsa, with a lot of nuts and matzah, and plenty of oil.
Leo too wanted those dishes, one always seeks what one is used to, but he never refused eating other dishes either. I was a good cook.
My favorite holiday was Pesach. If I compare it with the one we celebrate in the old people’s home – they don’t understand anything. Here, the rabbi reads and the rest of the people eat. ‘Eh, wait a minute my dear, close your mouth, nobody is going to take it away from you.’ But back then I could understand the holiday, and I was very sorry once when Elvina, my niece, was in Thessaloniki that Albertos didn’t want her to come and see how we celebrate, because she wasn’t Jewish. She was very sad, because she would have liked to watch other customs. It’s a long time ago. At the time when both Roula’s and Elvina’s parents were still alive.
Albertos and Loulou had hidden in Athens, like the grandparents. Take into account that Alberto on Pesach, used to go where Marie was hiding and where Loulou was too, somewhere in Erythrea, and I don’t know where Loulou was – he had to prepare the matzah by himself, without yeast – and bake it in the oven, so he wouldn’t have to eat bread. They really sounded like true Sephardim, especially the grandparents, who spoke Greek in a singing way.
During the holidays Albertos read in Hebrew, and there was a deadly silence. I didn’t understand, and maybe Loulou didn’t either, and even the grandparents didn’t know Hebrew. They were Spaniards and spoke Spanish between them, more than Greek. In the Book it is spelled out what is the order one must follow during the celebration: how to set the table, and what exactly one ought to do. One has to pick some lettuce, the lamb’s leg, the egg, the charoset, the matzah, cut a piece and eat it with charoset, and put the rest under your table towel.
Loulou cooked nice Jewish dishes. Meatballs from chicken breast, and those made of leek and spinach. Albertos wanted everything to be precise, and looked for detail. This is the way to cut the lettuce, the matzah should be placed over there, and the charoset over there.
I learned how to cook beans with fried onions, and sardines with eggs. And of course peche en salsa, with a lot of nuts and matzah, and plenty of oil.
Leo too wanted those dishes, one always seeks what one is used to, but he never refused eating other dishes either. I was a good cook.
My favorite holiday was Pesach. If I compare it with the one we celebrate in the old people’s home – they don’t understand anything. Here, the rabbi reads and the rest of the people eat. ‘Eh, wait a minute my dear, close your mouth, nobody is going to take it away from you.’ But back then I could understand the holiday, and I was very sorry once when Elvina, my niece, was in Thessaloniki that Albertos didn’t want her to come and see how we celebrate, because she wasn’t Jewish. She was very sad, because she would have liked to watch other customs. It’s a long time ago. At the time when both Roula’s and Elvina’s parents were still alive.
Period
Interview
Eugenia Abravenel