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My father’s name was Avram Levi. He was the third child in his family. The first-born child was his eldest brother Haim, followed by Shabat, and then he. I suppose my father’s brothers used to be merchants. My father had two names: Avram-Nissim. At the time of his birth his mother had severe pains and the family decided that if a boy was born they would call him Avram, yet because of the fact that he was born with difficulty, they added also Nissim, which means ‘wonders.’ He was known among people as Avram-Nissim. He was the only one with two names in our family and among our Jewish community. The fact that he had two names caused quite a lot of trouble for us, because it isn’t common in Bulgaria for someone to have two names. Our family name is Levi. I was called Yosif Avram-Nissim Levi, thus they become four names, which isn’t customary here neither among Jews, nor Bulgarians. Therefore, we accepted only the first and last name: Avram Levi. In his youth, my father used to sign himself as Avram-Nissim David Levi, while later, when he grew older, he signed himself as Avram-Nissim Levi.
Both my father and mother originated from Sephardic families and the language spoken at home was Ladino. Of course, as soon as we started attending school and in a Bulgarian environment, we learnt Bulgarian well. Our Bulgarian was more fluent than our Ladino.
I know an interesting story about my mother’s kin. Two thousand years ago the Jews in Palestine used to live in tribes. When the Roman legions realized they wouldn’t be able to conquer them, they chased all of them away. They set out in the four cardinal points. The chosen direction of each tribe was known by its tombstones. When the Spanish Jews settled on the Balkan Peninsula they found other Jews. Those were the local Jews, who had settled there before the arrival of the Spanish Jews. The chief family among them was the Behar family. My mother’s kin is Behar: her father was called Isak Behar. My grandfather originated from those Jews. According to sources of Bulgarian history, at the beginning of the 14th century the Bulgarian tsar, Ivan-Alexander, sent his first wife to a monastery and married a beautiful Jewess, Sarah, who gave birth to his heir to the crown: Tsar Ivan Shishman. According to our Jewish laws, Tsar Ivan Shishman was a Jew, as his mother was Jewish.
Both my father and mother originated from Sephardic families and the language spoken at home was Ladino. Of course, as soon as we started attending school and in a Bulgarian environment, we learnt Bulgarian well. Our Bulgarian was more fluent than our Ladino.
I know an interesting story about my mother’s kin. Two thousand years ago the Jews in Palestine used to live in tribes. When the Roman legions realized they wouldn’t be able to conquer them, they chased all of them away. They set out in the four cardinal points. The chosen direction of each tribe was known by its tombstones. When the Spanish Jews settled on the Balkan Peninsula they found other Jews. Those were the local Jews, who had settled there before the arrival of the Spanish Jews. The chief family among them was the Behar family. My mother’s kin is Behar: her father was called Isak Behar. My grandfather originated from those Jews. According to sources of Bulgarian history, at the beginning of the 14th century the Bulgarian tsar, Ivan-Alexander, sent his first wife to a monastery and married a beautiful Jewess, Sarah, who gave birth to his heir to the crown: Tsar Ivan Shishman. According to our Jewish laws, Tsar Ivan Shishman was a Jew, as his mother was Jewish.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Yosif Avram Levi