Coming out of Egypt (1956) we were only allowed to take one suitcase and £10!
I chose to take my nonno’s personal kanaka.
His name was Brahim (Abraham) and he was married to Sarah, exactly as in the Bible.
Brahim was a short man. If energy were to be counted by centimeters, it would be a laughable matter because energy overflowed from him.
Like Abraham he had a stutter.He would stop in the middle of a sentence open his mouth and look for his word.
He woke up at 5 o’clock, washed in cold water, said his prayers with his tefelim around his forearms, then trotted off to the kitchen to prepare his ahwa in his own Kanaka before the goy came over for his day’s work.
This Kanaka was a small one-cup Turkish coffee maker in copper on the outside and pewter inside. The handle was in wood with a small hook to hang it next to the other kanakas on which you could see, 2, 3, 4 and 5. These numbers weren’t Cabalistic but indicated the quantity of cups one could prepare with that specific kanaka. For instance the mark 3 meant that three cups could be prepared. We are talking of Turkish cups here.
There was the mazboot coffee, sugar just right and soccar ziyada sweeter. Nonno was for the mazboot, whereas I was for soccar ziyada, thus surely prepring my path to diabetes!!!
Nonno took a generous spoon of ground ahwa which he himself had bought green and then taken to be roasted, put it in the kanaka containing water added sugar and then placed it on the spiritiera, alcohol burner. Once the mixture had risen three times, his coffee was ready.
He sat in front of a back window to, as he said: “ne shoof wesh el sama,”to see the face of heaven. He probably planned out his day while sitting there.
After drinking his coffee, he would get ready to go to the Muski where he had his shop selling wholesale English fabrics and more especially poplin cotton.
I still have a blouse made out of that poplin.
The silly things one takes out when going into exile!!!
The kanaka represents a whole era for me.
The time when guests came for a chat, or when they came for Abel after a departure to a better place.The reading of good fortune. No one laughed at that.
Brahim had an Egyptian nationality, then for the only reason that he was Jewish, it was taken away from him and he became stateless. We used to call this “apatride.”
His shop was confiscated and put in the hands of a sequester.That was the name given to the man who lorded it when the shops were seized.
We were told secretely that the police was coming to “talk” to nonno. We did not know when but we were so scared that my parents urged Nonno to take a ticket for Milan where our cousin lived. Imagine someone who had never left his country taking a plane and speaking only Arabic?
He left everythng, his money, his shop, his home.
When he reached Milan Airport no one understood what he was saying.
He cried like a little boy, till finally the authorities brought over a translator. Then our cousin in Milan was contacted and came over to get him.
“I have never seen greater morons than you!” She told us later. “leaving an old man all by himself!!!”
The Kanaka is hung in front of my place when I have breakfast in my kitchen and reminds me of that dearly loved nonno.
I no longer cry now, I haven’t got any tears left in my body!
I think of Brahim serenely knowing that he is resting in Israel, that was his dearest desire.
Suzy Vidal: aka Sultana Latifa, a Jewish refugee from Egypt
Sultana latifa (suzy vidal)
A Jewish refugee from Egypt
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