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Our journeys to reclaim the past

January 7, 2016 12:58
The ceremony in Rhodes reignited interest in the island's Jewish heritage

By

Nadine Wojakovski,

Nadine Wojakovski

4 min read

When Nicci and Neal Menashe started planning their daughter Raquel's batmitzvah, there was only one possible destination. The South African couple, who live in London, knew that the weekend of celebrations, in honour of their eldest child, had to take place in the island of Rhodes, Greece - home to Raquel's great-grandmother Rachel, and her ancestors. The family had lived there peacefully for 450 years before abruptly fleeing in 1939, never to return.

But what started off as a weekend of celebrations, turned into the realisation that re-affirming the past in a city that had been decimated by the Nazis, could not be a one-off event, done only in honour of a celebration. Instead, it confirmed a plan to do it again and again for a weekend - to resurrect other Nazi-invaded cities and experience life as it was once for the Jews, before their vibrant communities were wiped out.

The Rhodes batmitzvah gave guests an authentic feeling of how life back then really was. Raquel's great-grandmother, Rachel Amato, was born in Rhodes in 1907. One of seven children, she grew up in the Jewish quarter of the medieval old city.

A brilliant, creative student, she recited poetry, played the violin, and spoke seven languages. When she married Papu Netanel in 1934 he built her a beautiful home on the island's Mount Smith, a stone's throw away from the Rhodes Acropolis. In this idyllic setting, surrounded by olive trees and overlooking the sea, she raised her son. The island was by then an Italian colony, ruled by Mussolini, who enforced Hitler's anti-Jewish laws. The family were warned to escape quickly, and fled in 1939, along with 2,000 other Jews. Rachel and her family eventually settled in South Africa.