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April 6, 2012
Jewish traditions from Egypt
Loris Cohen shares her family’s festive menu from her childhood.
MICHELLE DODEK
When the state of Israel was established in 1948, ancient Jewish communities in Arab countries quickly began to disintegrate. There were many reasons Jews fled their homes leaving behind all they had known, fulfilling the phrase uttered at the end of the Passover seder each year, “Next Year in Jerusalem.” Some of these Jews left because of the enduring dream to live in the Holy Land and to be part of the building of the fledgling Jewish state. Many others, however, fled for their lives as refugees.
When she was just three years old, Loris Cohen left her home in Cairo, Egypt, with her parents, brother and sister. “My father told people we were going on a holiday,” she recounted. “We left with a few things and we didn’t even lock the door behind us.” She explained that her grandfather and uncle were already living in Jerusalem when Israel became a sovereign nation, and her father feared that her family would be arrested as spies for Israel if they remained in Egypt. Their exodus was not through Sinai, however, but via the port of Alexandria and then by boat to Israel.
Although they left behind all of their belongings, friends and many family members, their traditions and customs traveled with them to their new home in Jerusalem. Cohen grew up in the Katamon Gimmel area of the city, where others from Arab lands, including many Egyptian Jews, had settled. In fact, one of Cohen’s best friends growing up was the sister of the boy who would later become her husband. While she and her husband eventually came to settle in Vancouver, she said, their Egyptian roots were maintained primarily through special foods and traditions at holiday times.
Cohen recalled that her grandfather was in charge of leading the sederim of her childhood; he was the authority on traditions in the family. “We are allowed to eat kitniyot [beans and lentils, for example] during Pesach, but they are not festive so we don’t eat them.” She added, “For example, my grandfather said we don’t eat hummus because hummus and hametz are very close.” They do, however, enjoy rice, another kitniyot not eaten by Ashkenazim during the week of Pesach.
Cohen continues to prepare a number of the special foods that that she learned to prepare in her mother’s kitchen.
“I make meyina,” she gave as an example. “I wet matzah and put it in a towel for half an hour. Then I cut it into two, and fill it with ground meat that is fried with onions and spices, then fold it in two, dip it in egg and fry it. It’s delicious!”
She described two other fried, meat-filled recipes. The first was for artichoke hearts, which are filled with meat, fried and then covered in tomato sauce. The other one, called kobebbah, is a dough made from matzah meal that is formed into flat ellipses and artfully stuffed with meat, closed up and fried. “Don’t you know that the fried foods taste the best!” said Cohen happily, conceding that she only cooks like this once a year. For her family, meat and chicken, as well as vegetables, are important components of Pesach celebrations. However, for the non-meat eater, Cohen also makes a tempting-sounding potato dish, in which the potatoes are diced and thrown into a pot of water with lemon, mint, garlic, salt, turmeric and a pinch of sugar.
Aside from food dishes, Cohen said she has few other traditions surrounding the seder that are unique to the Egyptian Jewish tradition. She uses the languages of pre-Nasser (the second president of Egypt) in different ways during the seder. Having had a varied colonial past, Egyptians in the first part of the 20th century often spoke French and English in addition to their native Arabic, and Jews combined all three languages in their seder celebrations. She still sings “Had Gad Ya” in French because she learned it that way from her parents. The Arabic part of the seder is at the point at which we recite “Ha lachma anya, d’akhla avatana b’ar’a d’mitzrayim,” Aramaic for “This is the bread of affliction, which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.” At this point, Cohen explained, each member of her family takes a piece of matzah, wraps it in a napkin and places it on his/her shoulder. “We all stand up and walk around the table, asking in Arabic, ‘Where are you going?’ and the reply is always, ‘To Jerusalem!’” The rest of the seder is in Hebrew.
When Hashem sees fit, explained Cohen, she plans to fulfil the final words of the seder and join her six grandchildren in Jerusalem. Until then, she continues as a valued member of the preschool team at Vancouver Talmud Torah (VTT). Over her 36-year career as a preschool teacher there, Cohen has been a quiet contributor to the growth of the Vancouver Jewish community. She has consistently used her love of Judaism to imbue in her students a strong sense of Jewish self. Considering that a number of the teachers at VTT are her former students, including Rabbi Matthew Bellas, the school’s rabbi, it appears that her focus on Judaism is helping to build the community and its leadership. As long as she remains in Vancouver, Cohen says she will remain at VTT. However, she concluded, there will come a time when she says, “Next year in Jerusalem” at her seder and it will come true.
Michelle Dodek is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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