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The Charlotte Jewish News - October, 1995 - Page 6 Speiznian Jewish Library EantUiHl Mali Cgnttnl Albcrm Mriv RJ. C'lHintn Wulk and Vltcf ;jtions Men-Women-Childreii Henryi( & Juliana Bartnicki Hems CulTs Waisls SIccxcs Leather Silk CoUon New Zippers Am Alieraiions a Call for AnpoiiUnient (704) 537-6690 50 Years Experience Professional Tailors Graduate European With Deedee Paumit...Your Home ... as Good as Soldi When you want to sell your home, you tiee^l the best working for you. Dee^lee Paumit is as as 0old" when you want your home eo\d. Here’s why you shouU team up with her: • Your ^oals are her goals... her customer comes first • Her innovative marketing technio^ues bene fit you • Very professional and knowledgeable • Expertise in financing, merchandising, negotiating and closing Veedee Paumit is Sold on Service! RE/MAX Masters Associates 6739 Fa'wview Koad, Charlotte, NC 23210 Office: 362-5570 Home: 366-&64& m Library Hours Spei|man Jewishlibrary 15007 Provl^mce Road Charlotte, 28226 t04>366-5007 EXT. 258^ Sunday 8:30A.M. 1:00 P.M. Tuesday 11:00 A.M.12:15 P.M. 2:00 P.M. - 5:45RM. Wednesday 7:00 P.M.9:00 RM. Thursday 11:00 A.M.12:15RM. 2:00 PM. 5:45 P.M. . Closed Monday Friday Saturday ibrary hours change when the Religious Schools are not in $ession Peofde Protection in our Parks, Sell Old Convention Center, Sell Old Coliseum, Exf)bre Light Rail, Consolidated City County Gvl, Thoughtful Zoning and Land Manning, Ample Police Protection, Safer Neighborhoods... y Paid lor by Tht Al lKaBt...lltallmne!lenar ^ Accessible n ^ Experienced ✓ Businessman ^ 4 years Mayor Pro Tern ^ Attentive Andre Aciman On Sunday, Decemt>er 10,1995, the Charlotte chapter of Hadassah, the Spelzman Jewish Library, and the Jewish Community Center will host Professor Andre Aciman as guest speaker at the annual Book & Author Evening. We are pleased to introduce the author of Out of Egypt to the Charlotte Jewish community. Professor Aciman will provide us with a unique and colorful glimpse into the now vanished world of Jews in Arab lands. His book will be available for purchase at the JCC front desk. The following excerpted article appeared in the February 3,1995 issue of the Forward. Amalia Warshenbrot, Librarian, Spelzman Jewish Library Suzanne Cannon, Publicity Chair Book & Author Evening Aciman's Exodus By Douglas Century VALUE IS JUST THE BEGINNING 1995 C-Class Selling As Low As $29,900 1995 E-Class Selling As Ixnv As $39,900 BECK iMPCsas OF THE C AKOLINAS ttclmnvrlj) Metfr^et-grmz 5141 E. INDEPENDENCE BLVD. CHARLOTTE. NC 535.6400 Out of Egypt is at once an el egy lost Jewish culture and a satire of one singularly cosmopolitan Sephardic family. “People have said that there’s something *magi- car about the Alexandria I write about, “ says author Andre Aciman. “But it's really not Alexandria that’s magical — it’s the act of re membering Alexandria that be comes magical. That’s why every chapter in the book ends with the notion that memory is, after all, th^ most important thing.” “Judaism is founded on the idea of remembering, and re-re membering, and remembering that you should not forget — that’s what makes us Jewish, I think.” “The model you cannot ignore, of course, is Marcel Proust, “ Aciman continues. “He not only shows you how memory works, but he also talks about memory quite a lot. It becomes impossible to sepa rate the two.” Mr. Aciman writes with re markable acuity and honesty about his family foibles, from his father’s extramarital affairs to the roguish adventures of his Uncle Vili (at various times, a soldier in Kaiser Wilhelm’s army, an ardent admirer of Mussolini and a British agent who spied on the Israelis and was rewarded for his efforts with a country estate in Surrey, on which he spent the rest of his life under the assumed name of Dr. H.M. Spingam. Asked how he managed to write so candidly about his living relatives, Mr. Aciman says: “You can’t always be totally honest, but you have to give enough of the truth to let people know that this is real. My way of operating is to expose them with their pants down and then to give them back something so that they can be human.” “I bad to fight against the stream,” Mr. Aciman says. “I wanted to produce a very lyrical Al exandria, because I think about Alexandria with a great deal of el egy. On the other hand, I had to keep in mind the farcical aspects of what goes on in our family.” “In Egypt you had a very large Jewish community,” Mr. Aciman relates. “Since the Sephardic com- nuinity was so huge, within them selves they had many rivalries.” Such petty distinctions mattered little to the Arab authorities, who began a campaign of anti-Semitic persecution under Nasser until, by 1971, there were only 400 Jews left in Egypt. Still, despite their years of exile, the plight of Egyptian Jews has gone largely unchronicled. One of the most poignant mo ments Out of Egypt depicts a final Passover before the family’s depar ture from Alexandria, when 14- year-old Andre flees the seder table and goes down to the seafront to envision the life he will forge for himself in the West. “Exile is the one thing that is fundamentally Jewish,” Mr. Aciman says now, some 30 years after that last Alexandrian night. “However, it’s no fun being in ex ile. I wouldn’t wish it on my own sons; on the other hand, I wish they had some of it, because it would give them a sense of depth, to know that you won’t always have this permanent address. It’s this sense of insecurity that gives you what I call the irony of God; a God who’s not ironic is of no use to Jews.” Of his former life in Alexan dria Aciman says, “I don’t really miss it. It was an awful time to live really.” But even as he praises his new-found home, the ambivalence of exile creeps into Mr. Aciman’s language. “You know, there’s a wonderful moment in the Bible in which the people say, ‘I miss the garlic of Egypt,’ because they didn’t have garlic in the wilderness. I’m grateful and happy to be in America — but clearly some sense of life stopped for n^e when I left Alexandria." Reprinted wit Ulthonzalion of the Fonn'ard
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