Hebron
Stories. The title alone beckons the viewer to question. What period
in Hebron's long history? And whose stories?
In fact, this volume of stories written
by Yitzhaq Shami, has the underpinnings of Shami's roots in Hebron but is
actually a greater reflection on Shami's observance of life in Hebron, Damascus,
Tiberias, Haifa, Bulgaria and Ekron. While the stories reflect the issues
of the times they also transcend time, which is often the mark of a great
story teller.
Shami manages to paint vivid scenery
with his use of words. The reader quickly develops a picture of the Sephardic-Jewish
community which existed surrounded by their Arab neighbors in the first part
of the twentieth century.
Born in 1888, Shami spoke Ladino with
this mother and Arabic with his father. At the age of 17 he began studying
in Jerusalem. It was there that Shami broadened his horizons, meeting pioneers
who immigrated to Palestine from Eastern Europe. He became a teacher, specializing
in Arabic language, literature and history. Shami died in Haifa, at the
age of 60, in 1949. While he lived to see his dream of an independent Israel
come true, he was also greatly troubled be the cost to the Arab refugees of
Jewish independence.
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