When I arrived in MIami to do postgraduate work in Endocrinology, one of my colleagues at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital was a Panamanian Jew by the name of Abouganem. I was told that it is an ancient arabic custom of surname, Abou meaning Father or Owner and Ghanem meaning land or prosperity. Apart from the fact that the name was of Moroccan jewish origin I did not know much more. I still maintain contact with Daniel Abouganem MD of Panama and he was quite thrilled to find out about my visit to Essaouira in Morocco!
My grandfather migrated from there to go to Safed in Israel to study to become a Rabbi.. His son, Daniel's father had gone to Panama as had many mizrachi jews at that time and met his mother of Cuban Sefardic ancestry from Cienfuegos. I told him I had met Joseph Sebag the bookseller of Mogador (the ancient name for Essaouira). Things became much more familiar.
To my jewish family, do not these voices touch your heart? Please do not forget the Moroccans are our brothers.
When I visited the Amazonian city of Iquitos, I was surprised to see Jewish names on some of the buildings now converted into supermarkets and such, COHEN prominently over the entrance of a supermarket.
The Ashkenazy migration to this part of the world is documented, Koblenz a German Jew was the first jew to settle down in Iquitos.
But in the last 20 years there has been an increased interest in some young people of Iquitos to find out more about their Jewish roots. At the height of the Rubber Boom in the early part of the 20th century a group of Moroccan Jews arrived at the mouth of the Amazon and spread interior, becoming traders and establishing themselves. Since there were no jewish communities or brides to be had, they married natives along the Amazon River and it is the grandchildren of these immigrants who are being transported to Israel, converted halachically and integrated into the Israeli life in Ramle.
I have a friend in Iquitos, Sami, whose father or grandfather migrated from the Austro-Hungarian empire to Peru. It was very pleasant to spend time with him and get to know the jewish history of Iquitos. We also visited the Jewish cemetery of Iquitos. Many of the Sefardi names were in display.
On the right hand bottom photo one sees CASA DE HIERRO. the house of Iron, purported to have been designed by Gustav Eiffel at the height of the Rubber Boom. If you ever see the movie Fitzcarraldo you can see a lot about Iquitos and its environs and the ship the name sake is moored in Iquitos.
(the photos of Iquitos taken from a presentation by Rita Saccal)
The third personal morocco jewish connection include the family of my younger brother in Israel who on his fathers side is descended from Sefardim expelled from Spain at the end of the 15th century. His lineage includes the name Azulay and also some well known Moroccan Rabbis!
It all meant that walking along the Mellah in Marrakech all our souls come together . Am Israel Chai.
