Our stories give us hope in challenging times. Support JWA by Dec. 31.
Close [x]

Show [+]

In reply to by Gian Luca

Egypt is located in Africa. The Hebrew people, later called the Israelites, fled Egypt in the Exodus and were scattered after wandering in the desert for four decades.
My family has Tunisian heritage that is identified as North African on modern DNA kit tests, because Sicilian Jews were captured and brought from Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen by the Greeks in 4th century BCE to plant henna crops. Sicilian Jews are Sephardim ethnicity and Italkim sect of Judaism. Many Jews do not know their heritage because we have had to constantly flee from enemies and live in the lands of strangers, but as it is written, the child will teach the parents the way of the LORD. I am now teaching my family our lost traditions. There were always customs that we had that no one could explain, different from other Italians, such as family names (Lopresti which means the Kohanim of the Levites), eating lamb and koshering meat, women in my family covering the hair after marriage, needlework and dyeing wool, henna use for hair and skin, and carnatic singing. Some Hellenistic societal customs also remained such as music and dance.It is up to this generation of twenty year olds to keep Jewish Italkim traditions alive, and much of it requires re-learning and careful Torah study.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Donate

Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women.

donate now

Get JWA in your inbox

Read the latest from JWA from your inbox.

sign up now