"A superb and touching book about the
frailty of ties that hold together places and people."
- The New York Times Book Review

His­to­ri­an Sarah Abre­vaya Stein chron­i­cles the sto­ry of this Sephardic Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty by trac­ing the his­to­ry of the Levy fam­i­ly. Their ances­tors had been expelled from Spain at the end of the fif­teenth cen­tu­ry, and like so many of their com­pa­tri­ots, trav­elled east, set­tling in regions of the Ottoman Empire where they lived for cen­turies. The Levys had made their home in Saloni­ca, and through their sto­ry, Stein writes about the Jews of Saloni­ca, the city once known
as the Jerusalem of the Balkans.

Read more about & purchase Family Papers HERE!

About the Guest Speaker
Dr. Maria Esformes is professor emeritus of Literature and Languages from the University of South Florida. Dr. Esformes was born in Athens, Greece where her parents were members of the once rich and thriving Sephardic Jewish community of Salonika, Greece. She was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Athens, Greece, where she wrote an anthology of the Judeo-Spanish folklore of the Greek Sephardim. Dr. Esformes will share with us her family experience as a Sephardic Jew in Greece before WWII and the richness of the Sephardic folklore and traditions.

Please note: your zoom link will be emailed to you after registering. Those who have already registered for this event were emailed a Zoom link in an email on Tuesday, January 17. If you have already registered for this event but have not received the email containing the Zoom link, please call the Congregation Beth Shalom office at (727) 531-1418.