Zikrayat by Nayra Atiya;

Author:Nayra Atiya; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 2)
Published: 2020-06-02T21:00:00+00:00

4

Mimi

Meeting Mimi

I met Mimi at a dinner held by one of the members of the Jewish community I had befriended. She was visiting from Paris and actually looked very French in her perfectly tailored dinner suit, her pearls twined with antique beads, which I later found out she collected, designing and making the necklaces herself. She was tall and slender, her eyes slightly upturned, her small ‘Parisian’ nose perfectly powdered and a trace of pink on her lips. There was something feline about Mimi. Her smile was friendly yet discreet, her hands small and neat, nails buffed with no polish. She had fine blonde hair, worn in a French twist into which she had fixed a narrow silver comb. “Stylish,” I thought when we were introduced. “Interesting,” I thought after our first conversation. I made a mental note to ask her if she might have time during her visit to New York to meet with me, and if she would allow me to record her memories of Egypt. She was hesitant, but agreed when she found out that some of her friends were participating in this oral-history project. She was exceptional among this group, as she had learned and spoke Arabic. She had also done a lot of volunteer work in Egypt, and in so doing had interacted with a variety of needy women and children. As a result, she had gained a depth of experience members of her privileged class often lacked. I was eager to record her story.

I soon found out that she was a woman of few words, but spoke vividly, as you shall see.

Mimi tells her story

In the early part of the twentieth century, my parents, Chaim and Ana, left their native Russia on board a ship bound for South America. They had signed on with the Jewish Colonization Association, an organization created in 1891 by Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a German Jewish financier and philanthropist who dedicated himself and his resources to improving the lives of oppressed Jews living in Asia, Europe, and Russia. My parents were among this group. The association offered opportunities to thousands, safely removing them from homelands where they were increasingly at risk, facing ever-increasing restrictions, persecution, and death.

I did some research about the association and found the charter in which their stated goal was to “assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any parts of Europe or Asia, and principally from countries in which they may for the time being be subjected to any special taxes or political or other disabilities, to any other parts of the world, and to form and establish colonies in various parts of North and South America and other countries for agricultural, commercial, and other purposes.”

When Baron de Hirsch died in 1896, the organization continued to aid Jews under the direction of his widow, Clara, and other like-minded philanthropists. The safe removal of Jews was still taking place without resistance from government authorities.

Chaim and Ana were newlyweds when they emigrated. They boarded a ship

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