eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
Editor’s note: Kaminando i Avlando, the magazine of the Asociation Aki Estamos Les Amis de La Lettre Sepharade, published in Paris since 2012, is a gem in French and a little bit of Ladino to read over again and again, full of stories, interviews, news of the Sefardic world as well as grandmothers recipes.
Its editor, Francois Azar, talks about it and his life.
Kolsefarim: What is the goal of Kaminando i Avlando?
Secondly, the magazine connects all members of the Aki Somos Association, which was founded in 1998, and its supplement La Niuz. I invite Sefardim to participate in activities such as Ladino and singing classes, gatherings, festive meals, sedarim, concerts, night activities and workshops.
FA: It circulates, mostly, in France, but we also have some subscriptions outside of France, such as universities, libraries, friends in the United States, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, Austria…
FA: Right now it is 600 copies, It was more in the past, up to 1,050 but, unfortunately, we lost a lot of friends due to illness after the pandemic as well as to old age. . .
FA: It’s difficult to answer that because we also have a digital edition, which you can read on our site, sefaradinfo.org. Many readers, about 500, read it there every month.
FA: Right now it’s free online, but you have to pay the subscriptions if you want to receive the printed copy by mail.
FA: I have been managing the magazine since 2012, that is 13 years now.
The Aki Estamos Association was born as a joint effort between associates of La Lettre Sépharade and Kaminando i Avlando, which was born when La Lettre Sépharade ceased publication.
AS: I was born in France in 1969. My late father was the first in the family to be born in France, in Paris, in 1931. His parents, my grandfather and my grandmother, belong to a Sefardic family from Esmirna [today Izmir].
My late grandmother, Matilda Benghiat, was born in the suburb of Karatash en 1900. She had Italian nationality.
My late grandfather, Isaac Azar, was born in Greece, but I don’t know exactly where. Like many Sefardic Jews, they settled in Egypt before coming to France and they got married in Egypt in 1920. My grandfather was a diamond setter like his father and many of our ancestors.
What I do remember is that they were very affectionate with me as well as my grandmother’s delicious cooking and her pleasant way of speaking French with an Oriental accent.
It was my misfortune that I didn’t learn our language with them. I learned it when I was already 40 years old in the courses of our association and in college with professor Marie-Christine Varol.
FA: First of all, it must be said that it’s very important that whatever we publish in the magazine be of high quality.That was the purpose of La Lettre Sépharade and we have to follow on the footsteps of Jean Carasso. Many of those who write in the magazine are university students or writers.
KS: The design looks very professional. Who designs it?
KS: What kind of support do the organizations that appear on the last page offer to the magazine: la Foundation pour la Memorie de la Shoah, el Fonds Social Juif Unifié, La Lettre Sépharade, la Fondation Rothschild i la Fondation de Judaisme Français?
The latest one [December 2024] features the acceptance speech of writer Paloma Diaz-Mas, a wonderful introduction to Sefardic literature in Ladino, into the Royal Spanish Academy.
We translated the speech into French in a very professional way and kept the expressions, words and Biblical verses in Ladino.
Fuente: kolsefardim.net/
