One Family Four Cultures and Four Continents

This fascinating book One Family Four Cultures Four Continents by Asher Elkayam depicts the adventures of a child growing up in Morocco and goes through political and historical events which happened in his childhood and focused on a pivotal 1956.Mr. Elkayam writes about the beauty of childhood and the innocence thereof the neighborhood the nature the education the typical things which happened then but could never be repeated.In an emotional way he describes the influence of his parents who were among the guardians of Jewish tradition. Asher describes the survival of a small minority of North African Jewry. Having been originally targeted by the Nazi regime which expanded its grip to North Africa during the 1940’s including French Morocco that minority of Jews of North Africa was saved by the arrival of the American forces during World War Two who landed in Casablanca the author’s city of birth.The North African Jewry which totaled nearly 400000 was thus saved from the Nazi threat but it remained to witness the rest of the Nazi atrocities throughout the rest of Europe until 1945.It seemed on the other hand that that the Jewish minority in North Africa had nothing to show for but its faith and its determination to realize the dream of seeing the Holy Land after 2000 years of exile.On another note with fervor and enthusiasm Asher describes the friendship which local Jews developed with the Muslim population in Morocco and other parts of North Africa.Asher wants to make sure his readers understand that there is a divide between friendship and politics. The overwhelming majority of his neighbors were friendly and unthreatening. However those in the small minority who became active in politics were behind the forces which eventually caused Asher’s family and thousands more to look for a safe exit from his native land.Whether the events which led to a massive exodus from North Africa represented a coincidental circumstance in current events or whether they were caused by some divine intervention would remain for a long time a thing historians could decide on one day.