5 minute read
Famous Jewish
FAMOUS JEWISH PERSONALITIES OF OUR TIME VIDAL SASSON OBE
Vidal Sassoon was born in 1928 to poverty in the East End, spending 7 years of his life in an orphanage. He became a leading hairdresser to high society, his innovative style made him famous and earned him the title “Father of modern hairdressing” Apart from his hairdressing business he founded a chain of worldwide hairdressing academies and a global business of selling hair products. He left school at 14. Having hoped to become a professional football player, but instead became apprenticed to the famous society hairdresser Raymond in Mayfair. He opened his first salon in 1954. His name became synonymous with the swinging sixties culture of models, film stars and society figures. He fought for Israel in the 1948 War of Independence becoming a member of the Palmach. The Palmach was originally founded in 1941 by the Haganah High Command to defend the Palestinian Jewish Community, by 1948 when he joined it had over 2000 men and women in 3 fighting brigades. After the creation of the Israeli Army it was disbanded.
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He sold his business interests in the early 80’s and moved to California, devoting the rest of his life to philanthropy both of Jewish interests and the “Arts”. In 1962 he founded the Vidal Sasson Center for Study of Anti-Semitism at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which is known worldwide for funding research and monitoring anti-Semitism activities. He was married 4 times and had 4 children and died in 2012. His legacy apart from his philanthropic interests is he will be remembered for changing the style of hairdressing from an artificial backcombed and lacquered look to more a more natural look.
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Having just returned from Crete I thought I would share with you the tragic story of the remaining Shul on the island and its lost Romaniote Jewish culture.
Chania is Crete’s 2nd city and was once the capital. It is in the north of the island and has a very old Venetian harbour and old town where the synagogue is found down a little cobbled street. You ring a bell and enter through a small door into a courtyard, where you are greeted by volunteers who look after and explain about the history of the shul and people.
Moving through a doorway on your left you enter the Shul. The Ark is on the east wall behind an Indian designed curtain. Inside are two sefer torahs.One from Cairo and the other from Prague. Affixed to either side are two sets of Rimonim (scroll handle decorations. These were based on an older, discarded pair that were found during the excavations. To the right on the west wall was the Bimah, this is in keeping with Romaniote traditions as opposed to normal orthodox traditions which locate the Bimah in the centre. Wooded pews were arranged either side against the north and south walls with cushions, it was designed to enable the congregation to reach out and tough the Torah as it was brought from the Ark to the Bimah and back again. Behind the green and blue curtain on the south wall is a cupboard in which the kiddush cup and other religious items are stored. This curtain was designed by Nikos Stavroulakis who I will mention later. Up a little wooded staircase you will find the gallery for ladies.
Leaving the shul through the courtyard is found the Mikvah which after excavation is one of the oldest functioning to be found in Greece. It is fed by an underground spring and is extremely cold. Outside there is also a small cemetery with 4 graves of rabbis from 1710 to 1848. In the street nearby is a Café called the Synagogue Café, nothing to do with the shul but was the site of the original Talmud Torah school.
The shul is a memorial to the Romaniote community whose language was Judeo Greek. Before WW11 there were several shuls in the island but now only Etz Hayyim. On
the 29th May 1944 the whole Jewish population on the island were arrested and imprisoned and were put on a ship called Tanias at Heraklion with 500 Greek and Italian prisoners of war enroute to the death camps in mainland Europe. However, the boat was struck by two torpedoes from a British ship on the 9th June 1944 at 3am, wiping out the entire Jewish population of Crete after 2300 years. There were 7 Jews who managed to escape for various reasons, but unfortunately the sole survivor still alive now was not brought up in the Jewish religion or culture.
In the 50 plus years since the Germans left leaving it it ruins, and a subsequent earthquake, the restoration has been achieved by a remarkable man Nikos Stavroulakis who presented a paper at a conference held by the World Monuments Fund and Jewish Heritage Program and it was named as on of the World’s 100 most endangered monuments of international cultural concern. Restoration was begun in 1998.
Services are held in the Shul every Shabbat, and all are welcome from ultra-orthodox to the non-observant and even non-Jews. On Shabbat morning there are rarely enough for a Minyan, but the holidays and festivals are celebrated. In keeping with Greek-Jewish custom communal fish Meal is held every erev Rosh Hashanah and sometimes to break the fast on Yom Kippur.
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