The Syrian community in Brooklyn has a 100-year history, and author Sarina Roffe has captured it and more in her book “Branching Out From Sepharad”. Her ambitious and deeply researched book traces two rabbinic dynasties with roots in Syria well beyond 100 years ago. She begins at 12th-century France and follows the rabbinic dynasty to Spain, through the 1942 expulsion, to Syria, Jerusalem and finally to Brooklyn.
Roffe primarily traces the genealogies of two rabbinic families, the Kassins and the Labatons. She shows their genealogical relationship in Spain prior to the 1943 expulsion. The book also includes photographs of the castlesthat the Labatons and Kassins lived in while in Valladolid in Spain. She shows that many Syrian Jewish communities today had Converso ancestors, who converted to Catholicsm in order to remain in Spain after 1492, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled Jews. Many Spanish families who arrived in Aleppo had been Conversos in order to dissolve their businesses in Spain before leaving. They kept their Judaism secret and returned to open Judaism when they left.
The book includes more than 100 photos and as many documents and letters. In addition, chapters include research on the term Sephardic Jew, Genealogy in the Torah and Sephardic Naming Practices. In the chapter on Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish Community, Roffe writes the 100-year history of the borough’s community, discussing the sociological impact of careers, philanthropy, traditions and educational beliefs as they changed during the century.
According to Rabbi Sam Kassin, Dean of Shehebar Sephardic Center, “The families have now spread all over the world — branching out — into a global community. This work shows insight into the personal side of rabbinic families and humanizes them. Roffe has provided Sephardic Jewish communities, and the thousands of family descendants, with the foundation for their own family history.”
Roffe herself was born to Syrian-Jewish parents and was raised in the heart of Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community. Passionate about Sephardic history and the assimilation and acculturation of Jews in America, the Ottoman Empire and other related subjects, Roffe is an internationally recognized expert in the history of Syrian Jews in America. She is president of the Sephardic Heritage Project, a nonprofit organization identifying Sephardic sources for use in genealogical research. The project has identified and produced numerous databases based on rabbinical records, including cemetery, marriage and brit milah records. The board of directors includes scholars in the field of genealogy who represent many countries.
Roffe has also published a cookbook, “Backyard Kitchen: Mediterranean Salads,” which is a tribute to her grandmother, Esterina Cohen Salem, the first caterer in the Syrian-Jewish community. Salem Caterers had its kitchen in the backyard garage of their Bensonhurst home.
Both “Branching Out From Sepharad” and “Backyard Kitchen: Mediterranean Salads” are available on Amazon. Proceeds benefit the Sephardic Heritage Project.