Conference on Conversos

Many Israeli companies are celebrating milestone anniversaries or are in the process of planning milestone anniversaries within the next year or two.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Aroma cafe in Tel Aviv (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Aroma cafe in Tel Aviv
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
■ THE NETANYA Municipality and the Netanya Academic College (NAC), together with its Institute for Sephardi and Anousim Studies, Keter Plastics and The Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Spanish Embassy and the Sabah Foundation have joined forces to organize an international conference that will be held on March 23 and 24 in the Tshuva Hall at NAC. It will be followed by a genealogy workshop on March 25.
The conference, under the title “Mapping the Anousim Diaspora: Six Centuries of Pushing Borders,” will inter alia deal with the phenomenology of Conversos from the 16th century to the present time in the various countries of their dispersion. The conference covers a broad range of subjects related to the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal, as well as those who converted to Christianity and their descendants who practiced certain Jewish traditions handed down from generation to generation, without always knowing the background to these traditions.
During the latter half of the 20th century, the Spanish and the Portuguese governments to some degree made amends with regard to the way their Jewish citizens had been treated. They entered into diplomatic relations with Israel and reopened their gates to Jews. In recent times, Spain and Portugal announced that they would restore citizenship to descendants of Jews who were expelled during the era of the Spanish Inquisition if they could prove their line of descent. This has led to increased interest in Spain and Portugal by descendants of Conversos, as well as descendants of those Jews who maintained their faith.
In addition to Israeli speakers at the conference, there will be academics and scholars from Spain, Portugal, Canada, Hungary, Italy and the US. There will be opening remarks by NAC President Prof. Zvi Arad; Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg- Ikar; Spanish Ambassador Fernando Carderera Soler; and former Israel ambassador to Portugal Colette Avital. Portuguese Ambassador Miguel de Almeida e Sousa will speak at the presentation ceremony of an award to Inacio Steinhardt in appreciation of what he has achieved on behalf of the Crypto Jews of Portugal.
■ MANY ISRAELI companies are celebrating milestone anniversaries or are in the process of planning milestone anniversaries within the next year or two.
Feldman’s Ice Cream company in Rehovot is celebrating its 70th anniversary.
Strauss Ice Creams is a product of the Strauss Dairy, which was founded in Nahariya in 1933, although the company did not enter into ice-cream production until the 1950s.
The Zoglowek food processing company was also founded in Nahariya in 1937. The Carmel Winery in Zichron Ya’acov was founded in 1882 by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Tnuva, the dairy products conglomerate of kibbutzim and moshavim, will celebrate its 90th anniversary next year. Jerusalem’s Neeman bakery and coffee shop chain was founded in 1944, while Angel Bakery, which now distributes in many parts of the country, was founded in Jerusalem in 1927. And Berman Bakery, which began operating in Jerusalem in 1875, celebrates its 140th anniversary this year. There are numerous other pre-state enterprises that are still going strong.
The Feldman Ice Cream Company started as a local coffee shop, the famous Kapulsky, in Rehovot during the British Mandate in 1945. The founders were Fridle (Pedya) Feldman and his wife, Bracha, and the ice cream, which was produced for local customers, soon became famous for its quality and taste. In 1963 they built their first factory in what was then Rehovot’s new industrial zone. The production plant has since expanded and provides work for more than 100 employees. Still owned by the Feldman family, the plant operates under the name of Felco and was managed by the Feldmans’ daughter Dina Shalev. Her son Shai Shalev is the company’s marketing manager, and the current general manager is Dror Eshel. Felco has grown from a small company manufacturing only for the local market to a highly successful corporation, selling ice cream all over Israel and exporting to Europe and the Americas. The quality continues to be the company’s hallmark, says Shalev. The company comes out with new products each season, and this spring is no exception.
■ GENERALLY SPEAKING, in the world of business, chain stores founded in Tel Aviv and places north of Tel Aviv eventually open branches in Jerusalem.
Among the notable exception to the rule is the chain of Aroma coffee shops, which started in Jerusalem and fanned out to the rest of the country. Aroma this week announced the opening of its 29th coffee shop in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area. The newest branch located in Jaffa proper is designed to fit in with the contemporary urban landscape.
Aroma CEO Dana Tamir says she is proud to be able to add a new, ultra-modern link to the chain. The new coffee shop was designed by Keren Ofner and was created at a total investment of NIS 1.5 million.