The story began a long time ago..In Tetouan, Morocco, my great great grandfather, Solomon Benzakin, was the chief rabbi in 1950. There was a law created saying citizens could not leave Morocco; my great great grandfather at the time was in charge of making birth certificates, so he made fake certificates for Jewish people to escape and those people went from Morocco to Israel. He had connections to the military, so the chief of the military came to him and told him that they found out what he was doing and were going to arrest and kill him; They told him to leave by the morning with his family. He packed a big suitcase in which he put all his gold and took a boat to to Spain. He was wealthy at the time. Spain received notice from Morocco to arrest him, but Spain had a law that if someone was traveling by boat they could not arrest him. Therefore, he and his family remained safely on the boat. He had a niece who was at the time a nurse to the president in Argentina, so he sent a letter to her asking the president to sign a special letter allowing them in. It was sent via telegraph from Spain and took 30 days to get to Argentina. Thankfully, when they arrived, they were welcomed in. Once in Argentina they opened a womans clothing shop and sold fabric. In 1979 my Mom was born and moved to Monroe New York in 1987. |