Welcome back, Your Dreams Were Your Ticket Out. Pt. II

The Boy takes the news pretty hard. "Our family from here in Rhodes died in Auschwitz," he says to his Other Mama on one of our WhatsApp video calls with her. His eyes tear up as he says this. First Spain . . . now Rhodes. There is weight in this inherited history of Jewish misery. It takes its toll. He is an outsider. A Foreigner. Always was. Always will be. And now he knows this in his bones. As he lifts up the burden, his eyes are older. Serious. Tired.

But, he is full of energy. He is 14! We are here in Rhodes to solve a mystery. . . to put some pieces in place. The Boy is Up For It! Family history is a treasure hunt. Let's do this.

A quick history of Rhodes for context: The Medieval Old Town of the

City of Rhodes is a World Heritage Site. From 1309 to 1523, the Christian Knights of St John from Jerusalem occupied Rhodes. They transformed the island capital into a fortified city able to withstand numerous siege attempts. Rhodes finally fell in 1522 after a six-month siege carried out by Suleyman II. The conquest of Rhodes was a major step towards Ottoman control over the eastern Mediterranean.

Because we are traveling with a 14-year old boy, we stop in for a 3D movie the "Throne of Helios" which offers a goofy cartoon journey into the mythology and history of Rhodes. According to a brochure, the movie/ride features "sound, motion, rain, snow, wind, fire, and even smells that appeal to the senses and form great entertainment." The ride is a lot like Soarin' California at Disney California Adventure park -- only with cannonballs thrown at your face.

Awesome six-month siege Suleyman the Second! Way to hang in there against those Christian Knights! Those castle walls! Way to go Team Ottomans!

Rhodes was thereafter a possession of the Ottoman Empire for nearly four centuries. The island was populated by ethnic groups from the surrounding nations, including Jews, particularly Jews like my family who were expelled from Spain.

Under Ottoman rule, life for the Jewish community was pretty good. Muslims and Jews had a good thing going here just as they did in other parts of medieval Europe. In fact, Istanbul was a refuge city. Thousands of Spanish Jews went to Instanbul and Thessaloniki when they were banished from Spain in 1492. My family was probably among them.

To shore up our courage, we stop at a beautiful bar in the Old City built into the medieval stone walls. Rhodes is a mashup of garrish and touristy and hip and cool. This bar could be in any major city. The interior is dark wood beams with enormous ancient stonework.

Mi Madre orders a Tiki drink with passionfruit. Delicious. The Boy works the maps. These we've gotten online from the Jewish Museum of Rhodes in Los Angeles. We find a street where a number of Hassons lived. These are relatives of my great-grandmother Hannula.

The name of the street is "Calle de Los Ricos." This isn't Greek or Turkish. It's Spanish. The Jews of Rhodes were foreigners here. They named the streets in their own language. Although generations had passed since their expulsion, Spain was in their bones, just as it is in my bones. Before there was the Old Country of Rhodes, there was the Old Old Country of Spain. Spain came with them wherever they went.

The Sephardi Jews upheld their own traditions in Rhodes. They spoke Ladino in their homes, ate peculiar foods from Spain such as stewed meat, with chickpeas, onions, and cumin as well as sponge cake, and rested on Saturdays. Of course, they didn't eat pork.

It was these uniquely Jewish traditions that would have led to their deaths if they'd stayed behind in Spain. The purpose of the Spanish Inquisition was to find, torture, and kill Jews who had "converted" to Christianity (by force) but secretly honored their Jewish traditions at home. Activities in the home were closely scrutinized. In one case in 1570, Inquisitors recorded a maid testifying that she witnessed her employer cooking "mutton with oil and onions, which she understood to be the Jewish dish adafina." Another trick was to serve ham to dinner guests. If the guests wouldn't eat the ham, they were reported to the Inquisitors. Ahh Spain...

Google maps is telling us to turn left and then right to get to Calle de Los Ricos ("Street of the Rich"). (Great-grandma had to get that money for the passage to America from somewhere one supposes). I imagine clean cobblestones, richly painted doors, flower gardens, and gorgeous lamposts. What we find is different.

The street has fallen on hard times. Doors are boarded up. Windows are blown out. The map says the building on the left was a synagogue. We climb the steps to enter from the outside. The second floor is collapsed in. We can see down to the first floor. The blue sky peaks in from what remains of the roof. It looks like a bomb strike. And it probably is. Rhodes was hit heavily during WWII. Some of it hasn't recovered. This is what remains of the synagogue on Calle de los Ricos.

Just as we did in Barcelona, we find scraps of metal in the doorposts. Always to the right. These are nails that once held mezuzahs marking the homes as Jewish. Other doorways have large gauges that likely once held mezuzahs. My people were here.

We find a Hasson home. It is abandoned. The door sags in the heat. With so many Hassons living on this street and others nearby, it is difficult to say which house is The House. I touch the door and say a prayer all the same. It was a long journey to leave this town and a long journey to return to it.

To be continued...