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It's Not Just 10, Pal
It's 10 Plus 603 More
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Q: Are Jews either only
Ashkenazi or Sephardi?
A: Although most
Jews today are
Ashkenazi, the vast
majority of non-
Ashkenazim are not
Sephardi.
Strictly speaking,
the term Sephardi
refers only to Jews
descended from the
Jews of Spain and
Portugal (Sephard is
the Hebrew word for
Spain). Sephardim
have their own litur-
gy, traditions, cus-
toms, food and
language (Judeo-
Spanish, also known
as Ladino and
Judesmo).
The Edict of Ex-
pulsion of 1492
forced all Jews un-
willing to convert to
Christianity to leave
Spain. (Portugal ex- Two dalicers in their native Yemenite garb: It's not all
pelled its Jews in Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
1497.) Because of
forced conversions
they came to dominate the com-
decades earlier, many Jews al- m-unity.
ready had left Spain. They set-
Other non-European Jewish
tled throughout the communities are neither Sephar-
Mediterranean region in coun- di nor Ashkenazi: Syria,
tries like Italy, Albania, Serbia, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, In-
Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Eretz dia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Bukhara.
Yisrael and north Africa. Some Nonetheless, "Sephardi" has be-
also went to Holland and even come a convenient term for non-
eastern Europe. Yet in all the Ashkenazi — especially in Israel
countries in which the — and many Jews neither
Sephardim settled, they found Ashkenazi nor Sephardi simply
long-established Jewish com- refer to themselves as Sephardi.
munities, in many cases much
Q: Did any notorious Jewish mur-
older than the communities in
Spain. For example, the Italian derers attend the University of Michi-
and native Greek Jewish com- gan?
A:Isn't it wonderful to be able
munities predate by centuries
Spanish Jewry. In some coun- to count Richard Loeb among
tries (such as Greece), however, your alumni?
U-M graduate Richard Loeb
so many Sephardim arrived that
and his best buddy Nathan
Leopold were at the center of the
most sensational murder case of
1924. Both were brilliant, young
and Jewish.
Loeb was 18, the son of a
wealthy Chicago businessman.
Leopold, 19, graduated from the
University of Chicago and also
came from a prominent Chica-
go family. Both spent many
months in Michigan, vacationing
at their family summer homes in
Charlevoix.
In the early 1920s, Leopold
and Loeb began plotting what
they thought would be "the per-
fect crime," with no one able to
identify the murderers. They kid-
napped and killed a neighbor, 14-
year-old Robert Franks.
Leopold and Loeb might have
gotten away with it were it not
for Leopold's prescription glass-
es, found at the scene of the
crime. The two young men also
wrote ransom notes (though Bob-
by already was dead) which lat-
er were traced to Leopold's
typewriter.
Famed attorney Clarence Dar-
row defended Leopold and Loeb,
who were sentenced to life plus
99 years (later the title of
Leopold's autobiography).
The court recommended the
two never be released — which
proved to be the case for Richard
Loeb (believed to be the one who
actually murdered Bobby). In
1936, a fellow inmate stabbed
and killed Loeb, with lurid details
of the incident filling popular de-
tective magazines of the time.
Nathan Leopold, however,
spent most of his life in prison,
where he helped found a corre-
spondence school and learned to
speak 27 languages. He was
paroled in 1958 and settled in
Puerto Rico. In 1971, he died of
a heart ailment.
Q: Are there only 10 command-
ments in the Torah?
A: Judaism enumerates 613
commandments in the Torah.
They are divided into 248 pre-
scriptions and 365 proscriptions
("thou shalt" and "thou shalt not")
and into those regarding the re-
lationship between humans and
God and those involving inter-
personal behavior. The number
613, as applied to the mitzvot,
is known by the Hebrew acronym
taiyag.
The Ultimate
in Comfort
For Those Who
Demand The Best!
811L MANN
West Bloomfield • On the Boardwalk • Orchard Lake Rd.
Just South of Maple • 626-3362
Mon.-Weds. & Sat. 10-7; Thurs. & Fri. 10-9; Sun. 12 5
-
Clarence Darrow with Leopold (left) and Loeb.
Send questions to "Tell Me Why"
c/o The Jewish News, 27676
Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI
48034. Questions also may be
faxed, 354-6069.