Jewish-Mexican artist, cantor to share aspects of unique cultural, religious heritage
BOULDER — Daniel Aizenman, a designer for an architectural firm in Boulder, was raised in a Jewish home and attended a Jewish school from kindergarten through high school.
That news does not surprise people. The fact that he was born and raised in Mexico City does, he said — both Jews and non-Jews alike.
“The fact that I am Mexican and Jewish ... is sort of a rare find for them, I guess,” said Aizenman, who will speak on a panel for an event this Sunday, “JewMex: The Sights, Sounds and Tastes of Jewish Mexico” at the Boulder Jewish Community Center, 3800 Kalmia Ave. in Boulder.
“People are sometimes surprised at what a vibrant small Jewish community has been in Mexico. It’s certainly an opportunity to shine a light on a corner of history that has not been well-illuminated,” said program director Kathryn Bernheimer.
The event will feature music, art, food and a film about this blended population, born out of Jewish immigrants from Europe and the Middle East who settled in Mexico during the 20th century.
Bernheimer said she wanted to highlight this pocket of the Jewish community after seeing Isaac Artenstein’s film “Tijuana Jews,” first lauded at film festivals in 2005 and which will be shown at the conclusion of the event Sunday.
“When I first saw the film, I was fascinated with this topic,” she said. “Often one of our interests here at the JCC is ‘Jews around the world’ and the various religious and cultural manifestations of Judaism.”
The event will include a concert by cantor Robert Micha’el Esformes, nationally known for Ladino music.
“Ladino” is a Judeo-Spanish hybrid language, experiencing a minor revival, especially in music.
Esformes called Ladino a “quaint” language, likening it to Elizabethan English that, though used in small pockets of communities from Florida to Israel, is dying out.
“I’m one of the few of my generation who use the language, though not conversationally. For the generations after me, it will be virtually nonexistent,” he said.
Esformes was planning to be in the Boulder area for a conference this week when he called the Boulder JCC to see about performing.
On guitar, Esformes sings ballads and love songs from both the Eastern and Western European traditions of Sephardic culture.
“It’s a rare, yet beautiful, repertoire,” he said.
“JewMex” also will feature an art show and reception with artist Carmen Epstein, a Jewish Mexican who is the proprietor of Mamacitas in Boulder.
Epstein grew up in Mexico, where her Jewish heritage was kept secret in their predominantly Roman Catholic farming community, she said, for fear of persecution. In fact, her family even attended the local Catholic church.
“If someone found out you were a Jew, they told you that you killed Jesus Christ,” she explained. “I never knew it was OK to be called Jewish.”
At home, her grandmother passed on the oral histories of their Jewish background, so Epstein was familiar with the rituals when she met and fell in love with a Jewish American medical student studying in Mexico.
Her late husband was openly Jewish, which was quite a shock to her, Epstein said. But he taught her to embrace Judaism, and together they practiced their faith and later raised their children in the Jewish tradition.
She said multicultural events like JewMex remove intimidation and replace it with a celebration of faith and history.
“We shouldn’t have to hide our heritage or who we are, our identities,” she said.
