Tag #127157 - Interview #97664 (Yasef Romano)

My father Yuda Romano, was born in Edirne in 1905.  My father first started to work as a secretary in the Edirne Jewish community. Later on he became a rabbi. But you cannot call that being a rabbi exactly.  He worked as a philosophy teacher in Alliance Israélite Universelle [2] in Edirne which was a foreign school. He taught philosophy classes in French. He raised a lot of students. The students he raised constantly came to visit him. He had another job also. My father started commerce, but he continued with the community work. He was serving as Grand Rabbi also.

He worked as a cantor too. But he could not open the Sefer Torah as a cantor. Why: We managed a store together.  I opened the store on Saturdays.  And since he was my business partner, he said: “We sin on Saturdays, I cannot open the Sefer Torah in the synagogue on Saturday”.  But he raised important rabbis.  He had more knowledge than rabbis. My mistake towards him was to open the business on Saturdays. Until he died, on Saturdays he neither touched electricity, nor warmed up food. He was excessively orthodox, he would not let others shop on Saturdays even, and he wouldn’t talk to us.  He was very angry with us for opening the store. But it was not possible to close the store in Edirne.

He was a very social person in Edirne. They would meet every Saturday at 10.00 a.m. in a wine store. But the wine seller was an important Jewish philosopher named Israel Reytan. He would open his store only when the mayor pasha came on Saturdays.  He would have philosophical talks with the mayor, pasha and head of municipality of Edirne. Sometimes they took me too. I remember this very well.  Sometimes they would meet in a library, open the books, and do their own interpretations.  He died in 1988.