Tag #127166 - Interview #97664 (Yasef Romano)

There were quite a lot of books in our home. When my father left for Israel, he went with the philosophy books. My older sister lived on an upper floor. He was going to Israel for surgery. My mother had died in 1986, from arteriosclerosis. My older sister prepared his bag. She put his underwear in his bag. Then my sister went upstairs, when she left, my father emptied that bag completely, and put only the philosophy books. I will take my father to the airplane, I can’t lift the bag. I ask him, “what did you put here”, he says “I put underwear”.  “Is that possible?”, I say. This is his answer: “I will not need underwear there, your older sister will find me some underwear anyways, but she cannot find these books”.

He did not stay home much, but wherever he went, he would read the same philosophy books.  “Dad, you have read this book before” I would say. “My son, I take pleasure every time I read it” he would reply. We had the Koran, Bible and Torah, all three in the house.  He would read all and interpret them for everyone.  He even provided the explanation to Muslims. He was that knowledgeable. When he left for Israel, he went with the philosophy books and he died with the philosophy books. In addition, he had a lot of books on religion. He recommended the books by Orhan Hancerlioglu to me. He enjoyed reading the newspaper a lot.