{"id":1332,"date":"2016-04-08T16:23:55","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T16:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjhblog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2016\/04\/08\/shared-sorrow-shared-survival-international\/"},"modified":"2016-04-08T16:23:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T16:23:55","slug":"shared-sorrow-shared-survival-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2016\/04\/08\/shared-sorrow-shared-survival-international\/","title":{"rendered":"Shared Sorrow, Shared Survival: \nInternational Romani Day at the Center for Jewish History"},"content":{"rendered":"

16thstreet<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

By J.D. Arden, M.L.I.S., Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Specialist, Center for Jewish History\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Image: Street Scene [Bucharest]<\/p>\n

Collection of\u00a0 Leo Baeck Institute<\/p>\n

http:\/\/access.cjh.org\/867447<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wednesday, April 8th<\/sup> is International Romani Day<\/a>,celebrating and raising awareness of the Romani people, an ethnic minority with
\nroots in Northern India who, like the Jewish people, experienced an expulsion
\nfrom their homeland hundreds of years ago, and began a subsequent diaspora
\nthroughout the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Throughout their history,
\nthe Romani suffered much of the same discrimination and persecution as Jews
\ndid. Many of the same stereotypes followed both groups in their frequent expulsions
\nand migrations through medieval Europe: allegations of stealing children, blood
\nlibels, accusations of sorcery and usurious business dealings. Both Jews and
\nRoma were subjected at times to an additional tax in various medieval empires. Both
\nJews and Roma were implicated, by religious fundamentalist rhetoric, in being
\ncursed for being responsible for the death of Jesus\u2014in the case of the Roma, for
\nsupposedly having manufactured the nails used in the Crucifixion. <\/p>\n

The Roma (referred to in the past by the inaccurate and often
\ndisparaging term \u201cGypsies\u201d) were the other main ethnicity, alongside Jews, targeted
\nby the Nazi regime for annihilation in the death camps and in unmarked mass
\ngraves.\u00a0 Many of the Romani and Jewish victims
\nperished, unaccounted for on the Eastern Front, in the wake of the Nazi
\nEinsatzgruppen<\/a> mobile killing units. The Shoah Resource Center at Yad Vashem has preserved documents
\n<\/a>detailing one of many such atrocities of this time. Efforts to document these
\nmass killing sites are being undertaken by organizations such as Yahad-In Unum<\/a> which also works to collect testimony <\/a>of Roma survivors. <\/p>\n

In the library and archives of the Center for Jewish History,
\nthe history and shared paths through national dispossession, migration and
\nsurvival of persecution and genocide are well represented in several languages.
\nIn the catalog search.cjh<\/i>.org<\/i><\/a>, the search terms \u201cRomanies\u201d or
\n\u201cRomany\u201d yield over 70 catalog results. Other examples of ethnic groups
\nrepresented in the collections of CJH partner organizations are Armenians (over
\n60 catalog results), Kurds (over a dozen catalog results), and Druze (over 10
\ncatalog results). <\/p>\n

In the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research at CJH there is a
\ngrammar book of the Romani language, explained in German, Die Sprache der
\nTranssilvanischen Zigeuner: Grammatik, Wo\u0308rterbuch<\/i> by Heinrich von
\nWlislocki (1856-1907), published in 1884. According to Professor Yaron Matras
\nof the School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures at the University of Manchester,
\nauthor of The Romani Gypsies<\/i> (2015) among other books, in some dialects
\nof the Romani language, the term for a Jew is \u201cbiboldo\u201d, meaning without-baptism<\/i>,
\nconstructed from the Indic and modern Hindi prefix bi(n), without,<\/i> and the Romani verb bold<\/i>-, meaning
\nto turn over, hence to baptize. According to other sources, other Romani
\ndialects give \u201cbiboldo\u201d the meaning of fresh<\/i> or pure<\/i>. <\/p>\n

The journey of these nations through diaspora and
\ndiscrimination has not been clear or easy, yet the fact that the Center for
\nJewish History exists and houses the cultural heritage of peoples who were
\nthreatened with genocide is a testament to survival, resiliency and
\nperseverance. Sadly, recent events in Europe and elsewhere have shown that Jews
\nand Roma are still facing a shared battle against the rise of violent attacks,
\nriots, shootings, discrimination, and neo-fascist politics. The road of this
\nshared sorrow and shared survival is not easy\u2013and although it seems not to be
\nover, we\u2019ve survived it before.<\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

A select bibliography of books at CJH related to Romani
\nhistory: <\/p>\n

A Folk\u0323 Opgerisn
\nOpgeshlisn<\/i> \/ \u05d0 \u05e4\u05d0\u05dc\u05e7 \u05d0\u05e4\u05d2\u05e2\u05e8\u05d9\u05e1\u05e0 \u05d0\u05e4\u05d2\u05e2\u05e9\u05dc\u05d9\u05e1\u05e0 by Edvard Sholok (1933,Melukhe-Farlag
\nfun Vaysrusland, Minsk, Notsektor) <\/a><\/p>\n

A History
\nof the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia<\/i> by David Crowe (1994, St.
\nMartin\u2019s Press) <\/a><\/p>\n

A Nikdo
\nVa\u0301m Nebude Ve\u030cr\u030cit: Dokument o Koncentrac\u030cni\u0301m Ta\u0301bor\u030ce Lety u Pi\u0301sku<\/a><\/i> [But
\nNobody Will Believe You: a document about the Lety Concentration Camp] by
\nMarkus Pape (1997,
\nGplusG) <\/a><\/p>\n

Bury Me Standing:
\nthe Gypsies and Their Journey<\/i> by Isabel Fonseca (1995, Knopf) <\/a><\/p>\n

Romani
\nhuman rights in Europe: hearing before the Commission on Security and
\nCooperation in Europe, One Hundred Fourth [i.e. Fifth] Congress, second session<\/i>,
\nJuly 21, 1998. <\/a><\/p>\n

Shared Sorrows:
\na Gypsy Family Remembers the Holocaust<\/i> by Toby Sonneman (2002, University
\nof Hertfordshire Press) <\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0____________________<\/p>\n

Press Statement from U.S. Department of State regarding International Roma Day: http:\/\/www.state.gov\/secretary\/remarks\/2015\/04\/240388.htm <\/a><\/p>\n

News articles about International Roma Day:
Deutsche Welle, April 8, 2013 \u201cInternational Roma Day\u201d: http:\/\/www.dw.de\/international-roma-day\/a-16727421<\/a><\/p>\n

Amnesty International, April 8, 2009 \u201cInternational Roma Day: Europe\u2019s Roma community still facing massive discrimination\u201d: http:\/\/www.fightdiscrimination.eu\/news-and-events\/international-roma-day-europes-roma-community-still-facing-massive-discrimination<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16thstreet: By J.D. Arden, M.L.I.S., Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Specialist, Center for Jewish History\u00a0 Image: Street Scene [Bucharest] Collection of\u00a0 Leo Baeck Institute http:\/\/access.cjh.org\/867447 Wednesday, April 8th is International Romani Day,celebrating and raising awareness of the Romani people, an ethnic minority with roots in Northern India who, like the Jewish people, experienced an expulsion from their homeland hundreds of years ago, and began a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,47,284,283],"class_list":["post-1332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-history","tag-j-d-arden","tag-otherethnicminoritiesrepresentedatcjh","tag-romani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}