Rabbi Nissan Ben Avraham’s story
Nissan Ben Avraham is the name of a Rabbi who was born in Palma, where he was baptized as is the custom in every good “Apostolic and Roman Catholic” home, and given the name Nicolas Aguilo. He came on Aliya 26 years ago because “if after 600 years I could not overcome the stigma of my being a Jew, why shouldn’t I be a Jew?”
Yesterday, after an absence of 12 years , Nissan Ben Avraham came face to face with his city of birth to relate his personal story: From Palma to Israel, at a one-day seminar organized by Shavei Israel on the components of the Chueta’s identity and their historical link with the Jewish people.
“I was about ten years old when the children at school cursed me for being a Xueta. I then discovered that to be a Xueta was something awful even though I did not succeed in understanding why. I did not know if the meaning of that word was being a Jew or not. I did not understand the meaning of the Anous nor did I absorb the reaction of others to this phenomenon,” he explained.
Despite it all, Nissan Ben Avraham did not lose his sense of humor, the ability to joke and make someone laugh. That’s what the “Arca” community did, as he relates about his meeting with his family: “My aunt said to me, ‘My son, why don’t you please take your small cap off your head? She said this because to be a Jew in Palma was still a mark of disgrace. I can only tell you that my appearance symbolizes one who wishes to cease fleeing, of one who wishes to free himself from the Jewish sign that the Inquisition placed upon the Jewish converts.”
Nissan Ben Avraham’s personal story begins “when I was very young and wanted to get to know Jewish history and culture, something that was quite difficult in Palma. When I turned to the libraries and asked for a book about the Jews, they always gave me the Bible. In my father’s library, I found a book on Jewish history but he himself warned me: ‘My son, do you really believe in what is written in the Gospels?’
In spite of that, in his house everyone carried on according to the rules of silence: “No members of my family ever spoke about our being Xueta’s. This fact was never mentioned and we never behaved according to any Jewish custom. There weren’t any explanations either. The silence was absolute. But I wanted to know. I give thanks to God every day that I am what I am.”
The crucial moment in his life came when he faced the dilemma whether to “continue to live the good life, without problems, as Nicolas Aguilo, or take a step forward and change the important things in my life. That is what I did. I made Aliya to Israel 26 years ago and today I am a schoolteacher.
Nissan is happy with his lot as a Xueta and defends this term: “The question isn’t whether it is good or not, to use this word or not. The point is that if I weren’t a Xueta, nothing that happened to my life would have taken place. I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to develop and get to where I am.