Shavei Profile: A long journey home for Gila and Ariel Arditi, from Colombia to Jerusalem
The Arditi's study at Shavei's Machon Miriam Institute in Jerusalem
When Gila Arditi’s grandfather purchased a burial vault for his family in Colombia, he made sure that the structure faced towards Jerusalem. His daughter is now living a dream her grandfather could only have imagined, moving with her husband Ariel and their two children to Israel. Gila and Ariel now study at Shavei Israel‘s Machon Miriam Conversion and Return Institute in Jerusalem.
The path has not been a quick or easy one for the Arditi’s. The couple, who are now in their late 60s, met when they were just teenagers. Their romance had a “West Side Story” twist: Gila’s family were artisans, while Ariel had a strong agricultural background.
Unlike Tony and Maria, though, this young couple from Bogota had a shared Jewish tradition. As Bnei Anousim – people whose Jewish ancestors were compelled to convert to Catholicism more than five centuries ago – both families kept many of the Jewish holidays, fasted on Yom Kippur and lit candles for Shabbat.
Other customs Gila and Ariel kept growing up included salting their meat (a part of the process for making meat kosher), keeping separate sets of dishes for dairy and meat, washing hands before eating, and circumcising their infant boys. The families also sat “shiva” in a low chair when someone died, and they mourned for a year – the traditional Jewish practice.
Ariel’s large family – he has 9 siblings – went so far as move to a new village where the market takes place on a Sunday so they could refrain from working on the sabbath.
There were also some interesting interpretations: they divided the land into seven parts and each year let one rest (reminiscent of the Jewish law of shmita). During the Passover holiday, they ate seven different kinds of soups for each of the intermediary days.
And then there was the shofar. “Since we were young,” Ariel says,” we knew how to blow the shofar, but it wasn’t a religious thing. During the thousand day war (a civil war that rocked in Colombia from 1899-1902), we needed to communicate between places, to tell each other if there was danger. The Jews had their own special language through the shofar.”
Despite all these clues, the Arditi’s – like many Bnei Anousim – didn’t make the connection between their family traditions and Judaism until much later – when Gila’s daughter began exploring her own roots.
“We always knew we were different,” Gila says. “The people in our village told us so, but for us it was totally natural.”
Gila was delighted by the revelation that she was Jewish. “I felt like I woke up suddenly,” she explains. “That I used to walk around as if I had a blindfold on. I am so happy to know where I’m from and where I’m going to.”
The Arditi’s soon moved from the countryside to Bogota – the capital of Colombia – and on Shabbat they studied Torah. They never entered a synagogue, however, until they arrived in Israel. This was in part because the mainstream Jewish community in Bogota was less than welcoming of Bnei Anousim families, despite the intervention and recommendations by Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum. Ariel says he cried when the community rejected them.
The Arditi’s nevertheless made it to Israel with the assistance of Shavei Israel. Now living in the Jerusalem suburb of Ma’aleh Adumim, Gila and Ariel spend their afternoons learning at Shavei’s Machon Miriam Institute, which they describe as a supportive and calm environment.
“We’ve found a lot of peace through the ulpan,” Gila says. “The teachers are very humble – they really touch our souls.” Is the intense burst of learning, of Hebrew and Jewish subjects, a challenge for the couple? Of course, Gila admits. “But the sanctity of this place helps us understand better.”
The Arditi’s two children have also found their way to Israel. Their daughter – who started the whole process of Jewish discovery – is married and Gila spends her days taking care of her first grandchild. Their son served in Egypt with the Colombian army where he would pop over to Israel to visit his sister, until he decided to move here himself. Gila came to Israel first; Ariel only arrived several years later after selling their house in Colombia.
When asked about their initial impressions of Israelis, Gila jokes “they are like the four species (used during the holiday of Sukkot). There are all kinds of them, religious and not religious…” She invokes the metaphor of the cactus from which Israelis get their nickname “sabras.” “At first we thought that they were fighting all the time, but then we discovered that’s just their way of speaking and inside they are really sweet.”
The couple have become real Israelis themselves. Would they consider returning to Colombia? “No way,” says Gila. “It’s a big mitzvah to be here. The more we learn, the more we understand why we are here. How could I change this? How can I go back?”
Ariel likens their journey to Jerusalem to that of the patriarch Abraham. “He didn’t have personal or economic problems,” Ariel says. “He just came because G-d told him to come.”
Ariel’s connection to Abraham isn’t surprising: back in Colombia, the Bnei Anousim wrote their own prayer to express their deepest yearnings. It begins “G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hear our prayers and be favorable to us. Don’t be angry. Make our tears turn into happiness so we will be able to continue to praise You eternally.”
From humble roots to proud Jews, Gila and Ariel Arditi are here to stay.