Personal Stories

Taken from a JIMENA interview in December, 2010 about San Francisco’s Magain David SynogogueWhat is your background, where did you come from?My family is from Morocco. My two grandfathers were prominent rabbis in Jerusalem. My grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel Ezran Shalom, was head of the Rabbinical Court of North African Jewry in Jerusalem and my other grandfather, Ha’Rav Yosef Shlush was also very active in the Moroccan and North African community in Jerusalem.

JIMENA Kohn Intern, Gina Levy interviewed internationally acclaimed performing artist, choreographer, and dance instructor Miriam Peretz in the summer of 2009.Why did you choose to pursue a career in Middle Eastern dance, as opposed to other more popular types of dance?

Imagine a frightened six-year-old girl trying to catch her balance in the stifling and cramped hold of a violently tossing ship. She is not alone on the turbulent sea – her parents and sibling are nearby. But fear is in the air, along with the sight and smell of terrible sickness. The child understands little about her circumstances.

I am a Middle-East refugee. I am celebrating my Jubilee year as it is now fifty years since I was smuggled out of Morocco with 500 other Jewishchildren. At that time Jews could not freely leave Morocco. We were second-class citizens even though our families had lived there for centuries. My family came to Morocco over 500 years ago from Spain.