❤ A New Year’s Celebration; A Legacy of the Artist, the Party Maker and the Intellectual

On New Year ’s Day, we went to the Greek Club. We got there late. The garden and building were beautifully lit, in blue and white lights, yet the door to the compound was locked. The Greek community building looked dark. What had happened, Elias and I wondered?

I started making phone calls. First, I called the Head and living soul behind the Greek community of Jerusalem, Anastas Damianos. Anastas’ line was busy. Then called Betty Klein, the New York-born, Columbia-educated, neighbor and singer of Ladino and Greek songs. Betty answered the phone and was willing to come over but had no key to the building for us. We might as well sit in the lit garden.

Elias had brought his guitar I mentioned, and I had made a chocolate cake especially for the occasion.

As soon as Betty came and we wished each other a Happy New Year, Betty started singing holiday songs in Greek. Although Elias and I had not sang them in years, we instantly joined Betty in song. There we were three Jerusalem Jews, on Shabbat, on the street, by the closed Greek compound door singing Greek New Year’s holiday songs with all our heart.

The three of us had entered the vibe of merriment and celebration in ease and flow. The repeated lockdowns have rendered our self-induced happiness mandatory and we got in the mood on the spot. Our bodies remembered, our cells remembered how celebrating the New Year’s at the Greek Club over the years felt…

More songs followed with Betty on the piano when we finally made it in.  Elias was on the guitar, and slowly but surely a modest company of Greek neighbors gathered.  We sang Greek songs that we, as well as our Greek-community-friends-who-were-no-longer-with-us, loved.

It is thanks to these Greek Friends’ contribution to the communal life “the Artist,” “the Party Maker” and our  ”Intellectual” that we feel so connected to their spirit and each other when at the club.

The Artist: He lived like an artist, he sculpted as an artist, he drew as an artist. He made artistic rings and jewelry; He gave importance to relations over possessions. He lived in the Greek compound; He tended to his garden, to his cats and to his inner world. He also tended to filoxenia, the hospitality trait we are all so proud of. Alex Korfiatis, born in Jerusalem to Greek parents, was one of the loved figures of the community in that he was so unconventional. He lived a modest life, surrounded by few close friends, in a small one-room house. Alex was Betty Klein’s life-long companion and friend, a sensitive soul, who knew how to read your coffee and discuss anything from politics to philosophy in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, German and some French.  Alex was always there for the Saturday morning coffee at the club’s garden, and his presence this New Year’s 2021 Day was felt, from another realm of being.

The Party Maker: My beloved Vasos, or Vasoulis as I would call him. Vasos Triandafyllidis. I had met Vaso some twenty years ago, when I first discovered the Greek Club of Jerusalem. Back then, Vasos was active in the club’s kitchen where on Tuesdays he would orchestrate falafel, hummus and salad meals for some fifty Jerusalemites who would gather weekly to dance Greek folk dances at the club. With his perfect Arabic and Hebrew, and with wearing his Greek Orthodox identity on his chest, Vasos was one of these blessed people to feel at home and be at ease in both the eastern and western part of Jerusalem. He loved the Arab shuk were he would buy fresh produce and fresh pitta bread and would come to the club, order up the kitchen and prepare delicious falafel balls and hummus that the dancers cherished past their dance sessions with Costas Moutzoglou and Chana Englard. The Greek Club was a second home to Vasos, and the local community served as his family.

The Intellectual: The intellectual of the Greek community was none other than the Archaeology Professor, Greek born, Vassilis Tzaferis. I had the privilege of reading his memoir last year, titled “My Course” and dedicating a few blogs to his life story. Born in the Greek island of Samos, Vassilis came to Jerusalem as a kid to enroll in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate’s middle and high schools. Although destined to become a priest, his course was changed by love. Love of a Greek Jerusalemite woman, Eftychia, and love of his academic studies.  A president of the Greek community of Jerusalem for many years, and an accomplished archaeologist, Vassilis would join the lively discussions we held at the compound’s garden over coffee and snacks on Saturday mornings. A loving man, who enjoyed reading and writing till late in his study, one felt at ease with and understood by him. His cordial presence and unique perspective on life rendered Vassilis a gift to the Greek community of Jerusalem.

What did “the artist”, “the party maker” and ‘the intellectual” all have in common?

They all lived life like bridges. They bridged between their Greek and Israeli identities, they bridged between the Arab and Jewish culture and between East and West Jerusalem. They bridged among Jerusalemites of all faiths and bridged among locals and internationals gluing us all together in their inclusive embrace.

Yesterday as we joined our voices and spirits in song ushering in a new good year, their people-loving, bridge-building legacy was so present in our midst!

From Jerusalem with love,

Yvette Nahmia-Messinas