"He was only able to choose the most dangerous jobs they had..."

 “My grandparents were born in Morocco, and shortly after they got married, when Israel first became a state, they moved there. My grandma was very wealthy in Morocco, I think she said her dad had something to do with import/export liquor. My grandpa was a lawyer. Anyway, they lived in a shack or something when they moved to Israel. Because my grandpas law experience was French law he had to find another job. But because he is darker skinned and looks Sephardic, he was only able to choose the most dangerous jobs they had. He had to build oil drums and in order to do that, you also had to weld together the platform you would stand on to weld these massive oil drums. So you would be many feet up in the air, he said usually with one other person, welding metal together and hoping whatever you built yourself to stand on was strong enough. I think what makes this more interesting is that my family is descended from a very famous rabbi, the Or Hachaim, Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, one of the most famous rabbis in Morocco. My grandma actually lived on a street named after him (our last name now is Benatar בן עתר) and then because of discrimination against Sephardic people in Israel, had to risk their lives to feed their family. I asked my dad why they moved to Israel in the first place thinking that it had to do with something going on in Morocco but he said it was because they really believed in the state of Israel.”

 

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