Marrakesh, the 21st of August 1932

Casablanca Morocco, 1932 my 21-year-old coming of age grandfather days before his wedding suddenly broke off his engagement to his pre-selected handpicked wife…Why? Well, he became smitten by a 16-year buxom heart throb beauty from the Casablanca Mellah. It was love at first sight and a union destined by Gd. My grandfather awoke to what love meant… he had to have her. The woman from Casablanca who captured his heart felt the same, she accepted his proposal. They married within a month!

Ninety (90) years, 3 countries and 3 generations later their union would lead to a close-knit tribe of over 100.

My uncle Salomon found a passionate and eloquent love letter that his father, my grandfather wrote to her in French, now translated into English. If you close your eyes, open your mind and allow your imagination to paint, you can envision a romantic scene of young Arabic Frenchman dressed in a three piece suit, staring out a wood paneled train window…the steamer is rumbling as it whistles over a desert terrain… the heartfelt suitor struggling to find the best words to express his feelings to the woman he knows he wants to spend his life with …he just let go of her at the train station in Casablanca, his heart is bounding and dripping with emotions. A pulsating urge works its way through his throbbing shoulder, determined forearm and fluid hands expressed out through his ink dipped pen into a worn leather-bound scrap book. He sets out to scribe the words that he knows will take the post a week to get to her. But these words are so important. He has to assure her…he has to be respectful, he has to be authentic and he has to be good…in 1932 in Morocco the telephone was not an option…there was no Wi-Fi… no Tinder, no Netflix and chill… emojis, acronyms and flippant texts were non- existent…you had to rely on writing skills to share feelings and influence needs… you had to think it through, invest time and take risks… fortunately for me and my fellow kin, this romantic Moroccan love affair succeeded. Little did my grandfather realize that the words he would lay on parchment would lead to 9 children, 28 grandchildren, over 80 great grandchildren…many of whom today are making a grand difference in this world… for me… well…when I am asked how or why I became a writer…the answer has become clear…it is in the genes.

Enjoy!????

“Marrakesh, the 21st of August 1932”

“Dear Treasure,

Do not be overly saddened by our separation, be strong, my sweetheart.

Please know that I love you today even more than the first day.

Despite your distance, your absence only unleashes my love [and has no hold over my heart.] you are my hope, my life, and my happiness is due only to you.

I understand well your concerns regarding our separation, because I suffer them myself.

May your knowledge of my love for you help you patiently through the short time [until our wedding], because we have no choice.

I keep counting and recounting the days that separate us from the day on which we will be united for all our lives, but woe! the number is what it is; I can neither take away nor add one day.

I was seduced so rapidly by your spirit and your being; or rather, it is destiny, that I would so love for these days to be turned into seconds, so that in the blink of an eye, I could see the one that I love most in the world right by my side.

Kiss for me your dear parents; mine also send their affection to them as well as to you.

Your Jacob who is kissing you passionately and who is lovesick over you”

Marrakesh, Le 21 Aout 1932

Cher Tresor,

Ne t’attriste pas trop de notre separation, prends courage, ma cherie.

Sache que je t’aime aujourd’hui plus que le premier jour.

Malgre ton eloignement, ton absence qui ne font que decroitre (?) mon amour et qui n’ont aucune prise sur mon coeur; tu est mon espoir, ma vie; et mon bonheur n’est du qu’a toi.

Je te plains bien des inquietudes causees par la separation, car (je) les eprouve moi meme.

Que cette persuasion ou tu dois etre de mon amour pour toi, te fasse prendre le temps court qui reste en patience; puisqu’il nous est impossible de faire autrement.

J’ai beau compter et recompter les jours qui nous separent encore de celui qui nous verra reunis pour toute la vie; mais helas! Le compte est la; il n’y en a ni un de plus ni un de moins.

J’ai tellement ete seduit si rapidement par les agreements de ton esprit et de ta personne, ou plutot c’est la destinee, que je voudrais que ces jours soient changes en secondes, pour qu’en un clin d’oeil, je pourrai voir pres de moi celle que j’adore le plus au monde.

Embrasse pour moi tes chers parents, les miens les embrassent egalement aussi qu’a toi cherie,

Ton Jacob qui t’embrasse longement et qui languit de toi