Farewell, Aleppo

by Claudette Sutton

The Jews of Aleppo, Syria, had been part of the city’s fabric for more than two thousand years, in good times and bad, through conquerors and kings. But in the middle years of the twentieth century, all that changed. To Selim Sutton, a merchant with centuries of roots in the Syrian soil, the dangers of rising anti-Semitism made clear that his family must find a new home. With several young children and no prospect of securing visas to the United States, he devised a savvy plan for getting his family “exporting” his sons. In December 1940, he told the two oldest, Meïr and Saleh, that arrangements had been made for their transit to Shanghai, where they would work in an uncle’s export business. China, he hoped, would provide a short-term safe harbor and a steppingstone to America. But the world intervened for the young men, now renamed Mike and Sal by their Uncle Joe. Sal became ill with tuberculosis soon after arriving and was sent back to Aleppo alone. And the war that soon would engulf every inhabited land loomed closer each day. Joe, Syrian-born but a naturalized American citizen, barely escaped on the last ship to sail for the U.S. before Pearl Harbor was bombed and the Japanese seized Shanghai. Mike was alone, a teen-ager in an occupied city, across the world from his family, with only his mettle to rely on as he strived to survive personally and economically in the face of increasing deprivation. Farewell, Aleppo is the story—told by Mike's daughter—of the journey that would ultimately take him from the insular Jewish community of Aleppo to the solitary task of building a new life in America. It is both her father’s tale that journalist Claudette Sutton describes and also the harrowing experiences of the family members he left behind in Syria, forced to smuggle themselves out of the country after it closed its borders to Jewish emigration. The picture Sutton paints is both a poignant narrative of individual lives and the broader canvas of a people’s survival over millennia, in their native land and far away, through the strength of their faith and their communities. Multiple threads come richly together as she observes their world from inside and outside the fold, shares an important and nearly forgotten epoch of Jewish history, and explores universal questions of identity, family, and culture.

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2014

Reviews

[Kathleen Pooler]

Claudette Sutton received the honor of a lifetime when her father asked her to help him write his story. What resulted is a treasure trove of family memories and a fascinating window into the history of the Syrian-Jewish culture.

I was interested in reading this story because my only knowledge of Aleppo is as a battleground in Syria’s civil war. The iconic photo of the dazed little Aleppo boy covered in blood and dust symbolizes the current suffering of the civilians and put Aleppo forefront in our minds.

This engaging story which is part memoir, part history and part personal journey reads like a love story between a daughter and her father. A daughter searches for her roots, a father yearns to make meaning of his past against the backdrop of World War II. The rich culture of her people is brought alive on the pages as are the characters in the story, complete with many photos of the family. We meet all her family, including her beloved and respected paternal grandfather Selim Sutton who, sensing instability in the Syrian government, had the foresight to protect his children from future ties to Syria. Selim sends her father, Meir, or Mike Sutton and his younger brother, Sal to work in his uncle’s textile business when they are teenagers. We get the inside view of what that was like through her father’s introspection and her own reflections. The themes of being an insider and an outsider are explored. Selim’s ultimate goal was to “export” his family to the United States.

Through the lens of history the reader experiences both the complexities of traveling during and after World War II and the resilience of her father and his family as most of them eventually find their way to the United States. Through it all, the rich culture of the Syrian-Jewish people and Claudette’s family’s place in the history of the culture make this an engaging and informative read.

[Bev]

Claudette Sutton shares her father’s story in her book Farewell, Aleppo – from his early years in Aleppo, Syria, to his move in 1940 to Shanghai and then ultimately to New York in 1947.
But Sutton gives us so much more. There is such rich detail about her father’s early life in Aleppo, about the war years in Shanghai and ultimately, about the history of Jews throughout the Middle East.
Sutton spent years interviewing her father and others in a quest to understand her father and his story, which he had asked her to tell. As she said, it
“launched myriad questions in my mind about identity, family, and culture: what remains, what evolves, and what is left behind.”

I was fortunate to receive a copy of Sutton’s book. I hoped to learn more about the conflict and issues in Aleppo that have led to the present bloodshed in Syria today.
Well, I got this and so much more. It was fascinating to see how well Sutton’s father Mike was able to adapt no matter where he landed or how challenging it was, and at so young an age.
There were so many interesting photos of people and places throughout the book that gave a glimpse of what Aleppo and Shanghai were like in the 30’s and 40’s.
I was stunned to learn that in 1948 there were over 30,000 Jews living in three Syrian cities (including Aleppo) but by 2003, there were less than one hundred in the whole of Syria.
Yet, as Syrian Jews left the Middle East, whether by choice or were expelled, they did not leave their culture behind. As Sutton states, the “tendency of Jews throughout history has been to carry their identity with them and not have it identified by place.”

This was an intriguing biography and one rich in history, one I encourage everyone to read.

[Judy Watters]

I love reading memoirs of ordinary people who do extraordinary things in the simple act of living life. I just finished a great read. In Farewell, Aleppo, Claudette Sutton shares her father’s gift to her: his story. Late in her father’s life, Claudette learns of his people, culture, and his struggles as he experiences the diaspora of the Syrian Jews. As a child, Mike Sutton enjoys large family gatherings for holiday celebrations and Sabbaths in Aleppo. However, as a young teen, he finds himself alone in China buying and selling what he can to survive for the duration of WWII.

Claudette’s style of writing brings to life the history of that time for a family torn apart by war. With siblings spread throughout the world, family remains very important. With my own father, a Belarusian Jew, I missed the opportunity to learn about his family, and how war tore them apart. Memoir plays such an important part of our lives. What a gift this is for Mike Sutton’s generations to come.