Sephardic Songs of Monastir Kantigas de los Sefardes a Monastir

Avram Sadikario was born on May 14, 1919 in Bitola, Yugoslavia (now North Macedonia) to a Jewish couple, Josif and Vida Sadikario. Avram had 6 siblings: 3 brothers, Mois, Solomon (Schlomo), and Sami and 3 sisters, Sol, Mirjam, and Rashela. Vida’s father was also named Avram. Josif was the son of Mosche and Mirjam Sadikario, a Sephardic Jewish couple. The Sephardi were Jews who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century. Avram’s father owned a leather shop and did business with the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Avram’s parents were very observant. As a boy Avram was very religious always attending temple, and morning prayers and going to Torah lessons in the afternoons up until his early teens. In 1936, Avram became a member of Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist youth organization that prepared Jewish youth for a life in Palestine. His brothers Sami and Solomon also joined. Once the Jewish children finished elementary school a select few had the option of going to the gymnasium or the commercial academy. Avram enrolled at the gymnasium and in 1938 went to the University of Belgrade in Serbia to study medicine. Later that year Avram became an active member of the Alliance of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ). On April 4, 1941 Avram returned to Bitola and two days later, Germany and its allies attacked Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia quickly capitulated and Bitola was occupied first by Germany, then by Bulgaria. Anti-Semitic laws were immediately put into effect. Jews were prohibited from leaving the city, forced to wear Star of David badges, had their shops and factories closed, were forbidden from work, were forced to live in a ghetto and had to pay 20 percent of their wealth. As an award for his activities with the SKOJ, Avram was invited to join the party. He served in and founded several underground resistance cells, eventually having nearly 100 Jews under his direct command. These cells distributed leaflets, organized demonstrations, and prepared to join the partisans. In 1942, Josif’s leather store was taken by the Bulgarian authorities and he was no longer allowed to work. Later, Avram accompanied his brother Sami to Sofia, Bulgaria, for treatment of a nerve condition. Special permits were required to Jews to travel, because Sami was sick he received one, and Avram received one as a student even though he was not currently studying. While there, his resistance cell in Bitola was discovered, forcing Avram to go into hiding with other Jews while his brother returned home. Avram stayed in hiding for several months living with a man named Slave until he was informed it was safe to return. Avram came out of hiding but remained in Bulgaria. After hearing about the deportations of Macedonian Jews from Bitola, Shtip and Skopje, Avram went back into hiding in Sofia, posing as a student, working in a gynecological clinic and living with a Jew. Later that spring the authorities expelled Jews from the city of Sofia. Avram, following many other Jews, travelled to a camp in Pleven, Bulgaria. On September 8, 1944, Avram participated in the liberation of the central prison. He remained there until Bulgaria was liberated by the Soviets on September 9, 1944. After liberation Avram worked for several months as state security and then as a doctor in Pleven. Germany surrendered May 7, 1945. Avram finished his studies and then worked in Kumanovo, Yugoslavia, running a pediatric medical clinic. In late 1946, he returned to Bitola where he learned that two of his brothers died while fighting as partisans: Solomon in 1944, near Kumanovo, and Sami in Srem. Avram’s parents, sisters and brother Mois were all deported and murdered at Treblinka killing center in German occupied Poland. Avrem moved to Skopje where he met Jamila Kolonomos (1922-2013), a widowed partisan fighter. Avram and Jamila married in 1947, and he adopted her daughter Mira. The couple had a son, Samuel. Avram worked as a doctor, and beginning in 1971, as a professor at Sts. Cyril and Methodus University. From 1974 – 1982, he served as Director of the Pediatric Clinic and retired in 1984. Avram published several books of poetry. Avram, age 88, died in August 2007, in Skopje.