France must face fact that Jewish life is becoming untenable there

LA Daily News

“My parents never regretted leaving Egypt, but they spoke with nostalgia about their lives there. Jews, Christians and Muslims had lived together peacefully, and Jews thrived as an integral part of society. However, as the Arab/Zionist conflict emerged, they began to be viewed as enemies of the state, culminating in their forced departure under terrible circumstances.

But out of my family’s tragic upheaval something beautiful arose: my lifelong love affair with France. Growing up, my best friend was Catholic and I was embraced by her family without question. My first boyfriend, Jean-Jacques (also Catholic), could not have been more French. Religion was never discussed because it had no place in our conversations or our feelings toward one another.”

Read more from Juliana’s guest commentary column for the LA Daily News.

Paradise Lost — Twice

Huffington Post

“‘Toi, Paris, tu m’as pris dans tes bras — You, Paris, you took me into your arms.’ So sang Enrico Macias, an Algerian-born Jew, in his 1964 anthem.

The song was a big hit in France, especially among French Jews, and I remember my parents happily singing along with the catchy tune. France had welcomed my family with open arms after we were suddenly expelled from Egypt with nowhere to go, leaving our possessions and loved ones behind. Eventually my large extended Jewish family settled in Paris and the trauma of our exodus was eclipsed by our happy and successful integration into a new society. We were reborn.”

Read Juliana’s full op-ed on Huffington Post!

Five Reasons Why Everybody Should Write a Book

Huffington Post

“‘Everyone should write at least one book in their lifetime,’ my nephew Jason once declared with great conviction. I remember pondering the thought at the time, struck by the maturity of the remark coming from a teenage boy.

Fast forward 15 years and a novel under my belt, I can now vouch for the wisdom and insightfulness of my nephew’s observation. We should all write a book, one that reflects our individuality and gives substance to our ideas, a book to be shared with the world.”

See Juliana’s “Five Reasons” on Huffington Post and get inspired!

Looking Back to Move Peace Forward

Huffington Post

“As an Egyptian-born Jew, I am profoundly disturbed by the depth of the hatred that has escalated between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. After facing cultural extinction, I want to give a voice to Middle Eastern and North African Jews, as well as provide a better understanding and insight into the historical coexistence of two peoples who are now sworn enemies.”

Visit Huffington Post to read Juliana’s personal story about her grandmother’s unlikely lifelong friendship!

From Suits to Sweats, A Woman’s Reconciliation With Her New Self

Huffington Post

“Let’s face it, a change in career mid-life can be challenging, and when such change is not motivated by an external circumstance but purely out of an emotional need to express oneself in a different way, it borders on lunacy. Yet this is exactly what I did when I put the brakes on my career as an attorney some 13 years ago and set out to write what I hoped would be an entertaining and informative historical novel that would be a catharsis for me as well.”

Read Juliana’s full OpEd on Huffington Post! 

An Egyptian Jew Looks Back to Her Native Country to Find Her Voice

History News Network

“I was born in Egypt, but when I was three years old life as I knew it came to an end with the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis. My family was Jewish. They’d been there for a couple of generations, but suddenly we Jews became the enemy and my family was among the first to be expelled. They gave us one week to leave and we were only allowed to take a few suitcases, and maybe $50 in our pocket, if that. …”

Read this article by Juliana on History News Network!

Passover 2014

Blog

On this eve of Passover, I’m thinking about my mom and how she used to prepare so far in advance for the celebration of this holiday. She started to clean the house at least one month in advance. Every single nook and cranny had to be cleaned from top to bottom, and that included every closet and cupboards. Even walls had to be scrubbed. For her, even a particle of dust was taref (not kosher) and had to be removed. I used to complain about it and make fun of it.  I thought she was a bit excessive. But back in Egypt where she grew up, cleaning reached a whole other level. My grandmother was not satisfied with just scrubbing walls. She repainted them entirely! They did this every Passover, every year. I now understand that traditions are more than just traditions. Behind them often lies an important wisdom. Spring cleaning is good for the soul. 

The Journey Back, by Juliana Maio

Jewish Book Council

Juliana Maio was born in Egypt, but expelled from the country with her family during the Suez Crisis. She was raised in France, completed her higher education in the United States, and today, Juliana practices entertainment law in Los Angeles. She has spoken both domestically and abroad about the Arab Spring. Her novel, City of the Sun (Greenleaf Book Group Press), is now available. She is blogging here today for Jewish Book Council and MyJewishLearning. 

Little did I know what I was getting myself into when one day I decided to delve back into my Jewish Egyptian roots. I was born in Egypt but expelled with my family during the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis when I was 3 years old. We moved to France but ended up immigrating to the United States when I was 17. My life had been too busy and chaotic to journey back into the past until one day I was struck by a sort of midlife crisis. It was not the passage of time nor the meaning of life that kept me awake at night, but rather the nagging need to discover the truth about my people’s roots. Who were those Jews living in Egypt? What were they doing there? And what went wrong? I did not want anecdotes. I wanted hard facts.… >> READ FULL ARTICLE 

In Search of Indentity

Blog,

Last night I watched The Place Beyond the Pines in the coziness of my den. Even though the film was directed by the very talented Derek Cianfrance and starred two of my very favorite actors (Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper), I chose not to see it when it played in theatres last March. I don’t know if it was the title or the poster of Gosling as a tattooed platinum blond biker who robs banks that turned me off, but I’m sure glad I got to watch the film. Though I found myself engrossed in the story from the beginning, I did not know where it was going until the last 10 minutes, and it did not come together for me until the last few frames, when Gosling’s son straddles a motorcycle and takes off into the sunset. In that moment I understood how much the kid, who had at last discovered the identity of his father and learned the circumstances of his death, needed to know who is father really was. Getting on that bike was as close as he could ever get to understanding and feeling him. 

The ending resonated deeply within me, so much so that it kept me awake most of the night. I was tossing and turning, thinking about the film’s theme – the search for one’s identity––and how primal and urgent the need is to know who we really are. I thought of my own journey as I searched for my family’s roots and how it led me to write my novel. I thought of all the days, nights, weekends I labored over CITY OF THE SUN. It sucked all my time and took me away from family, friends and work. But I was obsessed with it. Nothing would stop me. I had to see it through.

The road to understanding, accepting and ultimately honoring who we are is different for each of us, but it’s a road we need to take to feel whole. How does the saying go?  You can’t know where you are going until you know where you’ve been?  Or something like that. Cliché perhaps, but then again, that’s why clichés are true.