MY FRENCH CONNECTION
My French connection is Samy Hochmic, a Parisian Jew who mostly wears a French beret or English cap, but the last time I saw him he had on an American baseball cap. All his berets were dirty, he said. Besides, he wanted to display his fondness for America:
(“Rock Your World,” Rock Hall.)
Samy Hochmic, 2014, Paris
(Photo by Eric Schreiber)
He wore the “Rock Your World” cap to my daughter’s wedding (2013). Major fashion faux pas — that hat. When Samy left the wedding, he said, “Drop me a line.”
“What’s that mean?” I asked. Did he want a postcard? (Samy doesn’t do email.)
Samy and I go back to 1974, when he got my name off the ride board at Case Western Reserve, and we drove to New York. Samy had interviewed Bellow in Chicago for his Sorbonne thesis. Samy spoke an idiosyncratic English: “I don’t have a red cent” . . . “Shall we go?” Samy liked the Midwest for its standard American accent.
Samy’s parents had been Polish Jewish immigrants, rounded up by the Nazis at the Paris Velodrome. Samy was raised by farmers for money during the war. He was a foster child after the war. A distant cousin in Canada offered to adopt him, but Samy’s French foster parents wouldn’t let him go. Samy trained as a tailor, then an English teacher. He made aliyah to Israel in 1975 and stayed five years. The Israelis didn’t take to a Frenchman teaching English, he said. Also, Samy didn’t like the brusqueness of the Israelis; he railed against the “Levantine mentality” — Israelis not lining up at bus stops and pushing too much.
If you visit Paris and want to meet Samy, let me know. Your treat, s’il vous plait, but if he wears the “Rock Your World” cap, make him pay!
Last year in Paris, Samy was trapped in a synagogue for several hours while anti-Semites rampaged outside.
—
The Bert & Irwin Show: Irwin Weinberger and I play
7-9 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 3) at Gigi’s on Fairmount, Cleveland Heights. We’ll play mostly American standards and some klezmer. (Guitar/vocals + clarinet.)
13 comments
I had pictured you met Samy on a trip to Europe – in fact on a bicycle trip. The ride message board thing is definitely less romantic. Maybe he didn’t wear a beret at the wedding because it would be too stereotype. Frenchman at the wedding….beret – who needs it?
One idea I had for my 2009 trip to Paris was purchasing an outstanding beret – made in France, of course, from an upscale shop, and not the standard color (black) – something more interesting, but still French and serious. It didn’t happen. [As you probably know, berets aren’t particularly a Parisian thing – their origin is southern France/Spain – Basque country, etc. Basically a peasant thing, originally. They also became part of uniforms.]
Finally, at the airport, when I had a little French $ left and I realized we didn’t get Aaron any souvenir, I bought a bright red beret with a little white image of the Eiffel Tower – typical Paris souvenir. He didn’t like it, though, so Lillian took it.
I remember Samy! Had I known he was at the wedding, I’d have bee-lined thru the dance floor to parler Francais with him (tho I know only fake French). I met him many years ago, and still have his card (5 rue Poulet is the address. So he lives on Chicken Street?)
To David Korn:
Samy moved off Chicken Street years ago. Now he’s on Rue Rambuteau. What’s that mean?
Will Google . . .
A guy, the count of Rambuteau.
I’m Samy’s cousin from Israel (There are a few of us here).
We lost contact ith him several years ago.
Would love to get in touch with him again. Could you help us by sending his address/phone or any other contact information?
Thanks
Hello
I’m bringing the sad news but Samy passed away yesterday. Funeral are supposed to be today and I’ll try to find out more and get a minyan.
My grandfather and Samy were kind of cousins. When my grandfather lost his mother, his father married with Samy’s aunt. Samy attended all our seders when I was a child.
May his memory be blessed.
Thank you, Nicolas, for making sure all his friends and relatives will get the sad news and pray in his memory.
Baruch Dayan emet. May his memory be for a blessing.
What sad news. Samy Hochmic was our dear friend. We had the pleasure of spending time with Samy in Paris when we lived there 2014-2015 and visited in 2010. We first Samy through Bert & Alice Stratton. Samy stayed with us after Lucy’s wedding in Chicago. He came all the way from Paris to be part of the family gathering. Such a gentle, sweet man. He survived the most poignant childhood imaginable and never created a family of his own. Friendship meant everything to him and he had a special love for the Stratton family. I remember his devotion to Judaism and love of Israel. The memory of Samy Hochmic will always be a blessing to us.
Ah, Samy, remaining in my mind as the odd man out.
Teased as a teacher by bullying students: “Where are you from? You don’t sound French.” As such belittled, his francité ever in question— the square, straight peg in a country populated with round holes filled with brutish innuendo.
He was a traveler who appreciated and shared with low budget voyagers like himself. He couch-surfed at my Michigan home with me and Andrea in the early ’80s, having previously been kind enough to offer his own Paris couch to me the long-haired hippie vagabond of the mid-seventies.
Generous but cheap, a curious guy who could squeeze a franc but maximize his sense of the world via his travels, Saul Bellow and a general interest seeing things outside the lens of provincialism and bigotry within French culture.
Free now to explore infinitude.
I want you to know Samy received the funeral service he deserved. His first cousin with his children were there, the rabbi talked really nicely, and the Chabad community came in number after I posted a message on Facebook. We were not 10 but 17 men for his kaddish.
So glad that Samy received a fine funeral service. I met him in Paris several times and know what a gentle soul he was.
Hello,
My mother is one of Samy ´s cousins (her two mothers were sisters). I found this sad message about Samy as I tried to get news from him. I would like to know where Samy is buried as my mother and I would like to go on his grave. I guess that Nucolas Trokiner can give me this information. By the way, from what you say, I understood that you are probably related to Boris Miliband. Hope I’ll get an answer from you. Thank in advance.
Hi,
I’ve been trying to find out Nicolas Trokiner’s email address.
Nicolas, if you happen to read this message, please contact me. It’s in regards to Czosniak from Lodz.
I’ll greatly appreciate it.
Thank you.
Leave a Comment