The History of Israeli Bourekas in 4 Servings
First Serving: Samekh Tet (S"T)
Bourekas was a traditional dish served on the tables of Jewish families originating from Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, and all Balkan countries.
They were called "Samekh Tetim" or S"Ts.
S"T – an acronym for the phrase: "Sephardi Tahor" (Pure Sephardi) – a social definition that distinguished the Samekh Tetim community from both the Jews of Europe ("the Ashkenazim") and the Mizrahi communities ("the Sephardim"), the two main factions in modern Judaism.
The S"Ts originated from Spain, which was once an empire, and they are considered descendants of the Jews expelled from it.
Many of them immigrated to the Land of Israel during the Ottoman rule and took root there. Until the 20th century, they were the elite of the Jewish Yishuv in the Land of Israel. They and their families welcomed the first pioneering Zionists who arrived in the country from Europe and helped them integrate.
During the British Mandate, masses of new immigrants from Europe flowed here, and in the name of the Zionist movement, they established kibbutzim and moshavim, cities and settlements, solidifying what was called: "the Hebrew Yishuv." Within three decades, their numbers grew, and they became the majority of the Jewish population.
The Samekh Tetim were pushed to the margins and became a minority among the Jews of the Yishuv. A minority that adopted the European way of life but did not give up traditional customs – they spoke Ladino among themselves, prayed in synagogues that differed from their "Ashkenazi" brethren, and maintained their familiar cuisine with their traditional dishes.
The bourekas dish was a Shabbat treat for them, served to the table after father and sons returned from the synagogue. And when Shavuot, the holiday of cheeses, arrived, they also added Frizhaldos (Frujilada), Pastelis, and Shamis to the culinary celebration.
All these dishes were baked in the oven according to recipes passed down from grandmother to mother and from her to daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters – the women responsible for the kitchen.
After World War II and the Holocaust that annihilated European Jewry, masses of new immigrants from the Balkan countries arrived in Israel, with a significant proportion of Jews from Bulgaria among them.
Among the immigrants was the Alkolombra family – mother Sultana, father Sami (Shmuel), and their three children.
The Alkolombra family left behind a home and property, and an active bakery that supported them in Bulgaria. With the little money they brought with them, they bought a house on Shlush Street in Tel Aviv. In their new home, they continued to work in what they specialized in: baking – Sultana baked various pastries, and Sami loaded them onto his bicycle and went out to sell them.
Bourekas was their flagship product.
The beloved pastry was bought by kiosks that turned it into a street food, and also by S"T families, for whom the dish evoked the taste of the past.
Besides them, hardly anyone had heard of it.
Even in the 1950s, when newspapers and radio began to give extensive space to recipes for "the housewife," it was not considered prominent. Rarely, especially before Shavuot, it was mentioned in the newspaper as an "ethnic dish" and its name was written with quotation marks: "Bourekas."
And then the Alkolombra family relocated to Jaffa, next to the store they opened on Jerusalem Street, opposite the Alhambra hall... And the rest is history.
1963 - Recipe for the Housewife in "HaBoker" newspaper (in Hebrew)
Second Serving: Sami Bourekas - The Telenovela
The story of the Alkolombra family is long and winding, made of telenovela material. It has been told many times, written about, and even made into a full-length documentary film.
Here is a summary relevant to our discussion:
Their first family store opened in Jaffa.
This was a small restaurant, a kind of snack bar, called "Sami Bourekas," named after the family's flagship product. The word about Sami's bourekas spread throughout the Gush Dan area and brought more and more customers, filling the Alkolombra family's cash register. The overflowing cash register developed the commercial acumen of the family's children, who thought big. And within just two decades, the chain expanded to about 80 branches throughout the country.
The expansion came with a significant addition of public relations.
Millions of Israelis were exposed to the pastry in its triangular and square forms and to the heroes behind it – the Alkolombra family from Bulgaria. Those who peeked at the gossip columns in newspapers could revel in "yellow and juicy stories" that included ugly divorce, family quarrels, and the glittering lifestyle of the CEO, one of the family's children.
The famous Sami Bourekas logo, known in every Israeli home.
Father Sami and Mother Sultana, the founders, remained behind the scenes.
The parents allowed the children to break into markets, and the children continued to do it big – they established the first factory of its kind in Israel for bourekas production, and opened the first food store chain of its kind operating on a franchise model. They gave the franchises for free to celebrities, who in turn posed with the CEO, participated with him in launching another new branch, and enhanced the reputation of the pastry that became a brand.
Father Sami received the honor due to him by immortalizing the brand name – Sami Bourekas. Besides that, he settled for the role of presenter, posing appropriately for the ethnic branding, with an ear-to-ear smile.
Mother Sultana put dough into the ovens and enjoyed the work and the produce she brought directly from her kitchen to the tables of Israelis.
There is no happy ending to the telenovela.
The family quarrels intensified, and the money that came easily went easily – on extravagant spending, on questionable investments, and on lust and megalomania, until everything collapsed.
The family chain collapsed, but what Sami and Sultana left for Israeli society lives on: A common folk dish found everywhere in Israel.
Bourekas is a pastry made of phyllo dough with a filling. It’s best to heat it before serving, and you can eat it straight from the bag or off a plate. Hands are perfectly acceptable too. In its common version, the boureka is baked in small units that are easy to handle and make their way from the tray to the mouth. In its "respectable" version, it is served as a round unit on a plate, ready for cutting with a knife and fork.
The Alkolombra family - Center: Sami and his wife Sultana
Third Serving: Ladino and Bourekas
Every piece of bourekas is a piece of the history of the S"T community in Israel.
As mentioned, the Samekh Tetim were here long before the Zionist movement began to operate. Many of them are direct descendants of "expelled from Spain" families who arrived directly here. They lived wherever Jews resided until they became pillars of the communities in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Acre, Safed. For hundreds of years, during the Ottoman Empire, a social and spiritual elite grew here, including noble Jewish families such as: Valero, Elyashar, Mayuḥas, Shlush families, and many more.
At the beginning of the 20th century, waves of immigration from Europe began.
The Zionist movement brought Jews here from Poland and Germany, from Russia and Ukraine, and the composition of the population changed – the new immigrants who came in large waves of immigration settled in the Land of Israel, and from them a new, European, "Ashkenazi" leadership emerged.
The Samekh Tetim became a minority among the population of the Hebrew Yishuv. In the place to which they were pushed, they represented all other minority communities, and all of them together were called "Sephardi communities" – a general name for all Jews who came from Islamic countries and Balkan countries.
After the establishment of the state, the differentiation between the communities intensified, and the gap between "Ashkenazim" and "Sephardim" widened. Especially between the Ashkenazim from Europe and the immigrants from Islamic countries. A deep rift opened between them that did not heal for many years.
In the social melting pot, between these two social extremes, the Samekh Tetim were in a good place in the middle. Still, they also had a scent of European culture, unlike the immigrants from Asia and North Africa who had to work hard to integrate.
1967 - The Recanati family - Israeli nobility of S"T origin. In the center, mother Matilda Recanati. From right to left: Zacharia (Harry), Daniel, Rafael, and Yaakov (Jack) Recanati.
After the establishment of the state, and in its first decades, the Samekh Tetim enjoyed their place in the mainstream of Israeli society – proud of their history, combining progress with the tradition passed down through generations.
They had prominent figures in Israeli society, in economy and culture. Among them: the bankers of Discount, the Recanati family, the car importers from the Carasso family, the promising politician Yitzhak Navon, the author A.B. Yehoshua, judges, Knesset members, government ministers, educators, and more.
They also had a prominent representation in the culture and entertainment industry: the singer Avraham Ferrera, the Banai family who brought Israelis the pure Sephardi scent, and Yehoram Gaon who broke into Israeli culture bringing with him the scent of his Jerusalem childhood in a pure Sephardi home. Gaon even published songs in Ladino, called "Romanceros."
The Ladino language was revived and gained attention especially with the staging of the play "Bustan Sephardi" written by Yitzhak Navon, based on the life and tradition of the descendants of the Anusim from Spain.
The representatives of the Samekh Tetim in sports were the football players of the "Maccabi Jaffa" team, the home team of Bulgarian and Balkan immigrants.
Its great stars and loud fans came from the local community, and their sponsor was the Alkolombra family – owners of the "Sami Bourekas" chain. Together they led it to the top of the first league and to prizes and cups they won time and again, and between a game and a practice, everyone came to drink coffee and eat bourekas at the original Sami Bourekas on Jerusalem Boulevard, Jaffa.
And Only the Bourekas (Last Serving)
In the 21st century, with the intensification of ethnic division in Israeli society, the Samekh Tetim shed all ethnic labels and were absorbed into the mixed stream. They are not a party to the bitter conflict between the Ashkenazim and Mizrahim – the two great rivals in society.
Their legacy is moving to the shelves of history and the walls of museums. Ladino is a folklore symbol, one of many in Israeli culture. The Banai family is commemorated in Mahane Yehuda Market for tour guides and their tourists, Maccabi Jaffa has fallen from its glory and plays in the second league of football.
Only the bourekas remains, and it shows no signs of leaving the culinary market in Israel.
The bourekas enters The Israeli Story. If you click on the bourekas in the image, you will get to know it in more detail.
