Susie Baum de Khoury: "I think my mother was the first Salvadoran to convert..."

This fascinating interview with Susana "Susie" Baum de Khoury begins with a description of her parents, Jose "Chepe" Baum and Mercedes Lopez de Baum. "Nina Meches" as she was called, was born in Olocuilta, El Salvador. "Don Chepe" was born and raised in Fulda, Germany. In this first excerpt, Susie tells us about her mother.
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(What was your mother like?)

My mother was (pause) was so sweet, she was devoted to the house and to the children. I mean, she was always baking, I remember that. Unfortunately, none of us learned to cook as well as she did, because she was scared that if we would come into the kitchen we would get burned or something hot would fall on us, grease or something like that, so she would always make us step outside the door. But every day when we came back from school, she had baked a cake or cookies or el pie de nata, that was so delicious. I mean, she was just amazing. She could taste something that she ate on one of her trips, and she would know how to make it. She would know what the ingredients were and she would try to imitate it. So she had quite a talent for that.

But she was very loving and I know she was very religious. She believed in God, and she was very spiritual in that sort of way. And most of all, I remember, the unwavering love between my parents.

(Tell me about their story. How did they meet?)

There was a Frenchman here, well, he was really born in Turkey, Don Jaime Gabay. He was a dear friend of my father’s. They had met each other as traveling salesmen throughout El Salvador. His wife was Ofelia, who was my mother’s oldest sister. My mother was living with them when she was a young woman, eighteen, nineteen, or something like that, she was living with them.. I mean, a single woman, and she was the youngest, so she was living with them. And then about a year after my father had been here, he was invited to Don Jaime’s house for dinner. My mother was there. He saw her in the kitchen or something like that, and he said, “Me gusta!” “I love what I see!” I want to meet her. And he met her and—my mother thought, “How rude of him!” to say, “Me gusta,” and thinking that she’s gonna just swoon over him or whatever.

But he prevailed and they got married. Right before he passed away in 2001 they had just celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. Luckily I was here for that celebration.

(Unbelievable.)

Yes. This happened—their anniversary was the 5th of February, and he passed away on the 12th.

(So your mother was Catholic when she met your father?)

Yes.

(He was a religious, learned Jew.)

Yes.

(Can you talk to me about how they got married and if there were any conflicts surrounding that marriage?)

My mother was Catholic, and you needed to convert in order to have a religious ceremony performed, and I think the rules were you had to be converted by an Orthodox Rabbi. My mother did take all the instruction. She learned to read Hebrew and she learned all the history and the Old Testament and things like that. She took classes with the Rabbi—I think he was a relative of the Freunds, maybe that was his last name.

(Did she ever talk to you about the process, how she felt?)

I remember she talked about the day there in Los Chorros (the mikvah process) and receiving lessons from Rabbi Freund. But she always talked fondly of her schooldays at Maria Auxiliadora. Those memories stayed in my mind more so than when she converted. She was in boarding school there since she was a little girl until she graduated, and she had a very close relationship with the nuns at Maria Auxiliadora. They were really sweet. And they kind of took over, like, being a mother figure, especially one nun, Sor Celia who was a very important part of her life. We all got to meet her, and we used to love to hear the stories from Sor Celia about what kind of a child my mother had been in school. She was not a troublemaker, because she was very loving about it, but she was always up to something. And she was so creative. I think they both had a great imagination, both of my parents, and they both were dreamers. They both had a lot of creativity, and maybe some of the younger generations inherited that from them. Members of the family that are creative or their right side of the brain is working is because of them. (chuckles)

So we used to love the stories. She was a jokester. She liked to joke around and make practical jokes on people. I remember one time we went to visit Sor Celia with my mother. We went to Maria Auxiliadora, and sat in a little foyer where you wait for whomever you’re going to visit. So I think it was just my younger sister and myself, and we went with my mother. So one nun came and said, “Who are you here to visit?” And my mother said, “Sor Celia.” So she said, “Oh, we’ll go get her.” So while we were sitting there, the Mother Superior of all the Escuelas Salecianas—of the world maybe, she was from Italy, I still remember that—she came into the room to speak with us and greet us . She asked my mother who were we there to see. And she said, “Sor Celia.” And she said, “Oh, you know her?” And my mother said, “Yes, she’s the grandmother of my children.” And the expression on the lady’s face (laughs) was priceless.

Mother Superior just walked out of there. There was just this silence. And when Sor Celia came in, she said, “What have you done? What did you say to Mother Superior?” But I mean, she would forgive her everything she would do, because she knew my mom. She didn’t do it to get her into trouble or anything. It was just the way she was. She liked to play little jokes like that on people. Those are the things I remember.

My mother taught herself German by listening to language records. She had this whole collection of records, and every day she would listen to them, and she learned German that way. As my mother aged her looks became Asian in nature. She said that she inherited that from her father (who had some Indian blood). One time, they went to Germany and this lady came and asked her, in German, if she was from Japan. And my mother bowed like she was from an Asian country, and she said, “No, I’m from Korea.” And the lady believed her. And they went and told my dad, “Oh, you’re married to someone from Korea.” She was always up for practical jokes!

Unfortunately, people never got to see that playful part of my mom. I think she was always kind of a child at heart.

(When she converted, did she tell her mentors like Sor Celia?)

She did tell Sor Celia, and I think Sor Celia met my father, and she thought he was a very good man. A gentle, and yet a strong man, who truly loved my mother. I know my father had a great relationship with Sor Celia till she died a very, very old lady, just maybe ten years before my dad passed away.

(What about your mother’s family? How did they react?)

I think her oldest sister Ofelia didn’t mind, because, you know, she was with Don Jaime, and they had had a lovely daughter, Martita, my first cousin. And my grandmother, although at first they didn’t get along or didn’t see eye to eye with my dad about certain things, I think—she accepted, that my mother had married a Jewish person. But I don’t think it was an issue, really. It was not a religion issue. I don’t think there ever was an issue with my mother’s side of the family.

(Do you know if she was the first Salvadoran to convert?)

I think so. I believe that she was the first one—I believe that’s what I heard, that she was the first Salvadoran to convert. And she really did it the right way, because he was an Orthodox rabbi, which in Israel, I know, the Orthodox branch believes that that’s the only way to convert.

Transcription by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC.