The Papers of Sam Camhi

Born on November 22, 1920 in Chicago, Sam Camhi grew up in Chicago and moved to New York City during his teenage years. As a young adult during the Depression, Camhi apprenticed in the textile trade. In 1942 he was drafted into the U.S. Army as a Private and served overseas in an administrative role following the end of the war. When he was discharged from his military position in 1946, he had climbed to the rank of First Lieutenant in the Air Force. In 1948, Camhi moved to San Francisco where he was invited to join the Concordia-Argonaut Club, a primarily Ashkenazi Jewish institution dating back to the 1850s). He remained a member of the club for over forty years, and wrote numerous articles for their monthly publication The Concordian.

The parents of Sam Camhi immigrated to the United States from Turkey in 1906. The family settled in a small Spanish-Judeo community in Chicago and maintained their traditions by speaking Ladino at home. Growing up in a Sephardic family and community, Sam Camhi developed an interest and devotion to the study of Sephardim culture and history. His appreciation for Sephardic music stemmed from his father, who played the mandolin during Camhi's youth. Sam Camhi was married for 37 years and later in life befriended a woman of Sephardic heritage from Aden, whose Jewish community is considered by some to be the oldest surviving community of Judaism. Many of these details of Camhi's personal life appear in his research and records found throughout this collection.