he Rom, Dom, Lom Communities. Who are these and do they have common roots?

Culture

We are going to cover Lom next time. Today, our podcast, «Ai Tu Jianes. Did you know that?» welcomes a representative of the Dom group as our guest and interlocutor. This is a 26-years old Kamal Kelzi from Aleppo, Syria. Volodymyr Yakovenko has interviewed him.

Let us start with a bit of historical background. Dom and Rom have common roots. Both of these communities come from India—as one can trace by examining the language of these peoples. Most representatives of Dom, though, reside in the Middle East. So, Dom and Rom: they parted ways. Both countries they lived in and the historical context impacted the shaping of these groups.

Here is something Kamal Kelzi, a representative of the Dom group, told us in our podcast. Below you will find the most interesting quotes:

«Syrians are a very educated people […] For the younger generation in Europe, school and university became a norm. Times have changed dramatically in the past century, particularly in the past 50 years»

«Some Doms have joined the rebels; others have fled the country; many ended up in prison. One of my relatives tried to flee the Assad army and join the rebels. He was caught and we still do not know if he is alive or dead»

«The Dom people have also fought for the freedom of Syria. I know Dom men who headed to Damascus to help free the city from Assad. Some were caught, others perished but all of them were part of this struggle»

«Some 100 years ago the Dom people took to a new profession: that of a dentist. Thanks to their jewellery manufacturing skills they started producing gold and silver teeth. Eventually, this grew into full-featured dentistry and today, some 90% of Dom men work in this field»

«During the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the Dom people came to the rescue of Armenian families by sheltering their children from persecution. My granddad’s brother’s wife, for instance, was an Armenian: her family handed her over into Doms’ care to save her from death.

A number of Armenian parents trying to save their children handed them over to the Dom families. Some of these children eventually married representatives of the Dom community and became part of that community. This is a little-known but important fact of the story of Armenian genocide»

«Hope is a powerful force. If we learn to understand each other and use our knowledge and skills to further the cause of social development, we shall be able to make our country a better place for everyone»

Listen to the entire podcast by opening the audio file attached (the interview is in English).