Mazal tov/Mabrouk to the 3rd ASF Sephardi House Fellowship Cohort! This past academic year, 27 select Fellows at universities coast-to-coast infused the wisdom, diversity, and creativity of the Sephardic spirit into Jewish student life—while also advancing Jewish unity and pride on campus. ASF Sephardi House Fellows participated in 10 cohort-based learning sessions, two in-person Leadership Shabbatons in NYC and Philadelphia, and organized more than 50 events that positively impacted thousands of their peers. Do you want to be a part of our 4th cohort or know someone who would be a great candidate? Apply here by 27 August 2023! Sponsor a Fellow here.
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The Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by Daniel Yifrach, Rachel Sally, Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, & ASF VP Gwen Zuares!
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Read the latest Sephardi Ideas Monthly exclusive: “When Excellence is a Necessity: Bilahari Kausikan on the Singapore-Israel Connection”
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🙏“Sephardic Torah | Tuesdays with Rabino Abraham Shalem”
By R’ Daniel Bouskila, The Jewish Journal
Rabbi Abraham Shalem, A”H with Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Sephardic Education Center, Jerusalem
(Photo courtesy of Rabbi Abraham Shalem Facebook Page)
R’ Daniel Bouskila remembers his weekly meetings with R’ Abraham Shalem, one of R’ Uziel’s last living students:
For many years I would visit him regularly in his book-lined apartment in Jerusalem. It was my rabbinical ‘Tuesdays with Morrie.’ I listened with love to his intriguing stories, but I especially loved hearing his gems of Torah wisdom.
Like his teacher, R’ Uziel, R’ Shalem was confident that the Torah includes a robust universalist teaching. In R’ Shalem’s own words:
It is not sufficient to treat the Torah as a dry constitution. If humanity will not blend the ethics of charity and justice into our intellectual and scientific achievements, and if humanity will not work towards assuring truth, equality and the right of existence for all beings created in God’s image, without discrimination based on creed, color or religion, then humanity will impose upon itself and the world a devastating and destructive holocaust. Repairing the world under Divine Providence is only possible when human beings love one another and preserve one another’s rights. All of this can be achieved by performing acts of charity and justice.
Concludes R’ Bouskila:
I cherish… those ‘Tuesdays with Rabino Shalem,’ and the compelling vision for Judaism he taught me – and all of us...
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Feature: Yasmin Levy Honored with the ASF’s Pomegranate Award for Music 🏆🎶
ASF President David Dangoor presenting Yasmin Levy with the ASF Pomegranate Award for Music, 25th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival’s, Leo and Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 8 May 2023
Trumpeting Yasmin Levy’s artistry, her role in the resurgence of interest in Ladino, and the inspiration Levy derives from a father who she never met, ASF President David Dangoor presented the Israel-born and internationally celebrated Ladino vocalist with the Pomegranate Award for Music at the 25th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
Both of Levy’s parents were singers, and Yasmin’s father, Yitzhak, was a singer, composer and music historian who would go from one family to another, recording anyone who knew to sing Sephardi songs. Yitzhak published 14 books in his lifetime, but he passed away when Yasmin was a year old. (Yasmin saw her father's books in the ASF's National Sephardic Library & Archives).
In her remarks, Levy thanked her family, manager, bandmates, and fans. Levy also shared that while she cannot remember her father, she knows his recorded voice better than she knows her “own hand.”
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⚠️“Iran’s Jewish languages are dying. Can intrepid linguists save them before it’s too late?”
By Aviya Kushner, The Forward
Israeli-Nash Didan star Hadassah Yeshurun performed along with participants from Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, the ASF and Jewish Community of Urmia’s sold-out 1st International Nash-Didan (Judeo-Aramaic) Day, Leo and Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 15 December 2019
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
The Jewish Language Project documents endangered Jewish languages, and its latest project aims to document a wide range of Iranian-Jewish languages, including the Jewish varieties of Neo-Aramaic, “‘Many Jews in the Kurdish region spoke Jewish Neo-Aramaic, an extension of the ancient Aramaic language… typically divided into dialects such as Lishana Noshan (from the town of Tekab, Iran), Lishana Deni (from Zakho, Iraq), and Lishan Didan (Urmia, Iran).’”
Most Neo-Aramaic-speaking Jews moved to Israel beginning in the 1950s, and once in the Jewish state, they turned to speaking Hebrew “According to estimates… just 500 elderly speakers of Neo-Aramaic are alive today. Most of them live in in Israel.”
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Please support the ASF with a generous, tax-deductible contribution so we can continue to cultivate and advocate, preserve and promote, as well as educate and empower!
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Concealed: Memoir of a Jewish Iranian Daughter Caught Between the Chador and America
By Esther Amini
Esther Amini grew up in Queens, New York, during the freewheeling 1960s. She also grew up in a Persian-Jewish household, the American-born daughter of parents who had fled Mashhad, Iran. In Concealed, she tells the story of being caught between these two worlds: the dutiful daughter of tradition-bound parents who hungers for more self-determination than tradition allows.
Exploring the roots of her father’s deep silences and explosive temper, her mother’s flamboyance and flights from home, and her own sense of indebtedness to her Iranian-born brothers, Amini uncovers the story of her parents’ early years in Mashhad, Iran’s holiest Muslim city; the little-known history of Mashhad’s underground Jews; the incident that steeled her mother’s resolve to leave; and her parents’ arduous journey to the U.S., where they faced a new threat to their traditions: the threat of freedom. Determined to protect his daughter from corruption, Amini’s father prohibits talk, books, education, and pushes an early Persian marriage instead. Can she resist? Should she? Focused intently on what she stands to gain, Amini comes to see what she also stands to lose: a family and community bound by food, celebrations, sibling escapades, and unexpected acts of devotion by parents to whom she feels invisible.
In this poignant, funny, entertaining, and uplifting memoir, Amini documents with keen eye, quick wit, and warm heart how family members build, buoy, wound, and save one another across generations; how lives are shaped by the demands and burdens of loyalty and legacy; and how she rose to the challenge of deciding what to keep and what to discard.
By Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a 2018 ASF Broome & Allen Fellow
In this extraordinary, award-winning and best-selling cookbook now in its 4th imprint, chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer combines rich culinary history and Jewish heritage to serve up over fifty culturally significant recipes. Steeped in the history of the Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spain) and their diaspora, these recipes are expertly collected from such diverse sources as medieval cookbooks, Inquisition trials, medical treatises, poems, and literature. Original sources ranging from the thirteenth century onwards and written in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan, Italian, and Hebrew, are here presented in English translation, bearing witness to the culinary diversity of the Sephardim, who brought their cuisine with them and kept it alive wherever they went. Jawhara-Piñer provides enlightening commentary for each recipe, revealing underlying societal issues from anti-Semitism to social order. In addition, the author provides several of her own recipes inspired by her research and academic studies.
Each creation and bite of the dishes herein are guaranteed to transport the reader to the most deeply moving and intriguing aspects of Jewish history. Jawhara-Piñer reminds us that eating is a way to commemorate the past.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The American Sephardi Federation’s Sephardi House Fellowship for college students
Wisdom, Creativity, Community on Campus
Apply Now to be a ’23-’24 ASF Sephardi House Fellow!
Application Deadline: 27 August 2023
ASF’s Sephardi House Fellowship is an innovative initiative that seeks to infuse the wisdom, diversity, creativity, and warmth of the Sephardic spirit into Jewish student life—while also advancing Jewish unity, vitality, and pride on campus. Bringing together a select cohort of Jewish students from colleges and universities across the United States, our program is the only national, yearlong fellowship dedicated to deepening a sense of Jewish belonging through an immersion in the multifaceted history, cultures, and intellectual legacy of the Greater Sephardic and Mizrahi world.
This enrichment and leadership development experience is composed of the following components:
1) 10 cohort-based learning sessions with influential Jewish educators, community and industry leaders, scholars, and artists, 2) one-on-one mentorship and tailored campus support, 3) free access to ASF’s robust educational resources and events, 4) two in-person Shabbaton leadership summits, 5) a capstone community-building project that empowers fellows to imbue Sephardic energy and their unique voices into Jewish student life, and 6) a $1,000 stipend upon full completion of the program.
Deadline: 27 August 2023
Joshua Benaim, a Harvard University and Harvard Business School alum and Founder & CEO of Aria Development Group, is the visionary leader behind the creation of Sephardi House. He was inspired to create Sephardi House to honor his father Carlos, who instilled in him a love for the Sephardic tradition and community.
Please write to info@americansephardi.org for more information on how you can get involved today!
Please support our work and help light a candle of wisdom and spirit on campus by donating now!
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The ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Aden Conference
Building on the success of the ASF and E’eleh B’Tamar’s “The Yemenite Conference: Jews and Muslims in Yemen” held in 2017 at New York’s Center for Jewish History, the Aden Conference will bring together the world’s leading scholars from Aden, Israel, US, UK, and Europe to explore the historical, cultural, and communal dynamics that intersected in Aden and its environs, particularly under British rule.
28-30 August 2023
Opening Night | JW3, London
Conference | Woolf Institute, Cambridge
Cambridge, Madingley Rd, Cambridge CB3 0UB, UK
Sign-up Now!
Co-Presenters:
Woolf Institute, ASMEA (Association for the Study of the Middle East & Africa), Aden Jewish Heritage Museum, Zalman Shazar Center, and Harif: Association of Jews from the MENA
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The American Sephardi Federation presents:
Convergence: Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian Calligraphy in Conversation
Featuring the multilingual art of Ruben Shimonov Convergence creates a visual world where Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian languages interact with, and speak to, one another; a world where stylized letters and words dance together on the page; a world where cultures, religions, communities, and philosophies intersect.
Juxtaposing cognates from these ancient West Asian languages, artist Ruben Shimonov encourages the viewer to explore the deep-rooted connections between these tongues, as well as the multilayered and transnational identity of the artist himself.
On View in the Leon Levy Gallery
through 31 December 2023
@ the Center for Jewish History
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The American Sephardi Federation and Mimouna Association’s Rebuilding Our Homes Project present:
Re-Creation: Judaica by Moroccan Muslim Artisans
Explore the exhibition of Judeo-Moroccan art, Moroccan Judaica, cultural and religious objects, including Menorot, Mezuzot, Yads, Shabbat Candleholders, Seder Plates, Hallah Covers, and much more.
On View through 31 December 2023
@ the Center for Jewish History
As Moroccan Jewish populations largely left the mellahs (Jewish quarters) in the latter half of the 20th century, there was a danger that not only designs but even the traditional artisanal techniques needed to create them would be lost. Passed down from one artisan to another and perfected over time, these designs and techniques. ranging from vibrant patterns to intricate metalwork and soulful wood carvings, are expressions of Moroccanity and reflect the individual character of each city. The materials and craftsmanship of Rabat are different than Fez, and Essaouira is distinct from both.
Mimouna Association and the American Sephardi Federation’s Rebuilding Our Homes Project, a multi-year USAID-supported New Partnerships Initiative, brought three notable experts-Ms. Zhor Rehihil, Ms. Deborah Koenigsberger Gutierrez, and Ms. Meryem Ghandi to train Moroccan Muslim artisans in the history of Judeo-Moroccan art and guided them in re-creating Moroccan Judaica, which encompasses a diverse array of cultural and religious objects, including Menorot, Mezuzot, Yads, Shabbat Candleholders, Seder Plates, Hallah Covers, and much more.