In Memory of Habib Elghanian, HY”D, an Iranian Jewish entrepreneur, philanthropist, and President of the Tehran Jewish Society, who was summarily executed by the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamist regime on 9 May 1979. All of Elghanian’s property was expropriated. A Persian patriot credited with modernizing Iran by importing advanced plastic and other Western technologies, Elghanian’s generous support was crucial in the construction of Tehran’s Hosseinieh Ershad Mosque. His democide inspired the US Senate to pass S.Res.164, an Iranian human rights resolution introduced by NY Senator Jacob Javits. As Karmel Melamed reveals, the “Ayatollahs refused to release his body for burial. After [Chief] Rabbi [Yedidia] Shofet pleaded, his body was buried in an unmarked grave. Only years later was he given a tombstone.”
The Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, and Distinguished ASF Vice President Gwen Zuares!
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🎸“Israeli musician, David Broza’s new ‘tefila’ album”
By David Brinn, The Jerusalem Post
David Broza: I read the prayers as an Israeli would read Hebrew and I fell in love with them.
(Photo courtesy of Ehud Lazin/The Jerusalem Post)
When the folks at New York’s Temple Emanu–El turned to celebrated Israeli musician and vocalist, David Broza, to compose new music for the Friday night prayer service, Broza was intrigued, “‘I’m not religious, but I’m proudly Jewish with respect for the traditions, but I didn’t know if I was the right person to do this.’” Soon enough, however, he wrote fourteen pieces. The next step was to ask Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based Jazz Maestro, Omer Avital (a participant and performer at the ASF’s 2019 conference, “Uncommon Commonalities”), to arrange and orchestrate the music: “‘He loves liturgical music and the classics, and he’s a stunning musician himself.’” The album, Tefila, was released on April 22nd.
Feature: “An Iranian Jewish leader was executed in 1979. His granddaughter wants his story known” ✍️
By Howard Lovy, JTA
Photos of Habib Elghanian and Titan of Tehran: From Jewish Ghetto to Corporate Colossus to Firing Squad — My Grandfather’s Life book cover
NBC News Photo Editor Shahrzad Elghanayan composed a biography about her grandfather, Tehran businessman Habib Elghanian, to set the record straight. While Elghanian was unjustly executed during the country’s Khomeinist-Islamist revolution in 1979, Titan of Tehran: From Jewish Ghetto to Corporate Colossus to Firing Squad — My Grandfather’s Life, doesn’t limit itself to Elghanian’s brutal murder, but also celebrates his life as a pivotal figure in Iran’s modernization. Given the frequent yet false stories praising the Iranian regime’s treatment of Jews, Elghanayan “‘wrote this book to inform people… In general, it’s important for watchdog groups and journalists to document antisemitic acts around the world and keep track. A free press helps expose and see reality as it is.’”
“Israeli Embassy in India Unveils Art Mural Honoring Jewish Indian Actresses”
By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner
Segment of the Mural featuring Nadira, New Delhi, India, 25 April 2022
(Photo courtesy of Israel in India)
A street-art mural marking 30 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and India was unveiled at Israel’s embassy in New Delhi on 25 April. The mural pays tribute to three famous Indian-Jewish actresses, all of them of Iraqi-Jewish descent: Pramila (né Esther Victoria Abraham), Sulochana (Ruby Myers) and Nadira (Florence Ezekiel). Israel’s Ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, celebrated the cross-cultural collaboration, “Today we are revealing this mural reminding us of the work of three extraordinary actresses from the Jewish community in India, and in doing so we are also revealing another layer of the unique cultural connection between India and Israel.”
The Opening Night of the ASF’s 24th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival at the Moise Safra Center featured a screening of Shalom Bollywood, a celebration of the all-singing, all-dancing history of the world’s largest film industry, including the unlikely story of the Baghdadi and Bene Israel Jews, especially Jewish women, who became stars and even movie moguls in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
“The Arab world is leading the fight against anti-Semitism”
By Sarah R. Cohen, The Miami Herald
ASF Vice President Florence Amzallag-Tatischeff, A”H and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization’s Vice Chair Malcolm Hoenlein hosted the Mimouna Association’s Founder & President Elmehdi Boudra and Vice President Laziza Dalil for a meeting. Also pictured: then-CoP Chair Robert G. Sugarman and Mimouna Program Director Houda Ouggadoum, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, NYC, 23 October 2014
(Photo courtesy of Conference of Presidents)
The headline is a little misleading – Moroccan identity has Arab, Andalusian, African, Saharan, Mediterranean, Amazigh, and Jewish dimensions – but Sarah R. Cohen reflects on a recent meeting of young Moroccans and Israelis in Marrakesh that points to an important and welcome regional development: “[A] new generation… committed to changing the narrative about Jews and Israel,” is emerging across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In fact, different grassroots and government figures, “in… the region most frequently associated with anti-Semitism… are building… new societ[ies] based on tolerance and mutual understanding.”
Mimouna Association, the ASF’s partner on the USAID-supported Rebuilding Our Homes Project and co-organizer of the Jewish Africa Conference, formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism by signing an MOU with the US Department of State’s Office to Monitor & Combat Antisemitism.
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The American Sephardi Federation invites all individuals, communities, and organizations who share our vision & principles to join us in signing the American Sephardi Leadership Statement!
Please also 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.
Jewish Women from Muslim Societies Speak
Published by the American Sephardi Federation and Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Woman at Brandeis University
Jewish women from Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran were invited to share their personal stories. It could be said that these women's voices are from the last generation of Jews to have an intimate personal knowledge of the Muslim world, the enormous diversity within and among Middle Eastern Jewish communities.
We hope that these essays, told through the medium of vivid personal stories, will stimulate discussion about contemporary dynamics in the Muslim world and raise awareness of Jewish women’s history in North Africa and the Middle-East.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The American Sephardi Federation presents:
The Ten Commandments, The Musical
(U.S. Premiere)
One of France’s most successful musicals, The Ten Commandments, is coming to America. The Ten Commandments’ Off-Broadway cast features new diverse talent from musical theater and operatic backgrounds. Twelve artists will bring to life the story of Moses and the Jewish people.
Sunday, 8 may at 6:00PM EST - Opening Night
Tuesday, 10 May at 8:00PM EST
Thursday, 12 May at 8:00PM EST
Sunday, 15 may at 6:00PM EST - Closing Night
(Tickets: $26 G/A; $36 VIP)
The Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Sign-up Now!
About the musical:
David Serero, starring as Moses, will lead the cast composed of DaShaun Williams (Ramses), Caroline Purdy (Nefertari), , Stephanie Craven (Sephora), Melissa Lubars (Jochebed), Lisa Monde (Bithia), Cale Rausch (Joshua), Zachary Harris Martin (Aaron), Kristyn Vario (Myriam), Julia Anne Cohen and Andy Donnelly (Various roles and U/S).
All performers will sing the beautiful music of Pascal Obispo, one of France’s most famous composers, with original lyrics by Lionel Florence and Patrice Guirao. The musical was originally created by Elie Chouraqui (ASF Pomegranate Awardee, 2020), who wrote the book. David Serero adapted the musical to English and is staging the show with respect to Broadway standards and culture.
“The Ten Commandments” dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and after that leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Five Pillars of Islam - A Jewish Perspective
Rick Sopher will explain the so-called “Five Pillars of Islam” (declaration of faith, prayer, giving, fasting and pilgrimage) and look at connections, similarities and differences with Jewish Practise. He will explore the basis of these practises and how one might have influenced the other.
Bonus: Rick will also look at the basis of the very close practises of Jewish and Muslim dietary laws and explain the history of this connection, which was first stated explicitly in the Qur’an.
Monday, 9 May at 12:00PM EST
(Ticket: $10)
Sign-up Now!
About the author:
Rick has a financial background and is the CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings, which he joined in 1993. He is the Chairman of the world’s longest established investment fund of its type. Prior to that he worked at BDO Stoy Hayward, where he was appointed the youngest ever partner. He has received various industry awards including the Outstanding Contribution Award from Hedge Fund Review and the Decade of Excellence Award by Financial News.
Rick graduated from Cambridge University and has more recently worked in the area of interfaith relations with the Woolf Institute, Cambridge as a member of their Council.
During the lockdown period, Rick convened an online dialogue between Professors of Religion at the world’s leading universities to discuss the relationship between the Qur’an and the Bible and has himself dialogued with Muslim leaders on the subject.
Rick was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in 2007 from President Chirac for his contribution to religious education in France and is Chairman or Director of several educational charities in the UK.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Between Baghdad and Asia
Beginning in the mid-19th century, a vibrant network of Jews primarily from Iraq but also from the Levant and Iran formed communities throughout the Indian sub-continent and East Asia. These communities flourished for over a decade and the remnants of these communities can still be seen to this day in places like Bombay, Singapore, and Hong Kong through the institutions they built and the communities which continue to exist. This talk traces the history of Baghdadi Jews in Asia from its earliest beginning until the present day, exploring the relevance of these communities both to Baghdad and the larger Jewish world.
Tuesday, 10 May at 12:00PM EST
(Ticket: $10)
Sign-up Now!
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The Department of Anthropology & Archeology at the University of Calgary, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, Brandeis University and Belzberg Program in Israel Studies, University of Calgary, & the American Sephardi Federation present:
Sephardi Thought and Modernity 2022 Webinar Series
Continuity and Rupture in Sephardi Modernities
(Second Edition)
On Wednesdays at 1:00PM EST
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK / 8pm Israel / 9:30pm Iran)
(Complimentary RSVP)
11 May
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran - note time - US Daylight Savings)
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (University of Cambridge; ASF Broome & Allen Fellow) Rhizomic networks of unruptured continuity from 16th c. Italy to 21st c. Casablanca: Music, Power, Mysticism and Neo-Platonism
In this second edition of the Sephardi Thought and Modernity Series we will focus on the question of continuity and rupture as a way to deepen our dialogue about the different forms that modernity has adopted throughout Sephardi history. We will discuss questions such as the meaning of the concept of “modernity” in non-European contexts such as the Levant and/or the Arab world. We will explore how non-European Jewish societies developed ways of life and practices that synthesized tradition, change and cultural diversity throughout time. We will delve into Sephardi intellectual life, cosmopolitanism, cultural belongings, language, translation and mobility.
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Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum presents:
The Seventh Annual Greek Jewish Festival
Sunday, 15 May 12:00-6:00PM EST
Join us as we celebrate the unique Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of the Jews of Greece!
Experience a feast for the senses including authentic kosher Greek foods and homemade Greek pastries, traditional Greek dancing and live Greek and Sephardic music, an outdoor marketplace full of vendors, arts and educational activities for kids, and much more!
The ASF is once again proud to be a Festival Sponsor.
Learn more at www.GreekJewishFestival.com
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The Greek Jewish & Sephardic Young Professionals Network in partnership with the Association of Friends of Greek Jewry present:
Special Young Professionals Tour of Jewish Greece
(Summer 2022)
Join to trace the roots of our families, visit the beautiful cities of Thessaloniki (Salonika), Veroia, Kastoria, Ioannina, Athens, and Rhodes, and connect with other young Jews in Greece.
Check out the full itinerary here!
For more information email GreekJewishYPN@gmail.com