In Memory of Rabbi Abraham Sebbagh, A”H, who served the Jewish community of Fez, Morocco for decades. He was a mentor to the Mimouna Association and friend of the ASF. ברוך דיין האמת
Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, & ASF VP Gwen Zuares!
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one
👨⚕️“Disease, Disorder, Illness, and All That: How a 12th Century Physician-Philosopher Pointed Us to Our True Calling”
By Ronald W. Pies, MD, Psychiatric Times
Traditional portrait of the RAMBAM with signature
(Image courtesy of the Jewish Encyclopedia)
Dr. Ronald W. Pies, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at SUNY, argues that “defining and treating disease is not… the primary function and mission of psychiatry.” Rather, as Maimonides taught, “A physician does not treat a disease; he… treats a sick [diseased] person.” Pies stresses that Maimonides was “intensely interested in the physical, emotional, and environmental causes of disease states, and is widely considered a progenitor of psychosomatic medicine.” Knowledge of those causes, however, was for the purpose of treating a specific, whole person: “his attitude toward the ethos and practice of medicine was decidedly patient-centered, not disease-centered.” Shifting the focus from “pathophysiologic processes” to “the unique suffering of the patient,” Pies uses Maimonides’ model in prodding present-day physicians to wonder “if ours is, fundamentally, a ministering profession, aimed at compassionately caring for certain suffering and incapacitated persons.”
~~~~~~~
Feature: Manikas Blandas: An Old Ladino Love Song From Istanbul💕🎶
Istanbul-born Izzet Bana is a Turkish-Jewish actor and musician, the founder of Estreyikas d’Estambol (the Sephardic Children’s Choir), and recently served as a technical advisor to the Turkish Netflix series The Club (Kulüp). In this video he sings, a cappella, a Ladino love song from another era that he heard from his father and never came across in any other context, Manikas Blandas (“Soft Hands.”)
~~~~~~~
🙏“Morocco is building bridges to connect its youth with its Moroccan Jewish cultural heritage. Here’s how”
By El Mehdi Boudra, The Atlantic Council
El Mehdi Boudra with Rabbi Abraham Sebbagh, A”H, 2022
(Photo courtesy of El Mehdi Boudra)
El Mehdi Boudra is the Founder and President of Mimouna Association, a cultural non-profit association created in 2007 by young Moroccan Muslim students willing to promote and preserve the Jewish-Moroccan heritage. Boudra, a member of the ASF’s Advisory Board, was recently appointed as Nonresident Senior Fellow at the prestigious Atlantic Council, where he has been charged with exploring and writing about “minority rights and cross-cultural communication and dialogue.” Boudra’s first piece in his new position details how “In the last twenty years, Morocco has experienced a paradigm shift in regard to the perception of pluralism and diversity.” The new paradigm is grounded in an old ideal: “Moroccan Convivencia, a celebration and embrace of the best of the past as the basis for a bright future of shared societies.” And even if reality sometimes falls short of our highest ideals, still, “Morocco’s continuation of decades-long efforts to safeguard the Moroccan Jewish heritage is integral to combating extremism and hatred and fostering interreligious dialogue.”
The ASF proudly serves as Mimouna Association's official American partner and we work together on a variety of joint projects, including the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Jewish Africa Conference, and USAID-supported Rebuilding Our Homes initiative in Essaouira, Fez, and Rabat, Morocco.
~~~~~~~
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!
~~~~~~~
From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance
By David S. Malka
From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Shlomo Malka. It honors his memory as a Jewish scholar, a spiritual leader, and a great humanitarian.
David S. Malka is publishing this text as his personal contribution to legacy of Malka family, in the hope that this generation will re-discover their patriarch's teaching and advance his message of faith and compassion on to the next generation.
From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance is a message of love, tolerance, and pride in one's heritage.
The Historic Synagogues Of Turkey / Turkiye'nin Tarihi Sinagoglari
(In Turkish and English)
By Joel A. Zack
Photographs by Devon Jarvis
Drawings by Ceren Kahraman
Published by the American Sephardi Federation
This project testifies to a historic Jewish community of vibrancy and dynamism that once dotted Turkey. Dating back to Roman and Byzantine times, Jews thrived on Turkish soil, finding refuge in the tens of thousands after their expulsions from Spain, Portugal, and Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Joel Zack and his team have performed an important cultural service, retrieving for posterity rich testimony of the Jewish architectural heritage in Ottoman and modern Turkish History.
~~~~~~~
Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience, together with Kulanu and Genie Milgrom present:
Finding Judaism Across Africa and Central American
Communities across Africa and Central America are returning to their Jewish roots or finding Judaism. They are seeking out religion and a connection to the larger Jewish world, many with a view towards their own Sephardi ancestry and others through an affinity for the Sephardi rites.
Representatives of these communities, documentarians, and activists will come together to share their experiences and the unique interactions of these communities and the greater Sephardi world traditions.
The program will open with a photo exhibit in the Great Hall.
Sunday, 12 March 10:00AM - 4:00PM EST
At the Center for Jewish History
(Tickets: In-person $36; Via Zoom $15)
Sign-up Now!
Sign-up for Zoom Now!
We will host scholars and leaders of these emerging communities from Africa and Central America that will discuss their connections to Judaism and their Sephardi influences.
Featuring:
Professor Tudor Parfitt, emeritus of modern Jewish studies in the University of London, senior associate fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Judaic Studies, distinguished professor at Florida International University
Professor Shalva Weil, senior researcher at Hebrew university, distinguished professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, research fellow at University of South Africa, prolific writer and lecturer on Indian Jews, Ethiopian Jews, lost tribes, and femicide
Joseph F. Lovett, producer, director, writer. Director of Children of the Inquisition, 2019.
Engr. Jator Abido (Yatov ben Yisrael), Nigerian representative to the Sub Sahara Africa Jewish alliance
Patricio Serno, filmmaker and co-founder of Casa Tova, Mexico
and more.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
~~~~~~~
The Belzberg Program in Israel Studies at the University of Calgary and the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. With the collaboration of the American Sefardi Federation, Centro Sefarad Israel, and the International Network for Jewish Thought present:
Sephardi Modernities Seminar Series, 2023
Join us as we explore the relationship between our narratives about the past and the future to which we aspire. The ways in which scholars approach the stories, events, characters, and historical processes of the Sephardi/Levantine past are inevitably guided by values, by their moral and political beliefs. Which elements of the past do they strive to preserve, reclaim and grant continuity? What are they trying to say about a potential future? Which stories become part of canonized history, and which ones are dismissed as mere anecdotes? Which theoretical, social, political, and cultural frameworks do they wrestle with, and which do they seek to advance?
On Zoom
(Registration is required for each session)
14 March at 12:00PM EST
Preservation of Jewish Heritage and Debating Egypt’s Past and Present
Yoram Meital, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Sign-up Now!
23 March at 12:00PM EDT
How Do Judeo-Spanish Proverbs and Tales Communicate with Us and How Do We Communicate With Them?
Lital Belinko-Sabah, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Sign-up Now!
18 April at 12:00PM EST
‘Modernity’ and ‘Tradition’ on the Move: Spanish Moroccan Jews and their Diasporas
Aviad Moreno, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in conversation with Angy Cohen, University of Calgary
Sign-up Now!
9 May at 12:00PM EST
Sephardi Musical Modernities: Listening to the Past in the Future
Edwin Seroussi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Yair Dalal, Composer, violinist, oud player, singer, and teacher
Sign-up Now!
Throughout this year’s series we will discuss the future invoked by each way of looking at the past, the political agendas of historical research, and the values that unavoidably guide scholastic inquiry. Topics include the transmission of narratives among collectives and among researchers, ownership of archives, encounters with the past, the academic legitimacy of certain topics and collectives, vehicles of memory (music, oral history, proverbs, etc.) and the construction of historical narratives.
Organized by Dr. Angy Cohen, Inaugural Hy and Jenny Belzberg Postdoctoral Associate in Israel Studies, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary, and Dr. Yuval Evri, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies on the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Jewish Studies, Brandeis University.
~~~~~~~
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah
Discover a true story of imperial rivalry, Mediterranean Jewish communities, a Jewish kingdom, & one black messiah!
Professor Alan Verskin will share the world into which the semi-messianic figure, David Reubeni, peddles his vision of an autonomous Jewish country in the Holy Land.; a world filled with fierce rivalries between Christian and Muslim powers, brutal conquest, and fantastic discovery.
A panel discussion will ensue with Professors Alan Verskin, Ronnie Perelis, and Francesca Bregoli followed by Q&A.
Thursday, 16 March at 6:00PM EST
At the Center for Jewish History
(Tickets: $15 suggested donation)
Sign-up Now!
In 1524 David Reubeni, also known as the “black messiah,” arrived in Venice, claiming to be the ambassador of a powerful Arabian Jewish kingdom. In an era of fierce imperial rivalry, and the fantastic discovery and brutal conquest of new lands, people across the Mediterranean saw signs of an impending apocalypse and dreamed of discovering new allies to join them in the coming war. Reubeni offered a Jewish take on these expectations. With his warriors from lost Israelite tribes, he pledged to recover the Holy Land and restore Jewish pride. Numerous Jews and conversos hailed him as the messiah.
Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah (Stanford University Press, 2023) is the first English translation of Reubeni’s Hebrew diary.
Alan Verskin is Associate Professor of Jewish and Islamic History at the University of Rhode Island. His most recent book is A Vision of Yemen: The Travels of a European Orientalist and his Native Guide (Stanford University Press, 2019).
Francesca Bregoli, Joseph and Oro Halegua Chair in Greek and Sephardic Jewish Studies, is Associate Professor at Queens College and The Graduate Center, where she serves as Director of the Center for Jewish Studies. Her research focuses on early modern Italian and Sephardic Jewish history. She is the author of Mediterranean Enlightenment: Livornese Jews, Tuscan Culture, and Eighteenth-Century Reform (Stanford University Press, 2014; National Jewish Book Award finalist in the categories of Sephardic Culture and Writing Based on Archival Material).
Co-Sponsored by the Diasporas Project at the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs at Yeshiva University and The Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY
Sponsorship opportunities available:
~~~~~~~
The Posen Library of Jewish Culture & Civilization with Congregation Shearith Israel, Center for Jewish History, American Jewish Historical Society, Leo Baeck Institute, and the American Sephardi Federation present:
The Early Modern Period, 1500-1750, Volume 5
“Join Professors Deborah Dash Moore, Elisheva Carlebach, Francesca Bregoli, and Mayer Juni to celebrate the publication of The Early Modern Period, 1500-1750, Volume 5 of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization edited by Yosef Kaplan. The discussion will present fascinating dimensions of Jewish culture and civilization across three centuries from 1500 to 1800.”
Featuring a short performance by the Shearith Israel Choir and a panel discussion with distinguished Jewish historians.
Followed by a reception in the Levy Auditorium
Thursday, 23 March 23 at 7:00PM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Congregation Shearith Israel, Main Sanctuary
2 West 70th Street at Central Park West, New York City
Sign-up Now!
“Accessibility: The landmark synagogue building does not have an elevator. We do have people on hand to provide mobility assistance, including with the aid of a wheelchair climber that can take wheelchair users upstairs to the Sanctuary and downstairs to the Levy Auditorium. Please let us know if you expect to need assistance.”
~~~~~~~
ASF Broome & Allen & ADL Collaborative for Change Fellow Isaac de Castro presents:
Entre Diasporas: Telling the Latin-American Jewish story. Contando la historia judía latinoamericana
Tell your story. Cuenta tu historia.
We’re looking for first-generation Latino Jews in the United States who immigrated because of political and social turmoil. Jews of Sephardic descent from Colombia, Cuba, and Venezuela that now reside in the Miami area will be given priority, but others are welcome to apply as well.
Fill out this form to be considered as an interviewee for this project. After you’ve submitted, we will be in touch promptly to set up a preliminary phone call.
Click here for more information.