Mabrouk/Mazal Tov to Elmehdi Boudra, Founder & President of Mimouna Association, an ASF Advisory Board Member, and our partner on the Rebuilding Our Homes Project, on being named a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council! Elmehdi is also currently a Visiting Research Scholar at the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs at Yeshiva University (YU) and Member of the Moroccan Jewish Communities in the Americas Research Unit: Moroccan Jewish Studies Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
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!
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one
✨“Mysticism and Kabbalah: A Controversy”
By Pinchas Giller, Marginalia
Professor Clémence Boulouque was one of the distinguished presenters at “What Muslim & Jewish Philosopher Can Teach The World? Challenges & Opportunities Rooted in History,” a special World Philosophy Day presented by the Muslim World League, UNESCO, Columbia University’s Department of Religion, Columbia’s Alliance Program, and the American Sephardi Federation, Leo And Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 22 October 2021
(Photo courtesy of Zakaria Siraj)
The global center for the 20th c. scholarly study of Kabbalah was Hebrew University in Jerusalem. However, the study of “Mysticism” assumed a nationalist framework in Israeli academia that overlooked recent historical trends and developments, especially from North Africa. The cost of that blind-spot? The universalist and integrated kabbalistic vision of Elia Benamozegh (1823-1900), an Italian Rabbi with Moroccan roots, was ignored in the academy. Professor Clemence Boulouque’s “thorough and meticulous” book, Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh’s Jewish Universalism (2020), is a helpful corrective to the dominant tendency. As Boulouque tells the story, Benamozegh’s “admiration for Kabbalah was based on the Zohar’s canonicity in North Africa, and his Kabbalah was based on the classical models of the Galilean Renaissance…” What's more, Boulouque explores how Benamozegh’s kabbalistic vision isn’t just “a lost opportunity,” but perhaps also “a future possibility.”
Feature: Ofra Haza Sings Im Nin’alu (“If the Doors are Locked…”) 🎙️🎶
Ofra Haza “Ihr outfit ist ein jemenitisches brautgewand” (in a Yemenite bridal robe), Bravo (a German magazine), 1988
(Photo courtesy of Yemenite Art by Ben Zion David/Facebook)
The great Yemenite-Israeli vocalist Ofra Haza (1957-2000) was featured in Rolling Stone’s list of “The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time,” situated between Bonnie Raitt and Alicia Keys. Trumpeted the American monthly:
Like a call to prayer, the opening phrase of Ofra Haza’s 1984 song Im Nin’alu is instantly transportive, sweeping the listener up in her expressive, fluttery mezzo-soprano. And when U.K. production duo Coldcut sampled that passage on their landmark 1987 remix of Eric B. & Rakim’s ‘Paid in Full,’ it was a cross-cultural masterstroke that helped bring the Israeli singer’s unmistakable voice to the pop mainstream. Inspired by her Yemeni-Jewish ancestry, Haza combined traditional vocal conventions with modern technique to create something that felt at once ancient and ahead of its time.
Like a call to prayer, indeed. In Nin’alu is a classic piyyut written by Rabbi Shalom Shabazi (1619-1720), the Jewish “Poet of Yemen.” Also listen to her 1978 version at the Hatikvah Workshop Theatre.
⚰️ “Israeli volunteers restore grave of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in Egypt”
By Itamar Richner, Ynet
Tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira (1806-1880) before (2008) and after (2014) renovation. See: Diarna Insights No. 4: Tomb of The Baba Sali's Grandfather
(Photos courtesy of the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African & Middle Eastern Jewish Life)
Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira (1806-1880) was a famous and learned Moroccan sage who left the country in 1879 in order to make Aliyah to the Land of Israel. On the way to the Holy Land, however, R’ Yaakov fell ill, passing away in Damanhour, an Egyptian city along the Nile Delta. His grave became a pilgrimage site where devotees congregate every year on the 19th of Tevet, which this year falls on sundown Jan. 11th. But it’s not clear if anyone will be visiting anytime soon. The gravesite suffers from neglect and Jewish pilgrims have been banned from visiting since the outbreak of the “Arab Spring” in 2012. In a positive development, “A group of Israeli volunteers arrived Monday in Egypt, in a covert operation to restore the gravesite.” While the operation was undertaken in cooperation with Egyptian authorities, the court order closing the shrine remains and only time will tell if this is a sign that Egypt plans on re-opening the site to pilgrims.
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Amallel Shir: Yemenite Poems Anthology
Edited by Professor Yosef Tobi and Shalom Seri
Amallel Shir is an annotated anthology of Yemenite poetry, featuring poems (songs) for Shabbat, holidays, weddings, and other events. The poems are in Hebrew and Yemenite Judeo-Arabic.
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.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
ASF Institute of Jewish Experience programming is asking for your input to better design our future program. This survey will not take more than 5 minutes and your input is very important.
All responses will remain confidential. In appreciation for your participation in the survey we would like to extend to you a complimentary course license ($40 value).
During 2022 we conducted over 60 programs covering different topics. Many of our programs are recorded and available on our web site at InstituteofJewishExperience.org.
Please share this survey with friends and family even if they didn’t attend our programs, their ideas are important for future programs.
We thank you for partnering with us to bring the most innovative and informative programs about our diverse Jewish nation.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
A Yemenite Jerusalem Power Couple: The Story of Rabbi and Rabbanit Kapach
Join us for a movie and discussion!
A link to the film, Two Legacies three days before the program to watch at their leisure. Einat Kapach will join on Zoom to talk about making the movie, about her grandparents, their contributions to the Jewish world, and how we each gained from their legacy.
Wednesday, 12 January at 12:00PM EDT
(Tickets: $15)
Sign-up Now!
About the film:
Yosef and Bracha married when they were 12 in Sana`a, Yemen and lived together for close to 70 years. Yosef became absorbed in his books, while Bracha took care of the needy. Before he dies, Rabbi Yosef Kapach hands his granddaughter Einat, director of the film, a bundle of pages which uncover a secret he has kept close to his heart his entire life—the secret of the theological war that split the Yemenite Jewish community. The documents tell of his persecution as a young orphan by the Jews of Yemen, a persecution that continues until the day he dies in Israel. Having read these words, Einat sets out on a journey to understand why he chose her to pass on the legacy and how he managed to turn his life around from such a lonely point and to become a world-famous Jewish philosopher.
About the director:
Einat Kapach is a screenwriter and director who lives and creates in her native Jerusalem. A graduate of the Ma’aleh Film School with an MA from the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem, Einat lectures on film and Jewish identity in different communities in Israel and abroad including small Jewish communities in the US and Africa. She directed the award-winning film Jephtah’s Daughterwhich played at numerous festivals around the world. She was a diarist in the film Peace Diarieswhich details the lives of Israelis and Palestinians over a six month period. Einat is frequently invited to lecture at various foundations and was a judge at the 2009 Jerusalem Film Festival. She recently directed the documentary film Two Legacies and her feature script At the End of a Long Daywon the Minister of Education’s award for Artists in the field of Jewish Culture.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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The Center for Hewish History with the American Sephardi Federation presents:
Citizen, Subject, National, Protégé
“In this talk, Jessica Marglin (University of Southern California) will trace the modern history of Jewish citizenship in North Africa and the Middle East, including nationality legislation; the abolition of dhimmi status; the status of Jews in European colonies; and their citizenship in independent nation-states.”
Thursday, 19 January at 7:00PM EDT
(Tickets: $8 general; $5 members, seniors, students)
Sign-up Now!
About the Speaker:
Jessica Marglin is Associate Professor of Religion, Law, and History, and the Ruth Ziegler Early Career Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California. She earned her PhD from Princeton and her BA and MA from Harvard. Her research focuses on the history of Jews and Muslims in North Africa and the Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on law. She is the author of Across Legal Lines: Jews and Muslims in Modern Morocco (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Shamama Case: Contesting Citizenship across the Modern Mediterranean(Princeton University Press, 2022).
This lecture is part of the Sid Lapidus Lecture Series, programs created in partnership with the exhibition How Jews Became Citizens: Highlights from the Sid Lapidus Collection. Click here for information about the exhibit.
The exhibit and program have been made possible by the generous support of Sid and Ruth Lapidus, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Warriors and Mystics
Iran’s Jewish community is one of the oldest diaspora communities in the world. But is there more to those 2700 years than Queen Esther and the Islamic Revolution? This talk examines the lesser-known parts of Iran’s Jewish History, a vast story of prophets, autonomous nations, divergent sects, epic poetry, and political intrigue. Through the music, languages, foods, writings, traditions, and stories of two millennia, along with their ties to neighboring and faraway communities, the Jews of Iran have forged a culture at once Persian and Jewish, with traditions and aesthetics uniquely their own. In this two-part series, we will explore notable personalities in this rich history, from over 1,500 years ago and more recently.
On Sundays
22 January at 12:00PM EDT
29 January at 12:00PM EDT
(Registration is required for each session; Tickets: $11)
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About the speaker:
Alan Niku is a filmmaker, writer, and scholar of Mizrahi culture from San Luis Obispo, California, based in Los Angeles. A native speaker of Persian, he spends his time learning related Jewish languages, deciphering Judeo-Persian manuscripts, and interviewing community members about their stories. He is also a musician and an amateur chef, teaches history and Jewish heritage at various levels, and seeks to educate the world about the underrepresented cultures of the Middle East through his writing and films.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
1925-1979:
How Iran’s Jews Flourished & Helped Iran Prosper
Join story-breaking Iranian American journalist Karmel Melamed for a look at how the Jews or Iran were at the forefront of arts, academia, international trade, industry, technology, medicine, and engineering before the Islamist revolution and persecution under the Khomeinist regime.
Monday, 23 January at 12:00PM EDT
(Tickets: $10)
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Sponsorship opportunities available:
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The Center for Jewish History, the Leo Baeck Institute, the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research present:
Unmasking Antisemitism
A Panel Discussion in Conjunction with the Exhibition #FakeImages at the United Nations
Widely regarded as the “oldest hatred,” antisemitism is experiencing an alarming revival in the contemporary world. The Center for Jewish History is proud to host a panel discussion on antisemitism, past and present, in conjunction with the new exhibition at the United Nations, #Fake Images: Unmask the Dangers of Stereotypes.
Join historians Dr. Jonathan Brent (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research), Jason Guberman (American Sephardi Federation), Dr. Uffa Jensen (Technical University Berlin), Dr. Pamela Nadell (American University), Dr. Gavriel Rosenfeld (Center for Jewish History and Fairfield University), and Dr. Veerle Vanden Daelen (Kazerne Dossin), as they critically analyze the origin and weaponization of antisemitic ideas, conspiracies, and images from the 19th century to the present.
Thursday, 26 January at 6:15 PM EDT
A wine and cheese reception, including welcome remarks by Tracey Petersen, Manager: The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, the Consulate General of Belgium and the Consulate General of Germany in New York, will begin at 6:15 pm. The program will start promptly at 7:00 pm.
A dessert reception will follow the end of the program at 8:30 pm.
Sign-up Now!
Ticket Info:
In-person panel discussion: $20 general; $15 seniors, students; $10 CJH/Partner members; advance purchase required here
Zoom livestream of panel discussion: $5
The exhibition is organized by the Holocaust and United Nations Outreach Program, Department of Global Communications, as part of the program of events marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The exhibition is curated by Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Research Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights (Mechelen, Belgium)and supported by the Arthur Langerman Archive for the Study of Visual Antisemitism Foundation (Berlin), the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin, and the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The panel discussion is a joint initiative of the Center for Jewish History, the Leo Baeck Institute, the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
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The American Sephardi Federation, the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, the Sephardic Foundation on Aging, and Shearith Israel League Foundation proudly present:
Kontar i Kantar:
The 6th Annual New York Ladino Day
Curated by Jane Mushabac and Bryan Kirschen
Featuring:
Tony- and Grammy-nominated Broadway star Shoshana Bean
A conversation with Michael Frank, author of One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
Judith Cohen, Sing Me a Story, on Sephardic Romansas
Musical Finale, Susana Behar and guitarist Michel Gonzalez
In-Person! Also on Zoom
Sunday, 29 January at 2:00PM EDT
(Early Bird Tickets are $20)
Sign-up Now!
Sign-up for Zoom Now!
Ladino is a bridge to many cultures. A variety of Spanish, it has absorbed words from Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, French, Greek, and Portuguese. The mother tongue of Jews in the Ottoman Empire for 500 years, Ladino became the home language of Sephardim worldwide. While the number of Ladino speakers has sharply declined, distinguished Ladino Day programs like ours celebrate and preserve a vibrant language and heritage. These programs are, as Aviya Kushner has written in the Forward, “Why Ladino Will Rise Again.”
Since 2013, Ladino Day programs have been held around the world to honor Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish. January 29th marks New York’s 6th Annual Ladino Day hosted by the American Sephardi Federation.
© Rhodes, mid-19th century Sephardi & Romaniot Jewish Costumes in Greece & Turkey. 16 watercolours by Nicholas Stavroulakis published by the Association of the Friends of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens, 1986.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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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.