In Memory of the American Sephardi Federation’s Former Chairman Edward Alcosser, A”H, who said “We have a proud tradition and it needs to be passed on to future generations. There’s a lot in Sephardi heritage that can help American Jews today.” Indeed, the Sephardic Voice is essential to the Jewish future. This issue is, therefore, also dedicated in honor of ASF Broome & Allen Scholar and Young Leader Julia Jassey, CEO of Jewish on Campus, who participated in two White House events (the Antisemitism Roundtable and the Youth Communities in Action Summit) and was featured in “Antisemitism Is Rising at Colleges, and Jewish Students Are Facing Growing Hostility” (Wall Street Journal). Julia is an inspiring young American Sephardi leader, proud of her heritage, and committed to standing-up for Jewish unity in the face of adversity.
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
🎭“Israeli musical plays in Morocco in Hebrew — a first for any Arab country”
By Tobias Siegal, The Times of Israel
‘Bustan Sephardi’ cast seen on stage in Rabat, Morocco, November 2022.
(Photo courtesy of Channel 12)
Bustan Sephardi (“Spanish Orchard”) is a 1969 play written by Yitzhak Navon, Israel’s Fifth (and First Sephardi) President, depicting life during the 1930s in the Sephardi Jerusalem neighborhood of Ohel Moshe. The Navon family fled Spain for Morocco and then, after a couple of centuries in the North African Kingdom, made Aliyah to the Land of Israel in 1742. Yitzhak Navon’s son, Erez, has been on a mission to bring his father’s play to Morocco, and in the beginning of December, Bustan Sephardi was performed at Rabat, the Moroccan capital, by Habima, Israel’s national theatre troupe. While it’s natural to wonder how Navon’s portrait of Sephardi Jerusalem was received by the local audience, for one Moroccan who attended the play, the performance itself was reason to celebrate: “‘In Morocco there were once Muslims and Jews living together. Now it’s all very complicated. I’m happy to be here.’”
Feature: Bustan Sephardi, Then and Now 🎶🎭
Scene from Bustan Sephardi
(Photo courtesy of Israel/Youtube)
Bustan Sephardi (“Spanish Orchard”) is the longest-running show at Habima, Israel’s National Theater. The Israeli actors in the play today have developed an intimate connection to the stories and songs from the old Sephardic Jerusalem neighborhood of Ohel Moshe that were woven together by Israel’s Fifth President, Yitzhak Navon. Both then and now, life is rich with love, separation, friendship, hardship, humor, pain, and music. In the words of Israeli actress, Galit Giat, “‘The songs are beautiful and the stories are funny. It’s a very folk, Jewish show.’”
“Preserving the hidden world of Afghan Jews”
By Barbara Angelakis, The Jerusalem Post
The ASF’s Afghan Taskforce headed by Osnat Gad and a delegation of community leaders & friends(including Afghanistan’s Former Minister of Agriculture Assad Zamir, the Philos Project's Mariam Wahba, the Museum of Bible, Irina Tsukerman, & TriBeCa Synagogue) to the Kite Runner on Broadway, which started ASF NYSJFF Pomegranate Awardee Amir Arison! Helen Hayes Theatre, NYC, 12 October 2022,(Photo courtesy of ASF Twitter/Zakaria Siraj)
Osnat Gad is a New York jewelry designer whose Jewish family hails from Herat, Afghanistan. While tens of thousands of Jews lived in Herat in the 19th century, by 1936 the number had dwindled to 3,300, and by the time the Taliban assumed power, only two Jews remained in the city. In 2013, Gad received an email in broken English from an Afghani man promising “a lot of information” about the Herat Jewish community that ultimately led to Gad’s mission to restore “the Herat cemetery, the very same cemetery where many of Gad’s ancestors were interred,” and to curate an exhibit, “The Hidden World of Afghan Jews,” that is “slated to open next year at New York’s American Sephardi Federation.”
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My Life and Work: Chanukah Lamps
By Oded Halahmy
The Hebrew word Hanukkah means "dedication" and symbolizes freedom; Oded Halahmy has dedicated himself to honoring his Jewish roots and culture through artwork related especially to this holiday.
Oded once hosted a holiday party and invited many friends to light Hanukkah candles. Every year since, he has kept up the tradition of making a new Hanukkah lamp.
Over the years, other ancient Middle Eastern symbols from Oded's Iraqi heritage began to appear in his lamps: the pomegranate, Hamsa (hand), lion, palm tree, palm frond, crown, and horseshoe.
Hanukkah in Eight Nights: Bring the Past to Light
By Marian Scheuer Sofaer
Celebrate a family Hanukkah with dramatic readings about the feats of the Maccabees! In addition to the candle lighting blessings, Hanukkah songs, recipes, and sevivon game rules, this book incudes excerpts from ancient sources and vivid read-aloud stories by Moshe Pearlman for each night that will bring the riveting events of 164 B.C.E. to life. Good for school age children through adults.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
Tikvah Israel presents:
Dawning of the Day
A simple Jerusalem laundryman is tested by a vanished voice from his past and the destruction of his treasured way of life
“Join Mosaic’s online premiere dramatic reading of The Dawning of the Day, along with the post-show discussion and the monthly Mosaic essay authored by Ruth Wisse, the world’s leading scholar of Jewish literature, as well as other special guests. Highlighting Haim Sabato’s contributions to the culture of Middle Eastern Jewry.”
Wednesday, 21 December at 7:00PM EDT
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
“Set in and around Jerusalem’s famous shuk, and featuring three top-notch readers playing multiple characters each, The Dawning of the Day brings to the screen a way of life that no longer exists in quite the same way. Ezra Siman Tov is a character the equal of Tevye the Dairyman—if Tevye came from a Syrian Jewish family rather than a Russian one. Happily, ensconced in a pious daily routine, Ezra’s life is upended when his family decides to throw him a feast for his 60th birthday and, amid the revelry, an old friend shows up uninvited. Does the friend mean well? And what are the lawyers poking around the old shuk doing? And what’s the voice that starts to appear in the distance? Through it all, Sabato pays tribute to the culture of Middle Eastern Jewry, and—as Ruth R. Wisse writes in a newly published accompanying essay—‘makes us believe in the reality of what we have been raised to believe in.’”
The ASF is proud to be a promotional co-sponsor of this program having sought to bring attention to the literary oeuvre of Rabbi Haim Sabato for many years.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Building your family tree with the Genie Milgrom databases
Join us as Genie Milgrom shows you the databases available and how to use them to build out your family tree and complete the application process.
Wednesday, 4 January 11:00AM EDT
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Las bases de datos de Genie Milgrom y la construcción de su árbol genealógico
Únase a nosotros mientras discutimos el proceso necesario para solicitar el Certificado de Herencia Sefardí. Le mostraremos las bases de datos disponibles y cómo usarlas para construir su árbol genealógico y completar el proceso de solicitud.
Miércoles, 4 Enero 1:00PM EDT
(RSVP gratis)
Regístrese Ahora!
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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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, 11 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:
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)
Sign-up Now!
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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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.