In Honor of Joshua Benaim for Sephardi House! ~David Klafter
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
🎬“Turkey’s cosmopolitan nostalgia”
By Sayed Abdel-Meguid, AhramOnline
“The Club” on Netflix
“The Club,” a Turkish T.V. series streaming on Netflix, traces the fortunes of a Sephardi Turkish family in the mid-1950s when the pressures of Turkish nationalism were making life hard for minorities. By shining a light on the struggles of a Jewish family, “The Club” touched a raw nerve. As Sayed Abdel-Meguid writes in Al-Ahram, “‘If secularist Kemalism inspired waves of xenophobia in the past, today’s Erdogan regime feeds on a hybrid ultranationalist Islamist ideology that is doubly exclusivist.’” Interestingly, “[A]fter the second episode… aired in Turkey, Erdogan seemed to be struck by its nostalgic spirit,” and he gave a speech celebrating the history of Turkish tolerance, even as he elided the problems portrayed in ‘The Club.’” Abdel-Meguid, for one, is skeptical: “‘If the fervour has recently been tamped down, it is for purely pragmatic reasons.’”
Feature: Being a Young Jew in Turkey 🕍🕎
By +90
Betsi Penso
(Screenshot courtesy of +90/Youtube)
Turkey’s economy is slowing and antisemitism is on the rise. The result? Many young Jews are leaving the country and moving to Israel. This week’s video features a group of young Turkish-Jewish professionals, both in Turkey and Israel, sharing their hopes and concerns, as well older members of the community sharing their thoughts on Turkey’s dwindling Jewish community. Bentsi Penso, a young attorney now attending graduate school in Israel, happily shares how she is “‘enamored with Istanbul.’” That said, when it comes to Jewish life in Turkey, “‘It’s over… Unfortunately, it’s over.’”
[Press on “cc” for English translation]
🏛️ “Arabian Gulf’s only Jewish cemetery symbolises Bahrain’s rich cultural heritage”
By Nick Webster, The National
AGJC President Nonno in the synagogue, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
(Photo courtesy of The National)
The rebirth of Jewish life in Bahrain inspired Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo, President of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities, to restore Bahrain’s only Jewish cemetery: “‘Because of the Abraham Accords, we know we will have more expatriate Jews coming to live in Bahrain, so we want to make sure this is an integral part of the community.’” A mosque, Hindu temple, and a Catholic church are all within walking distance of the cemetery, a reflection of the tolerant spirit now animating the country and, to some degree, the region. That said, looking at the cemetery, Nonoo knows that basic work remains to be done: “‘We would like to see the walls strengthened — because I’m worried they will crumble down — and the graves reset properly so they can withstand the test of time.’”
📚“Review: To Egypt with Love, a Literary Jewish Memento of a By(going) Era”
By Sara Ahmed, Egyptian Streets
Book cover: Viviane Bowell’s To Egypt With Love: Memories of a Bygone World
Egyptian Jewish life began to unravel in 1956, when almost half of the community left for Israel, Europe, the U.S. and South America, while more than 1,000 Jews were imprisoned. Viviane Bowell’s book, To Egypt With Love: Memories of a Bygone World, tells the story of her own Egyptian-Jewish family and explores, “the Jewishness of Cairo’s social fabric… a reader can capture the nuances of the social classes, from the poorest who ate fuul as anyone else, to the ‘haute juiverie,’ replete with financiers, bankers and socialites close to the royal family.” Ultimately, says Bowell, “‘I wanted to talk about the Jewish community in Egypt: what we were like, what we ate, what we thought, our superstitions. You know, we’re quite unique, and I want that to… be documented.’”
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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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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.
Foundations of Sephardic Spirituality: The Inner Life of Jews of the Ottoman Empire
By Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel
Who were the Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire?
What lasting lessons does their spiritual life provide for future generations?
“How did the Judeo-Spanish-speaking Jews of the Ottoman Empire manage to achieve spiritual triumph? To answer this question, we need to have a firm understanding of their historical experience…. We need to be aware of the dark, unpleasant elements in their environments; but we also need to see the spiritual, cultural light in their dwellings that imbued their lives with meaning and honor.”
—from Chapter 1, “The Inner Life of the Sephardim”
In this groundbreaking work, Rabbi Marc Angel explores the teachings, values, attitudes, and cultural patterns that characterized Judeo-Spanish life over the generations and how the Sephardim maintained a strong sense of pride and dignity, even when they lived in difficult political, economic, and social conditions. Along with presenting the historical framework and folklore of Jewish life in the Ottoman Empire, Rabbi Angel focuses on what you can learn from the Sephardic sages and from their folk wisdom that can help you live a stronger, deeper spiritual life.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Protest, Philanthropy, and the Struggle for ‘Aliyah in 1940s ‘Aden
After the 1947 “pogrom” in ‘Aden, Selim Banin and a handful of other traumatized ‘Adeni Jewish notables were left to pick up the pieces of a shattered community. They founded the “Jewish Emergency Committee,” which took charge of representing ‘Adeni Jewry in negotiations and confrontations with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the British colonial regime ruling ‘Aden, and the Zionist organizations. Theirs is a story of solidarity and culture-clash in a philanthropic network that spanned New York, London, Tel Aviv, South Africa, Asmara, and ‘Aden. In time, through a combination of petitions, closed-door negotiations, and popular demonstrations, they would play a key role in making possible the evacuation of most Yemeni and ‘Adeni Jews to Israel
Sunday, 13 February at 12:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
About the Speaker:
Benjamin Berman-Gladstone, an ASF Broome & Allen Fellow, is a doctoral student at the Skirball Department for Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Department of History at New York University. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Middle East Studies and Judaic Studies and received honors for his thesis on the idea of an “Ingathering of Exiles” in relations between the American, Israeli, and Yemeni Jewish communities during Operation On Eagles’ Wings. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 2018 and spent the 2018-2019 year in Jerusalem on a Fulbright research scholarship. His writing about issues related to Israel, American Jewry, and Southwest Asian affairs has been published in the New York Times, Haaretz, Tablet Magazine, the Jewish Daily Forward, Tower Magazine, the Times of Israel, the Jewish Advocate, the Hill, the Brown Daily Herald, and the Brown Political Review.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
New Works Wednesday with Yehuda Azoulay
Join us for New Works Wednesday with Yehuda Azoulay of Sephardic Legacy Series as he discusses his new book “A Legend of Humility and Leadership: Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu”!
Wednesday, 16 February at 12:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
About the Speaker:
Noted scholar, educator, author, activist, and entrepreneur. He is the Vice President & Head of Investor Relations for Concrete Mortgage Capital Inc. Currently he holds a Rabbinical Degree, a Bachelors of Talmudic Law, a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts, from Excelsior College and a Masters of Science degree from Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. He is presently pursuing his Doctorate from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning, from the Northwestern University and receiving his Doctor of Science in Jewish Studies. Yehuda was the Vice-Principal of Torah High/NCSY in Toronto for the past four years, and later moved in to the field of finance and is Vice President & Head of Investor Relations for Concrete Mortgage Capital Inc. Furthermore, Yehuda is the founder of “Sephardic Legacy Series – Institute for Preserving Sephardic Heritage.” To date he has authored five books and published over thirty articles on Sephardic historical topics.
For more about the book: https://sephardiclegacy.com/index.php/publications/
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project, Iranian American Jewish Federation, Nessah Synagoque, and USC Caden Institute present:
Languages of the Jews of Iran: A series of online conversations and performances
On Sundays at 1:00PM EST
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK / 8pm Israel / 9:30pm Iran)
(Complimentary RSVP)
20 February
Lishán Didán and Hulaulá: Jewish Neo-Aramaic in the Kurdish region of Iran
In each town of the Kurdish region, Jews and Christians spoke different dialects of Jewish Neo-Aramaic. Dr. Geoffrey Khan gives a historical and linguistic overview and showcases an interactive map with recordings based on his decades of research. Shahnaz Yousefnejadian shares her long-term dictionary project of the Hulaulá dialect of Sanandaj. Alan Niku gives the perspective of a heritage learner/speaker. And musicians Alon Azizi and Adi Kadussi explain why it’s important to record songs in these languages. The event ends with the world premiere of two new songs by Azizi and Kadussi
13 March
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran - note time - US Daylight Savings)
Judeo-Persian in the 20th century: New research
Dr. Habib Borjian and Ibrāhīm Šafiʿī present personal documents written in Persian in Hebrew letters, and Alan Niku discusses the distinctive Tehran Jewish dialect of Persian based on recordings and fieldwork. Then, Cantor Jacqueline Rafii presents Passover psalms translated into Judeo-Persian and recorded by her grandfather in Tehran in 1971.
Jews in Iran historically spoke many languages - from Semitic, Median, and Persian language families. The languages/dialects of Jews in different cities and towns were so different that their speakers often could not understand each other. Now these longstanding Jewish languages are endangered, as most Jews shifted to standard Persian in Iran or to Modern Hebrew, English, and other languages after emigrating.
The HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project presents a series of conversations and performances highlighting this rich linguistic heritage. By attending these events, you will learn how Jewish languages compare to each other and to local Muslim, Zoroastrian, and Christian languages. You will be inspired by the elderly speakers and young activists who are working hard to preserve them for future generations. And you will be entertained by new songs in Judeo-Isfahani, Judeo-Hamadani, and Jewish Neo-Aramaic.
These events will last for 75 minutes. Please register for each event separately. While the Jewish Language Project usually posts recordings of events the following day, these events will only be accessible at the times they are presented (due to security concerns and preferences of some of the presenters). These events will also be screened in person at Nessah Synagogue in Beverly Hills, California. Learn more and RSVP for the in-person screenings here.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Kavkazi, Georgian, and Bukharian Jews: At the Crossroads of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Worlds
(3 Part Learning Series)
The histories and cultures of Bukharian, Kavkazi (Mountain), and Georgian Jews are situated at the unique intersection of Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian-Speaking Jewish (RSJ) identities. Through this 3-part learning series, we will explore the multilayered and rich stories of these millennia-old communities in Central Asia and the Caucasus—discovering the ways in which they have developed their mosaic cultures through dynamic interactions with the dominant and changing societies surrounding them. Our discussion will also shed light on how their experiences fit into the broader historical saga of the Jewish people.
On Tuesdays at 12:00PM EST
22 February
(Part 2)
Sign-up Now!
22 March
(Part 3)
Sign-up Now!
About the Speaker:
Ruben Shimonov is an educator, community builder, and social entrepreneur with a passion for Jewish diversity. He previously served as Director of Community Engagement and Education at Queens College Hillel. Currently, Ruben is the American Sephardi Federation’s National Director of Sephardi House and Young Leadership. He is also the Founding Executive Director of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network and Director of Educational Experiences & Programming for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee. He is an alumnus of the COJECO Blueprint, Nahum Goldmann and ASF Broome & Allen Fellowships for his work in Jewish social innovation and Sephardic scholarship. He has been listed among The Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" Jewish community leaders and changemakers. Currently, he is a Jewish Pedagogies Research Fellow at M² | The Institute of Experiential Jewish Education. Ruben has lectured extensively on the histories and cultures of various Sephardic and Mizrahi communities. He is also a visual artist specializing in multilingual calligraphy that interweaves Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
New Works Wednesday with Chef Sibel Pinto
Join us for this episode of New Works Wednesdays with Chef Sibel Pinto as she explains the “global food waste challenge” and discusses her new book “Kashkarikas: Wasteless Kitchen – A Turkish-Sephardi Chef’s Recipes and Stories.”
Wednesday, 23 February at 12:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
About the book:
In this colorful cookbook Chef Sibel Pinto gives an authentic collection of recipes, with many tips and tricks to open up new culinary possibilities for a conscious and sustainable kitchen. Pinto combines her Sephardic, Georgian and Turkish culinary heritage, her sustainability educator background and professional experience to raise awareness on how easy it is to respect and use seasonal ingredients from ‘root-to-leaf’.
In this difficult Covid-19 pandemic period, where many would like to change habits and adapt new ways, you will find the secrets of her easy techniques and helpful insights, inspired by the memories of her ancestors’ kitchens, her researches, her travels and the rich stories of her charity mission ‘Action Kasharikas’.
The book consists of 222 versatile, mouthwatering recipes divided into easy-to-find 60 main ingredients to inspire the passionate home cooks to reproduce waste-free meals. This book is a tribute to previous generations and an invitation to new generations to respect the environment, to give a second life to ingredients, to learn, to experiment, to share and to enjoy.
About the author:
Sibel Cuniman Pinto is a chef, culinary instructor, researcher, author, and lecturer specialized in Sephardi, Turkish and Mediterranean cuisines. As a WorldChefs certified ‘Sustainability Education to Culinary Professionals’ and Agro Tech Paris certified Food Waste Prevention trainer, food waste activist, coach and consultant she teaches how to give a ‘second life’ to ingredients, using the root-to-leaf approach. She works to raise awareness in food waste reduction and sustainable and conscious kitchens. She educates and inspires people to eat real food.
For more about the book: https://www.kashkarikas.com/
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving, and Thriving
Throughout history Jews have spoken many languages, such as Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, Jewish Neo-Aramaic (Iraq-Iran), and Judeo-Malayalam (Southern India). Over the past two centuries, migrations and other historical events have led to many of these languages becoming endangered. At the same time, Jews are now engaging with these languages in postvernacular ways, such as through song and food, and new Jewish language varieties are developing, including Jewish English, Jewish Latin American Spanish, and Jewish French. This talk explains these developments and makes the case for the urgent need for documentation and reclamation.
Wednesday, 28 February at 12:00PM EST
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About the Speaker:
Dr. Sarah Benor is Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (Los Angeles campus) and Adjunct Professor (by courtesy) in the University of Southern California Linguistics Department. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Linguistics in 2004. She has published and lectured widely about Jewish languages, linguistics, Yiddish, American Jews, and Orthodox Jews. Her books include Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism (Rutgers, 2012) and Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps (Rutgers, 2020). Dr. Benor is founding co-editor of the Journal of Jewish Languages (Brill) and co-editor of Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and Present (De Gruyter Mouton, 2018).
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)
9 March
Deborah Starr (Cornell University) and Eyal Sagui Bizawe (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Nostalgia as Critique: The Case of Jews in Egyptian Cinema
13 April
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran - note time - US Daylight Savings)
Julia Philips Cohen (Vanderbilt University) and Devi Mays (University of Michigan) Middle Eastern and North African Jews in Paris: A Forgotten Chapter
11 May
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran - note time - US Daylight Savings)
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (University of Cambridge) 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.
