In Memory of Stanley Sultan, A”H, “a distinguished writer and literary scholar from Brooklyn who wrote about his Syrian Jewish heritage and upbringing in award-winning short fiction (“The Fugue of the Fig Tree”) and in his later novel, Rabbi, A Tale of the Waning Year.” He was the first in his family to attend university, graduating from Cornell (A.B., ’49). Boston (A.M., ’50), and Yale (Ph.D., ’55). We are grateful to and agree with his daughter, Professor Sonia E. Sultan, that “his achievements reflect a deep connection to his Sephardic American culture.” Thank you also to Professor Aviva Ben-Ur for putting us in touch. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement!
Click here to dedicate a future issue in honor or memory of a loved one
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The Sephardi World Weekly is made possible by Daniel Yifrach, Rachel Sally, Professor Rifka Cook, Maria Gabriela Borrego Medina, Rachel Amar, Deborah Arellano, & ASF VP Gwen Zuares!
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Read the latest Sephardi Ideas Monthly exclusive: “When Excellence is a Necessity: Bilahari Kausikan on the Singapore-Israel Connection”
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“A Royal Message to Participants of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Marrakesh Conference on ‘Interfaith Dialogue: Working Together for Our Common Future’”
By HM King Mohammed VI, King of Morocco
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI talking with Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, and her father, the Senior Royal Councillor André Azoulay
(Photo courtesy of Bayt Dakira)
HM King Mohammed VI of Morocco addressed a message to The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Conference on Interfaith Dialogue that was recently held in Marrakesh, Morocco. The King’s address articulated a principled stand in favor of religious and ethnic respect grounded firmly in the Moroccan monotheistic tradition: “Mankind’s mission on earth, as willed by the Almighty, is for people to get to know and cooperate with one another, and to coexist, regardless of religious or doctrinal differences.” King Mohammed VI accordingly devoted extensive sections of his address to celebrating Morocco’s Jewish community and the role played by his Grandfather (Mohammed V) and Father (Hassan II) in embracing Moroccan Jews. Likewise, “Since I ascended the throne, I have sought to enhance the spirit of brotherhood, coexistence, cooperation and cohesion between all Moroccans – Jews and Muslims alike – given that this is one of the main pillars of Moroccan civilization.”
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Feature: Inta Omri, Jerusalem East &West, and Beyond🎶🎙
Tom Cohen, Nasreen Qadri, and the Jerusalem Orchestra, East & West
Inta Omri (“You Are My Life”) is Umm Kulthum’s 1964 standard upon which anyone playing Arabic music needs to break his or her “chops.” In this video from a Dec., 2002, performance just released on YouTube, Tom Cohen leads Nasreen Qadri and the Jerusalem Orchestra, East & West, in a gorgeous rendition of the classic that expands the Arabic sound with Western harmonies played by a horn section and swings the rhythm with an occasional backbeat.
The conductor, Beersheba-born Tom Cohen, grew up in a half-Iraqi, half-Ashkenazi home surrounded by the open, North African Jewish vibe that continues to enrich life across Israel’s Negev region. A graduate of Maqif Aleph High School in Beersheba and the Jerusalem Music Academy, Cohen arrived at his unique blend of Western harmony and Arabic passion by rejecting the way music was hierarchically organized at the Academy. His life’s mission since then has been to create the natural musical fusion that he experienced in his youth. The result is the Jerusalem Orchestra, East & West, that he founded in 2009.
As for Qadri, a Haifa-born Arab-Israeli, she’s an independent spirit with a soulful and powerful voice who has become part of Israeli popular culture, even performing on Israel’s Memorial Day. In this performance, arguably the most distinctively Israeli version of the Arabic classic, Qadri confidently possesses the stage and the song, expanding upon the standard pathos with her rhythmic control, patiently intense passion and rock-inspired growls.
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📚“Book Review | The Antisemitic Origins of Islamist Violence: A Study of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State”
By Daniel Ben-Ami, Fathom Journal
Sayyid Qutb, circa 1930s
In order to understand Muslim states and communities today, it’s necessary to see the war over the soul of Islam that is being waged between Islamists and tolerant Muslim forces. Islamism, sometimes referred to as Political Islam, promotes a revolutionary ideology that presents itself as a return to the pure faith among Muslim communities from North Africa to Southeast Asia, but is of much more recent vintage. This ideology is so potent that it even transcends the Sunni-Shiite divide. The Makkah-based Muslim World League’s Secretary General, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed al-Issa, is leading the fight against Islamist ideology as a distortion of true Islam through his Charter of Makkah initiative, which was ratified by over 1,200 senior Islamic scholars.
With this fundamental distinction in mind, Daniel Ben-Ami’s review of Evin Ismail’s 2022 book, The Antisemitic Origins of Islamist Violence: A Study of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State, is helpful for gaining some much-needed clarity about one of the most basic ideas that moves Political Islam, antisemitism.
Ben-Ami’s first concern is to emphasize that ideas motivate Islamists: “Even those who, quite rightly, condemn Jihadi violence all too often lack a broader understanding of the Islamist world view.”
Ben-Ami then follows Ismail in tracing how antisemitism has been one of the basic ideas in Political Islam, predating both the re-founding of Israel and the rise of Nazism: “Antisemitism has played a central part in the Islamist outlook
since its inception with the foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928.” (See: Sephardi Ideas Monthly’s “Birthplace of the Brotherhood: Understanding & Overcoming Islamism in Egypt”)
Ban-Ami points instead to the anti-Semitic Russian fabrication, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903), as a text that deeply influenced Sayyid Qutb, the main Islamist thinker of the 20th c. Tracing Qutb’s influence, Ben-Ami also notes (with an embedded hat-tip to Sephardi Ideas Monthly) that the most dominant present-day practitioner of Political Islam, the Iranian regime’s “Supreme Leader,” Ali Khamenei, translated four of Qutb’s books into Persian.
Ben-Ami reminds us that in thinking about how to combat Political Islam, the power of ideas must become part of the equation. Because once
…the grotesque assumptions of the Islamist world view are accepted, its outlook makes sense. Jews are, from this warped perspective, engaged in an evil conspiracy against the entire global Muslim community. The conclusion Islamists draw is that it is necessary to wage a religious war against the Jews to counter this supposed threat. Killing Jews is, in this view, morally justified.
This bedrock understanding animates the ongoing Islamist war, which remains “not a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam; it is [rather] a civil war within Islam into which the West has been deliberately drawn.”
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Please 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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Our Story: The Jews of Sepharad; Celebrations and Stories
By Lea-Nora Kordova Annette and Eugene Labovitz
Celebrations and Stories, a special publication of the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education with the American Sephardi Federation, is an essential work that enhances the teaching of Sephardi history, traditions, and cultures.
The life cycle and calendar sections are designed to horizontally connect to the teaching of customs and ceremonies from the Spanish & Portuguese, Syrian, Judeo-Spanish, and Moroccan traditions. Other sections include translations of classic texts and poetry, tales of our history’s heroes, and classroom activities.
Exploring Sephardic Customs and Traditions
By Hakham R’Marc D. Angel, Ph.D
Over the centuries, Jewish communities throughout the world adopted customs that enhanced and deepened their religious observances. These customs, or minhagim, became powerful elements in the religious consciousness of the Jewish people. It is important to recognize that minhagim are manifestations of a religious worldview, a philosophy of life. They are not merely quaint or picturesque practices, but expressions of a community’s way of enhancing the religious experience. A valuable resource for Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Aden Conference
Building on the success of the ASF and E’eleh B’Tamar’s “The Yemenite Conference: Jews and Muslims in Yemen” held in 2017 at New York’s Center for Jewish History, the Aden Conference will bring together the world’s leading scholars from Aden, Israel, US, UK, and Europe to explore the historical, cultural, and communal dynamics that intersected in Aden and its environs, particularly under British rule.
28-30 August 2023
Opening Night | JW3, London
Conference | Woolf Institute, Cambridge
Cambridge, Madingley Rd, Cambridge CB3 0UB, UK
Sign-up Now!
Co-Presenters:
Woolf Institute, ASMEA (Association for the Study of the Middle East & Africa), Aden Jewish Heritage Museum, Zalman Shazar Center, and Harif: Association of Jews from the MENA
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American Sephardi Federation presents:
Convergence: Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian Calligraphy in Conversation
Featuring the multilingual art of Ruben Shimonov Convergence creates a visual world where Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian languages interact with, and speak to, one another; a world where stylized letters and words dance together on the page; a world where cultures, religions, communities, and philosophies intersect.
Juxtaposing cognates from these ancient West Asian languages, artist Ruben Shimonov encourages the viewer to explore the deep-rooted connections between these tongues, as well as the multilayered and transnational identity of the artist himself.
On View in the Leon Levy Gallery through 16 July 2023
@ the Center for Jewish History
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American Sephardi Federation and Mimouna Association’s Rebuilding Our Homes Project present:
Re-Creation: Judaica by Moroccan Muslim Artisans
Explore the exhibition of Judeo-Moroccan art, Moroccan Judaica, cultural and religious objects, including Menorot, Mezuzot, Yads, Shabbat Candleholders, Seder Plates, Hallah Covers, and much more.
On View through 31 December 2023
@ the Center for Jewish History
As Moroccan Jewish populations largely left the mellahs (Jewish quarters) in the latter half of the 20th century, there was a danger that not only designs but even the traditional artisanal techniques needed to create them would be lost. Passed down from one artisan to another and perfected over time, these designs and techniques. ranging from vibrant patterns to intricate metalwork and soulful wood carvings, are expressions of Moroccanity and reflect the individual character of each city. The materials and craftsmanship of Rabat are different than Fez, and Essaouira is distinct from both.
Mimouna Association and the American Sephardi Federation’s Rebuilding Our Homes Project, a multi-year USAID-supported New Partnerships Initiative, brought three notable experts-Ms. Zhor Rehihil, Ms. Deborah Koenigsberger Gutierrez, and Ms. Meryem Ghandi to train Moroccan Muslim artisans in the history of Judeo-Moroccan art and guided them in re-creating Moroccan Judaica, which encompasses a diverse array of cultural and religious objects, including Menorot, Mezuzot, Yads, Shabbat Candleholders, Seder Plates, Hallah Covers, and much more.