Mazal Tov/Mabrouk to HE Sheikh Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa on being recognized for “his moral courage, dedication to tolerance, and commitment to applying traditional values to the flourishing of all humanity in a spirit of mutual respect and collaboration” at Yeshiva University's inaugural Presidential Forum for Global Leaders!
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
🕋“Sheikh Mohammed Al-Issa, Muslim Leader and 2020 Combat Anti-Semitism Award Recipient, Speaks About Jewish-Muslim Relations at YU”
Jonathan Levin, The Commentator
Pictured (Left to Right): Michael Miller (CEO Emeritus, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York), Rabbi Arthur Schneier (Founder & President, Appeal of Conscience Foundation), Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman (President, Yeshiva University), HE Sheikh Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa (Secretary General, Muslim World League), Malcolm Hoenlein (Vice Chair, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations), Jason Guberman (Executive Director, American Sephardi Federation), & Chella Safra (Treasurer, World Jewish Congress), Yeshiva University 1st President’s Forum for Global Leaders, 20 October 2021
(Photo courtesy of Zakaria Siraj)
Last year, the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the American Sephardi Federation awarded the 1st Combat Antisemitism Award for a Muslim Leader to Sheikh Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Makkah-based Muslim World League. Continuing his engagement with the Jewish community, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization’s Malcolm Hoenlein and the ASF’s Jason Guberman accompanied Sheikh Dr. Al-Issa to Yeshiva University (YU), where he was greeted by YU President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman for an inaugural conversation series with global leaders. In his remarks on “Jews and Muslims: A Look Toward the Future,” Sheikh Dr. Al-Issa said: “‘Of course both family and education have had a big influence, but also having an open mind and a positive outlook towards the whole universe is very important to understanding the wisdom of diversity… Diversity should be a tool used for better understanding and better relationships, and not a tool to make people grow apart.’”
🎶“Black and Jewish Americans unite to talk about fighting antisemitism and all that jazz”
Larry Luxner, CAM/JTA
Wynton Marsalis performs during the 2019 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, 28 April 2019
(Photo courtesy of Erika Goldring/JTA)
The American Sephardi Federation (ASF), the Jazz Leadership Project (JLP), and the Combat Antisemitism Movement recently joined forces for a unique event dedicated to "Combating Racism and Antisemitism Together." According to the ASF's Director of Publications, Aryeh Tepper, the event aimed "to strengthen the resilience" of all those who oppose racism and antisemitism. The Jazz Leadership Project’s Co-Founder and CEO Greg Thomas says that initiative is focused on “‘an omni-American culture, where the many streams of American life come together in a shared identity. It is through such intellectual, moral, cultural and spiritual excellence that we’re fighting against bigotry.’”
Feature: Presenting the Omni-American Future: Bringing Together Black & Jewish Americans to Combat Racism & Antisemitism 🎼 🎶 🎺
Greg Thomas CEO and Co-Founder, Jazz Leadership Project
(Screenshot courtesy of CAM/YouTube)
Watch as the Jazz Leadership Project’s Co-Founder and CEO, Greg Thomas, and the American Sephardi Federation’s Director of Publications, Aryeh Tepper, introduce the principles of the “Omni-American future,” dedicated to fighting racism and antisemitism through the power of culture. According to Thomas, “The idea of the omni-American is very important because it’s about a combination, a mixture, of elements becoming a whole. Like E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one.” Added Tepper, “I want to help people think differently about racism and antisemitism… We need to be open to all forms of human excellence. We never know where life or vitality is going to show up. What’s the opposite of racism and antisemitism? A love of human excellence.”
🏆 “Jazz musicians call for cultural collaboration to unite Black and Jewish Americans against antisemitism and racism”
Staff, The Times of Israel
(Photo courtesy of CAM/Times of Israel)
As part of the unique event dedicated to “Combating Racism and Antisemitism,” the American Sephardi Federation, the Jazz Leadership Project, and the Combat Antisemitism Movement came together this week to honor the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis, with the inaugural “Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence.” The term “Omni-American” is taken from the writings of Marsalis’ teacher, Albert Murray, the writer, critic and philosopher of blues and jazz. Marsalis said in accepting the award, “[Murray’s] body of work and thought expanded my conception of the possible, of the world…. We are many, let us also be one, unified in our embrace of humanism and cultural excellence and democracy….”
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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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By Rabbi Abraham Lopes Cardozo
Encouraged by many friends who wanted to preserve our beautiful Spanish-Portuguese musical tradition, Abraham Lopes Cardozo published Selected Sephardic Chants. This publication afforded him an opportunity to include some little known tunes of the Tish’a Be-Ab services, both evening and morning, blessings for Haftarah.
Four books of the Bible, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, and Esther, are read as part of the Synagogue service during the year: Passover, Shabuoth, Tish’a Be-Ab, and Purim. The excerpts included in this edition are recited at the conclusion of the weekday-morning service and Shabbath afternoons, several days before the particular holiday. They are recited when a mourner is present who is obliged to recite the Kaddish
A Pizmonim: Sephardic-Hebrew Songs of the Middle East, Volume 1
By David Elihu Cohen
Pizmonim, a unity of poetry and song, have been an integral part of the Jewish People and may be traced in the Bible to the very beginning of our history.
The twelve selected Pizmonim contained in this booklet serve to perpetuate the Greater Sephardic culture and tradition of singing praise to the Lord on all joyous occasions.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
At the Crossroads:
Provençal Jewish Culture in the Middle Ages
Monday, 1 November
@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EDT ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai
Sign-up Now!
The medieval Jewish community of Provence sat at the crossroads of Ashkenaz and Sefarad, a meeting place of diverse ideas and a center of innovative thought. Provençal Jews were renowned for their masterpieces of Talmudic learning as well as groundbreaking works of philosophy and science. It was in Provence that the treasures of Judeo-Arabic learning were translated into Hebrew, from which they were handed down to us today. This distinct blend of traditional and worldly knowledge characterized Provence. Its denizens saw themselves as belonging to a unique regional culture and proudly recorded its customs in books of minhagim and its version of the liturgy. With the French expulsions of the fourteenth century, Provençal Jewish culture was dispersed, but it did not come to a halt. Everywhere that members of this community went, they carried with them their distinctive approach to Jewish life, and their influence is felt into modernity.
About the speaker:
Dr. Tamar Marvin is a scholar of medieval Jewish intellectual history and a semikha student at Yeshivat Mahrat. She holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. in Literature and Journalism from New York University. Dr. Marvin has taught and developed curricula in a variety of academic and Jewish settings, including American Jewish University and Hebrew Union College-JIR, Los Angeles. She has published her work in academic journals as well as writing for broader media. Dr. Marvin’s research centers on questions of how medieval Jews reacted to and creatively adapted new forms of meaning-making in the world they encountered around them, including both philosophical reflection and Kabbalistic speculation.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
No hay boda sin tanyedera:
Ladino Music Salon
Thursday, 4 November at 10:30AM EST
Sign-up Now!
Are there “right” instruments to accompany Sephardic songs? People often remark on the instruments in the background of Judith’s online lectures and concerts. Here, Judith will use the online format to invite you to this background, her living-room, and all the stringed, wind and hand percussion instruments in it. Rather than background, the instruments, most of them hand-crafted, will be protagonists. Each one has songs and stories associated with it, and your questions and comments will help shape the order in which they’re presented.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Judith Cohen is a Canadian ethnomusicologist, medievalist, singer and storyteller specialized in Sephardic music, music among the Portuguese Crypto-Jews, and related traditions. Her presentations are based on both academic research and many years of fieldwork in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, the Balkans, Turkey, French Canada and wherever else her work and curiosity take her. She teaches part-time at York University in Toronto and is the consultant for the Alan Lomax Spain 1952 recordings.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Museum Mondays:
The Museum for Islamic Art, Jerusalem
Tour the Museums from the comfort of your own home with Nachliel Selavan, the Museum Guy.
On Mondays
8 November
A Hanukah Tour Through Ancient Greece - Greek Exhibits in Museums Around the World
Sign-up Now!
10 January
Tour the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda
Sign-up Now!
(Registration required for each session)
@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EDT ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai
About Your Tour Guide:
Nachliel Selavan created and delivered an integrated learning and museum tour program for both school and adult educational settings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has hosted similar pilot visits to a dozen museums in North America, and a few museums in Europe and in Jerusalem. He also teaches and engages audiences through virtual tours and social media. He has recently completed a year long Tanach Study podcast called Parasha Study Plus, delivering a weekly episode of Archaeology on the Parasha, and is now on his second podcast and a new video series reviewing every book in Tanach, called Archaeology Snapshot.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org