Hazaq u’Barukh to Ruben Shimonov, the ASF’s National Director of Sephardi House & Young Leadership on being chosen for m² The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education’s “Jewish Pedagogies Research Fellowship”!
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!
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✡️️“The Arab world is re-embracing its Jews”
By The Economist
"We shouldn't just be commemorating getting kicked-out of somewhere. We should be celebrating our heritage; when we lived somewhere....This is our moment for leadership & building bridges that Sephardis know better than anyone else"~Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, “Reclaiming Identity: Jews of Arab Lands and Iran Share Stories of Identity, Struggle, and Redemption,” 30 November 2021
(Photo Courtesy of ASF Institute of Jewish Experience/YouTube)
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in northern Yemen have a simple, terrible slogan, “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews.” Unsurprisingly, in the past few years they chased the last Jews of Yemen out of the country. “What might be surprising,” says The Economist, “is where some of those Jews ended up.” Yusuf Hamdi and his extended Yemenite-Jewish family settled in the UAE, where they receive, “a rent-free villa, fancy car and monthly welfare cheques. It is all part of an effort to seed new Jewish communities in the country.” The Economist adds an additional, intriguing dimension to the reintegration of Jews into Arab-ruled countries, “Mizrahi Jews from Israel are also driving change in the region… In 2015 three sisters of Yemenite origin released Israel’s first Arabic chart-topper… [S]ays Liel Maghen, who runs the Centre for Regional Initiatives, a think-tank in Jerusalem, ‘There’s an Arabisation of Israeli culture.’”
Note: The Houthis expelled almost all of Yemen’s last Jews during Passover 2021 and continue to illegally imprison Levi Salem Musa Marhabi. Don’t turn away. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t let another group of Jews become forgotten refugees. And join the ASF’s campaign to #FreeLeviMarhabi! Sign the ASF-Combat Antisemitism Movement petition and learn more here.
Feature: A-WA: Topping the Israeli Charts with Yemenite-Jewish Music, in Arabic 🎵🎶
“Habib Galbi” (“Love of my heart, my eyes”) is the first music video of A-WA, a new Yemeni-Israeli trio. This Yemenite Arabic song—about a lost love (“It is a wonder who has set you against me/ He dared to eat but not be satisfied”)—transcends borders and barriers.
An article from The Economist in this week’s SWW refers to three musical Israeli sisters of Yemenite origin who, after releasing Arabic chart-toppers, are contributing to the “Arabisation of Israeli culture.” The band is called A-WA, and this week’s video, filmed in the deep south of Israel’s Negev desert, features the jaunty rhythms of the sisters’ 2015 hit, Habib Galbi.
🏆💉 “Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla awarded $1 million Genesis Prize for 2022”
By The Times of Israel
Albert Bourla receiving the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America’s Service to Humanity Award from Clifton Russo, Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America’s National Sephardic Community Gala 2021, 5 December 2021 (Photo courtesy of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America/Flickr)
The Genesis Foundation announced the winner of its $1,000,000 prize for 2022: Albert Bourla, the son of Sephardic Shoah (Holocaust) survivors from Thessaloniki (Salonica), Greece, and the CEO of Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that produced the COVID-19 vaccine used by the US, Israel and other countries. Bourla was recognized “for his leadership, determination, and especially for his willingness to assume great risks.” Said Bourla: “‘I was brought up in a Jewish family who believed that each of us is only as strong as the bonds of our community; and that we are all called upon by God to repair the world… I look forward to being in Jerusalem to accept this honor in person, which symbolizes the triumph of science and a great hope for our future.’”
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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 Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a 2018 ASF Broome & Allen Fellow
In this extraordinary cookbook, chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer combines rich culinary history and Jewish heritage to serve up over fifty culturally significant recipes. Steeped in the history of the Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spain) and their diaspora, these recipes are expertly collected from such diverse sources as medieval cookbooks, Inquisition trials, medical treatises, poems, and literature. Original sources ranging from the thirteenth century onwards and written in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan, Italian, and Hebrew, are here presented in English translation, bearing witness to the culinary diversity of the Sephardim, who brought their cuisine with them and kept it alive wherever they went. Jawhara-Piñer provides enlightening commentary for each recipe, revealing underlying societal issues from anti-Semitism to social order. In addition, the author provides several of her own recipes inspired by her research and academic studies.
Each creation and bite of the dishes herein are guaranteed to transport the reader to the most deeply moving and intriguing aspects of Jewish history. Jawhara-Piñer reminds us that eating is a way to commemorate the past.
Edited by Dr. Rachel Yedid and Dr. Danny Bar-Maoz
Until about one hundred and thirty years ago, the Jewish community in Yemen was largely unknown. Despite the irregular connections that this ancient Diaspora held with the various centers of the world's Jewry, knowledge about the community remained somewhat vague.
E’ele Betamar, ASF’s partner in presenting The Yemenite Conference: Shared Jewish Cultural Values of Jews & Muslims in Yemen, has embarked on this great research project, which aims to document, preserve, research, and distribute Yemenite Jewry’s heritage by publishing books that treat on Yemenite Jewish research in it's various branches.
Ascending the Palm Tree: An Anthology of the Yemenite Jewish Heritage includes several new studies that have been written specially for this book. Thus twenty-two articles have been collected, along with dozens of photographs, which gives the readers a glimpse into the special world of Yemenite Jews in the following areas: their history and their manner of life in their country of exile; the miraculous manner in which they immigrated to Eretz Israel; their costumes; the eye-catching, ornate decoration and architecture of their homes; the Jewish daughter's way of life in Yemen; and the expression of all these in song, in storytelling, and in dance.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) proudly co-hosts this event in partnership with the National Hellenic Society, B’nai B’rith International, Hellenic American Women’s Council, Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, European March of the Living, and the American Sephardi Federation:
“There is Neither Greek Nor Jew: The Heroic Duo Who Saved an Entire Island From the Holocaust”
In Honor of Righteous Among the Nations Loukas Karrer and Dimitrios Chrysostomos
This commemorative event will tell the story of the courageous efforts of Karrer and Chrysostomos to save the Jews of Zakynthos from the Nazis during World War II, and highlight its relevance to the contemporary fight against antisemitism.
Tuesday, 25 January at 11:00AM EST
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Being held during the Greek Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the event will also focus on the history of Hellenic-Jewish relations and the importance of strengthening these bonds at a time when antisemitism is again on the rise globally. Recognizing past figures who confronted antisemitism in its most extreme form is meant to inspire a new generation of civic and religious leaders to similarly stand up to antisemitism and other forms of hate today.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The American Sephardi Federation, the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, the Sephardic Foundation on Aging, and the Shearith Israel League Foundation proudly present:
Salud i Vida: The 5th Annual New York Ladino Day!
Featuring scholar Eliezer Papo
Sephardic Nonagenarians: A Panel by Bryan Kirschen
Estreyikas d’Estambol Children’s Choir “Kantiga,” a Ladino Short Story by Jane Mushabac
Trio Sefardi: the Musical Finale!
Sunday, 30 January at 2:00PM EST
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Ladino is a bridge to many cultures. It is a variety of Spanish that 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 wrote in the Forward, “Why Ladino Will Rise Again.”
Since 2013, International Ladino Day programs have been held around the world to honor the Ladino language, also known as Judeo-Spanish. January 30th marks New York’s 5th Annual Ladino Day curated by Drs. Jane Mushabac and Bryan Kirschen for the American Sephardi Federation.
Print © loannia, mid-19th c. 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. (Scan courtesy of the Jewish Museum of Greece)
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.
Monday, 31 January at 12PM EST
Tour the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda
Sign-up Now!
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
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
New Works Wednesday with Dina Danon
Join us for a New Works Wednesday with Dr. Dina Danon who will be discussing her book The Jews of Ottoman Izmir: A Modern History (Stanford University Press, 2020), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Sephardic Culture.
Wednesday, 2 February at 12:00PM EST
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About the book:
This lecture will tell the story of a long-overlooked Ottoman Jewish community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing extensively on a rich body of previously untapped Ladino archival material, the lecture will also offer a new read on Jewish modernity. Across Europe, Jews were often confronted with the notion that their religious and cultural distinctiveness was somehow incompatible with the modern age. Yet the view from Ottoman Izmir invites a different approach: what happens when Jewish difference is totally unremarkable? What happens when there is no “Jewish Question?” Through the voices of beggars on the street and mercantile elites, shoe-shiners and newspaper editors, rabbis and housewives, this lecture will underscore how it was new attitudes to poverty and social class, not Judaism, that most significantly framed this Sephardi community’s encounter with the modern age.
About the author:
Dina Danon is Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at Binghamton University. She holds a doctorate in History from Stanford University. She is the author of She was recently a fellow at the Katz Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she began work on a new project on the marketplace of matchmaking, marriage, and divorce in the eastern Sephardi diaspora. She is currently at work, with Nancy Berg, on a co-edited volume entitled Longing and Belonging: Jews and Muslims in the Modern Age.
For here more about the book.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Jew who Ruled Persia: The Story of Sa’ad ad-Dawla
Sa’ad ad-Dawla was a Persian Jew from the city of Abhar. Being a master in recovering delayed taxes, he was able to rise in the ranks of the Mongol Ilkhanate that ruled all of Persia and Iraq. He had personal interactions with Ilkhan Arğun, where he demonstrated a strong compunction against corruption, a facility with languages, knowledge about minute matters throughout the lands, and the ability to cure the Ilkhan of disease. The led to Arğun appointing him as the Grand Vizier of the Ilkhanate in 1289, the most powerful position in the country below the Ilkhan himself. Despite the offense that many Muslims took to having a Jew in such a position of power, the Buddhist Arğun defended him and gave him a long leash to improve the Ilkhanate.
Sunday, 6 February at 12:00PM EST
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Complimentary RSVP
(Please consider a suggested donation of $10: https://tinyurl.com/DonateASFIJE)
About the Speaker:
Richard Sassoon is an Iraqi-American of Jewish heritage who graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Fordham University Law School with a J.D. and with an LL.M. in European Business Law from Madrid’s Universidad Pontificia Comillas. He currently works at UnitedLex as a Contract Manager, but has previously held roles at Samsung Engineering, J.P. Morgan, and several law firms. Richard sits on the ASF Young Leaders Board and is a recipient of the ASF Broome & Allen Fellowship. Richard has a long-standing interest in diverse cultures and regions, having visited over fifty different countries, meeting various high-level diplomats with Jewish organizations, working on three continents, and handling legal documents in five languages.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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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
8 February
(Part 1)
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22 February
(Part 2)
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22 March
(Part 3)
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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 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 February
Lital Levy (Princeton University) Esther Moyal, Emile Zola, and Alfred Dreyfus: An Arab-Jewish Feminist on the Affair that Rocked the World
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.
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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
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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
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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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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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