Mazal tov to Millie Magid, B’nai B’rith’s UN Affairs Chair & a friend of the ASF, on her multi-year efforts to create the Smithsonian’s first gallery dedicated to Latino history and culture, recently inaugurated at the National Museum of American History
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
📣“Appeal to Preserve Jewish-African Heritage Signed by International Leaders in Morocco”
By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner
Presentation of the Moses, the African Jewish Leadership Awards (L to R): Elmehdi Boudra (Founder & President, Mimouna Association), HE René Trabelsi (Former Minister of Tourism, Tunisia), HE Belaynesh Zavadia (Israel’s 1st Ethiopian-Israeli Ambassador), Malcolm Hoenlein (Vice Chair, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations), HE Jorge Santos (Minister of Cabo Verdean Communities), Shaun Zagnoev (President, South African Jewish Board of Deputies), Andrea Berry (Strategic Director of the Pupkewitz Group), Professor Ephraim Isaac (Founder, Ethiopia’s Peace & Development Center), Jason Guberman (Executive Director, American Sephardi Federation), & Abdeslam Filali (Vice General Secretary, Mimouna Association), 2nd Jewish Africa Conference, Policy Center for the New South, Rabat, Morocco, 13 June 2022
Mimouna Association and the American Sephardi Federation partnered to present the second Jewish Africa Conference. Government officials, entrepreneurs, scholars, diplomats, rabbis, and community leaders from 22 countries attended the event in Morocco that concluded with the “Call of Rabat,” an appeal to individuals, civil society groups, and governments to recognize the long history of Jewish life in Africa, as well as to preserve Jewish historical sites across the continent. Offers ASF Executive Director, Jason Guberman: “[T]hroughout history Africa has been a place of refuge and rebirth for the Jewish people …. The Sephardi astronomers and artists, travelers and traders, publishers and philosophers who pioneered today’s cosmopolitan world were frequently from or found in Africa.”
Feature: Welcome to Ruti ben Avi's Moroccan-Israeli Kitchen 🍅🥕
A Short Israeli Story: Meet Ruti
(Screenshot courtesy of Israel/Youtube)
Meet Ruti ben Avi, Moroccan-Jewish mother of three and Israeli teacher of Arabic. Growing up, Ruti’s mother only cooked Moroccan food at home. Today some of Ruti’s favorite (and delicious) Moroccan dishes include: sfenj (the Maghrebi doughnut); harira soup, with tomato, lentils, and chickpeas; and tajine (from the Tamazight ṭajin, meaning “shallow earthen pot”), a slow-cooked savory stew made with sliced meat, poultry or fish and vegetables. Ruti says it is, “‘the most famous dish in Marrakesh and in all of Morocco.’” When talking about Morocco, which Ruti has visited three times, she smiles: “‘I feel as if I am at home, as if I’m in my country.’”
🎶“Brooklyn musician Laura Elkeslassy creates a modern album inspired by forgotten Moroccan Jewish history”
By Sarah Rosen, JTA-NY Jewish Week
Laura Elkeslassy, Park Slope, Brooklyn, June 2021
(Photo courtesy of JTA-NY Jewish Week)
The Moroccan-Jewish story extends from the Atlantic to the Near East and beyond, with communities of Moroccan Jews in the United States, Canada, Latin America, France, and Israel. After growing up in a Maghrebi Jewish community in an upscale section of Paris, Laura Elkeslassy relocated to New York fourteen years ago to study the arts and never returned. Ironically, it was when she found herself surrounded by Ashkenazi-Jewish life in New York that Elkeslassy was drawn to Moroccan-Jewish culture. The result? Her recent album, Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile. Regarding the title, Elkeslassy explains, “‘There was a tradition of ‘divas’ in North Africa in the early 20th century. Interestingly Jewish female singers were very present in the music scene at the time.’”
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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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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.
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, the 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
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.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Exclusive Authors Series with Joyce Yarrow
Join us for New Works Wednesdays with Joyce Yarrow discussing her new book “Zahara and the Lost Books of Light”!
Wednesday, 6 July at 12:00PM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the book:
Seattle journalist Alienor Crespo travels to Spain to claim the promise of citizenship offered to the descendants of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. As she relives history through her vijitas (visits) with her ancestors, Alienor also confronts modern-day extremism and commits herself to protecting an endangered “Library of Light” – a hidden treasure trove of medieval Hebrew and Arabic books, saved from the fires of the Inquisition.
About the author:
The author of five novels, Joyce Yarrow was born in the SE Bronx, escaped to Manhattan as a teenager, and today does most of her traveling through her writing.
Joyce has worked as a screenwriter, singer-songwriter, multimedia performance artist, and member of the world music vocal ensemble, Abráce.
She is a Pushcart nominee, whose stories and poems have been widely published. She considers the setting of her books to be characters in their own right and teaches workshops on “The Place of Place in Suspense Writing.”
Click here for more about the book.
Click here for the Spanish edition.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org