The ASF has been at the forefront in seeking recognition and redress for the “Forgotten Refugees”—the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Jews—for decades. Example: pictured below is a New York Times ad from 1976 in which we rejected the Baathist regime’s “invitation” for Iraqi Jews to return a quarter century after their denationalization. Since the Knesset’s designation of 30 November as the date to mark the effectual end of Jewish communal life throughout the region outside of Israel, the ASF has organized scholarly and cultural events that explore the MENA Jewish experience from antiquity to today, as well as engaged with the neighbors to build a better future. As the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hasson-Nahoum said, at the ASF Institute of Jewish Experience’s first of its kind global online “Reclaiming Identity: Jews of Arab Lands and Iran Share Stories of Identity, Struggle, and Redemption“ event last year, “We shouldn’t just be commemorating getting kicked-out of somewhere. We should be celebrating our heritage; of when we lived somewhere, for good and for bad…. We are in a new era of going back to life in the Arab world, ironically but incredibly... [and] this is our moment for leadership and building the bridges that Sephardis know better than anyone else.” Today, at the Center for Jewish History, we return with our first in-person international conference: “From Middle Eastern & North African Jewish Refugees to Israeli Cultural Renaissance.” For those who cannot join us, see the selection of articles and videos below, check out the Reclaiming Identity podcast, and stay tuned for more. We appreciate your support to continue this vital, multifaceted work in the way only the ASF can within the American Jewish community, in the region, and beyond. And please be in touch with us at info@americansephardi.org to share your thoughts, suggestions, and memories.
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
💬“There Were Once Jews Here”
By Lucette Lagnado, Tablet
Lucette Lagnado, A”H speaking at the ASF’s “We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Communities,” Center for Jewish History, 30 Nov. 2016
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
After Israel triumphed against all odds in the Six-Day War, Arab rejectionists responded by taking revenge on the Jews still living in their midst. From Algeria to Iraq and points in between, local Jews were blamed for events which they had nothing to do with: “Even in those countries that were, as some of us like to say, ‘nice to the Jews’… there were terrifying demonstrations and expressions of hatred and venom.”
🙌“Israel’s NY envoys champion rights of Jews evicted from Arab lands”
By Israel HaYom
Hakham Rabbi Elie Abadie, MD, The End of Jewish Communal Life in the Arab Lands, Kumble Stage/Leo and Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 2 December, 2019
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
Please click here to watch Rabbi Abadie’s remarks on “The Exodus of Jews from Arab Lands and the Legal Struggle for Their Rights”
“The End of Jewish Communal Life in Arab Lands” Conference brought together international scholars as well as local students (from Yesivah of Flatbush and Magen David Yeshivah High School) to share stories of the rich life that once was and the events across the region that caused the majority of Jews to leave. The ASF’s Executive Director, Jason Guberman, emphasized this event in the context of the ASF’s overall vision: “[T]his conference is part of our continuous efforts to move beyond hashtags to history and to reject the prevailing narratives (whether idealized or demonized) that reduce thousands of years of vibrant Jewish communal life in the Middle East and North Africa into talking points.”
Feature: Ellie Cohanim’s Conference Speech 🙌🎤
Ellie Cohanim, then-US State Department Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, The End of Jewish Communal Life in the Arab Lands, Kumble Stage/Leo and Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 2 December 2019
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
Ms. Ellie Cohanim made her historic first public appearance as the then-US State Department’s newly appointed Deputy Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism by offering a hard-hitting speech at the international conference “The End of Jewish Communal Life in Arab Lands” co-hosted by Bar-Ilan University’s Aharon and Rachel Dahan Center for Culture, Society, & Education in the Sephardic Heritage and the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience.
Ms. Cohanim, a member of the Iranian Jewish community, criticized the institutionalized antisemitism that characterizes educational curricula across the region, singled out the Iranian regime’s state-sponsored Holocaust denial, and raised the issue of reparations for Jewish refugees.
The American Sephardi Federation was honored to host Ms. Cohanim, a long-time friend of the ASF, for her remarkable speech and this auspicious beginning in her new and important diplomatic mission.
Please click here to watch her remarks.
Feature: “Invitation declined”✉️❌
“Invitation declined,” wrote the ASF in The New York Times on 11 Jan 1976, rejecting the Baathist regime’s “offer” for Iraqi Jewish refugees to return to a land of “Sudden disappearances. Murders. Hangings. Arbitrary imprisonments. Confiscation of property. Living in fear & humiliation. And, discrimination in all walks of life.”
Feature: Recording of Happy HaTikvah from 1930s Tunisia🎶 🎧
ASF’s “We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Communities” began with this recording of HaTikvah from Tunisia. Shown here: Lucette Lagnado, ASF President David E.R. Dangoor, ASF Executive Director Jason Guberman, and André Aciman, Center for Jewish History, 30 November 2016.
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
Jews played an important role in the North African music industry during the first half of the 20th century. They recorded in a number of languages, including Hebrew, as a 1932 Tunisian recording of what would become Israel’s national anthem, HaTikvah, attests. What’s most remarkable, however, “is just how uncontroversial the release of Hatikvah in North Africa was at the beginning of the 20th century.” See: “Hatikvah in Tunis: A Rare 1930s Recording Surfaces” by Chris Silver, Jewish Maghrib Jukebox.
💬“The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention”
By André Aciman, The New York Times
André Aciman speaking at ASF’s “We Were Neighbors: Remembering Middle Eastern and North African Jewish Communities,” Center for Jewish History, 30 Nov. 2016
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
Writing in 2009 after President Obama’s address to the Arab-Muslim world delivered at Cairo, Egypt, André Aciman noted a glaring omission in the speech’s survey of Middle Eastern injustices: “The president never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about any of the other 800,000 or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century….Nor did he mention that with this flight and expulsion, Jewish assets were - let’s call it by its proper name - looted.... My Mother’s house, my father’s factory, our life in Egypt, our friends, our books, our cars, my bicycle.”
Aciman was awarded the ASF's Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 24th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. Please click here to watch his acceptance speech.
✡️“Sephardi Jewry’s Resurgent Cultural Confidence”
By Aryeh Tepper, Mosaic Magazine
The ASF Young Leaders led the only Sephardi Seder on Zoom in accordance with the ruling. Pictured are Seder leader and ASF YL Educational Coordinator (now the ASF’s National Director of Sephardi House & Young Leadership) Ruben Shimonov, ASF YL Founder & President Lauren Gibli, ASF Broome & Allen Fellow Richard Sassoon, and ASF YL Member Ben Cohen
The ASF’s Director of Publications, Dr. Aryeh Tepper, explains how the “Zoom Ruling” authored by the “Association of Scholars of the Maghreb in the Land of Israel” was grounded, “in the legitimacy of North African tradition” and driven by a conviction that the North African tradition is relevant, “for the nation of Israel as a whole.” What’s more, Israeli society has been enriched in recent years by Moroccan-Jewish cultural productions, including, “literature and music to holidays, museums and yes, even legal rulings… that have rejected the ‘nullification of the exile’ as an ideological paradigm and instead have grounded their activity in a continuity of historical memory.”
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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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From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance
By David S. Malka
From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Shlomo Malka. It honors his memory as a Jewish scholar, a spiritual leader, and a great humanitarian.
David S. Malka is publishing this text as his personal contribution to legacy of Malka family, in the hope that this generation will re-discover their patriarch's teaching and advance his message of faith and compassion on to the next generation.
From Generation to Generation: a Legacy of Faith and Tolerance is a message of love, tolerance, and pride in one's heritage.
By Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, a 2018 ASF Broome & Allen Fellow
In this extraordinary, award-winning and best-selling cookbook now in its 4th imprint, 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.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience, Bar-Ilan University’s Dahan Center, the Ben-Zvi Institute, and Center for Jewish History present:
From Middle Eastern & North African Jewish Refugees to Israeli Cultural Renaissance
International Conference featuring speakers from Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States
Sunday, 4 December 10:30AM - 6:00PM EDT
($8 G/A or Donation)
Sign-up Now!
(coffee and lunch breaks included)
The Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York City
Program Details:
Sunday, December 04, 2022, 4 Kislev, 5783
- 10:30-11:00: Arrival and Registration
- 11:00-12:00: Opening Session
Chair: Dr. Shimon Ohayon, Director, the Dahan Center, Bar-Ilan University
Greetings:
- Mr. Yaakov Hagoel, Chairperson of the World Zionist Organization
- Mr. Eyal Gabbai, Chairperson, Yad Izhak Ben Zvi
- Mr. David Dangoor, President, American Sephardi Federation
Keynote Adress:
Prof. Noam Norman Stillman, University of Oklahoma
Prelude to Exodus: the Jews of Arab lands in the face of the challenges and transformations of the modern era
- 12:00-12:15: Coffee break
- 12:15-14:00: Second session
Chair: Mr. Moshe Zaafrani, Manager of cultural-educational projects, Yad Ben Zvi
Mr. Gilad Erdan, Ambassador to the United Nations - Struggle and Recognition: Jews from Arab lands and Iran
Mr. Ben-Dror Yemini, Reporter - The Jewish Nakba: a Comparative Study
Dr. Stanley Yurman, Rutgers University & Director of JJAC - Justice for Jews from Arab countries: the case for rights and redress
Ms. Dana Avrish, Researcher, Artist & Creator - Rediscovering the Jewish roots in Islamic countries
- 14:00-14:45: Lunch by Seuda Glatt Kosher Caterers
- 14:45-16:15: Third Session
Chair: Dr. Drora Arussy, Senior Director, ASF Institute of Jewish Experience
Dr. Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah, University of Groningen - Communal Dissolution and the Baghdadi Diaspora: Reframing Iraqi-Jewish Migration as Multidirectional
Mr. Edwin Shuker, Vice President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews - The Ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Iraq in the second half of the 20th century
Dr. Jesse Weinberg, University of Oklahoma - The End of Eden: Antisemitism in Iraq, 1917-1951
- 16:15–16:30 Coffee break
- 16:30-17:30 Fourth Session
Ms. Sarina Roffé, Sephardic Heritage Project - Syrian Jewish Paths to Freedom
Mr. Ruben Shimonov, ASF's National Director of Sephardi House - Conversation with Sephardi House Fellows
Student Presentations - The Story of Our Family Roots
- 17:30-18:00: Musical Program
Naama Perel Zadok
Concluding Remarks:
Dr. Shimon Ohayon and Dr. Drora Arussy
Supported by Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, World Zionist Organization, and World Jewish Congress - North America.
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Exclusive Authors Series with Alan Verskin
Join us for this episode of Exclusive Authors Series with Alan Verskin discussing his new book, A Vision of Yemen.
Tuesday, 6 December at 12:00PM EDT
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the book:
In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Habshush wrote A Vision of Yemen, a memoir of their travels, that provides a vivid account of daily life, religion, and politics. More than a simple travelogue, it is a work of trickster-tales, thick anthropological descriptions, and reflections on Jewish–Muslim relations. At its heart lies the fractious and intimate relationship between the Yemeni coppersmith and the “enlightened” European scholar and the collision between the cultures each represents. The book thus offers a powerful indigenous response to European Orientalism.
This edition is the first English translation of Habshush’s writings from the original Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew and includes an accessible historical introduction to the work. The translation maintains Habshush’s gripping style and rich portrayal of the diverse communities and cultures of Yemen, offering a potent mixture of artful storytelling and cultural criticism, suffused with humor and empathy. Habshush writes about the daily lives of men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Muslim, during a turbulent period of war and both Ottoman and European imperialist encroachment. With this translation, Alan Verskin recovers the lost voice of a man passionately committed to his land and people.
About the authors:
Alan Verskin is Associate Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island.
Click here for more about the book.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Multifaceted History and Culture of Bukharian Jews
The eclectic story of Central Asia’s ancient Jewish community—Bukharian Jews—is situated at the lesser-known intersection of Sephardic, Mizrahi and Russian-Speaking Jewish identities.
Join us as we discover the ways in which Bukharian Jews have developed their multilayered and rich culture against the backdrop of the changing societies surrounding them—including various Persian, Arab, Turkic and Russian empires. Taking us on a journey through Central Asia, West Asia/the Middle East, North Africa, the United States and Europe, our discussion will also shed light on how the Bukharian Jewish experience fits into the broader historical saga of the Jewish People.
Tuesday, 6 December at 6:00PM EST
A Hybrid Event
Sign-up Now!
(In-person G/A $10)
Sign-up Now!
(Zoom $8)
About the speaker:
Ruben Shimonov is an educator, community builder, and social entrepreneur passionate about Jewish diversity and intercultural understanding. He previously served as Director of Community Engagement & Education at Queens College Hillel. Currently, Ruben is the National Director of Sephardi House & Young Leadership at the American Sephardi Federation. He is also the Founding Executive Director of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network, as well as Director of Educational Experiences and Programming for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee. As a visual artist, Ruben uses his multilingual Arabic-Hebrew-Persian calligraphy to build Muslim-Jewish interfaith bridges. Ruben has been listed among The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” emerging leaders and changemakers. He has lectured around the world on the histories and cultures of Sephardic and Mizrahi communities.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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The American Sephardi Federation and the Moise Safra Center present:
Sephardi: Cooking the History with Hélène Jawhara-Piñer
Join Chef Hélène Jawhara-Piñer for an extraordinary cooking class as she recreates recipes from her award-winning and best-selling cookbook.
Thursday, 8 December at 10:00AM EDT
(Tickets: $50 - $95)
Sign-up Now!
The Moise Safra Center
130 E 82nd St. (7th Floor Culinary Studio)
New York, NY 10028
In this extraordinary cooking class, chef and scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer has selected some of her favorite recipes from her latest cookbook, Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century to Today, to serve up in our culinary studio. Steeped in the history of the Sephardic Jews 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, bear 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. Hélène Jawhara Piñer holds a doctoral degree in Medieval History and the History of Food. In 2018, she was awarded the Broome & Allen Fellowship of the American Sephardi Federation, dedicated to recognizing outstanding academic accomplishments and services to the Sephardic community, as well as encouraging continued excellence in the field of Sephardi studies.
Each creation and bite of the dishes are guaranteed to transport you to the most deeply moving and intriguing aspects of Jewish history. Jawhara-Piñer reminds us that eating is a way to commemorate the past.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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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.