We join our friends & partners the Mimouna Association in mourning the loss of Mr. Eli Devico, A”H, who “was the most passionate ambassador Fez could ever have. His witty sense of humour, his abundant love for his community and his dedicated work to preserve the memory of Fez will be remembered by everyone. Our prayers and thoughts [are] with his family, friends, and the Moroccan Jewish community of Fez.” He tragically passed before getting to participate in Mimouna’s planned online event honoring his life’s work. Click here to watch our tribute video, featuring testimonials from Enrico Macias, Jacky Kadosh (Jewish Community of Marrakech), Dan Mariaschin (B'nai B'rith International), Betty Ehrenberg (World Jewish Congress), and Sammy Ibrahim (Drop of Milk Association).
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
🎬“Moroccan Muslim-Jewish Co-Existence Celebrated in New York”
By Souad Anouar, Moroccan World News
Neta Elkayam, Kamal Hachkar, and David Dangoor (ASF’s President) at the 24th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Moroccan Closing Night, Moise Safra Center, 7 April 2022
(Photo courtesy of Zakaria Siraj)
Moroccan filmmaker (and ASF Pomegranate Awardee) Kamal Hachkar’s In Your Eyes, I See My Country, had its New York premier at the Moroccan Closing Night of the 24th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. Neta Elkayam (recipient of the Pomegranate Achievement Award for Music) and her musical and life partner, Amit Hai Cohen, are both Moroccan-Jewish Israeli musical artists, and in his documentary, Hachkar followed Elkayam and Cohen around Morocco as they explored their Judeo-Moroccan musical heritage, and identity. Hachkar and Elkayam both champion the film’s educational power, but in different contexts. Hachkar emphasizes the civic value of the film, “‘The strength of our country is its cultural diversity…. It is, therefore, our duty to teach it to the younger generations,’” while Elkayam points to the importance of historical conservation, “‘Through our history and our trip to Morocco, we want to contribute to the preservation of this precious heritage.’”
Feature: Amir Arison’s Celebration of Jewish Life at the 24th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival 🎥🎙️
Lauren Gibli (ASF Young Leaders’ President), Stacy Donovan (Director of the Creative Arts Program & Chair of the Performing Arts Department at the Watkinson School) Amir Arison, Sara Nodjoumi (NYSJFF Artistic Director), Oded Halahmy (ASF Board Member, Iraqi-Jewish artist, & sculptor of the Pomegranate Awards), 24th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, Opening Night, Moise Safra Center, 3 April 2022
(Photo courtesy of Zakaria Siraj)
Amir Arison, aka, FBI Special Agent Aram Mojtabai in NBC’s hit show “The Blacklist,” recently received the ASF’s Pomegranate Achievement Award for Acting. In accepting the award, Arison offered a speech from the heart, celebrating the values of Jewish unity and appreciating the American Jewish experience: “I am honored to be part of a tribe that has survived. I know I am up here because I stand on the shoulders of my great-great-great-great grandparents. And I have freedom & I get to pursue a life in the arts & that is not lost on me.”
🏆“Enrico Macias: Bir tek Altın Kelebek’im eksik (“Only My Golden Butterfly is Missing”)”
By Hürriyet Kelebek
Enrico Macias holding a book about Izmir-born Turkish-Sephardi singer Dario Moreno, who was honored with France’s Grand Prix Du Disque
(Photo courtesy of Hürriyet Kelebek)
The highest honor in Turkey’s dynamic cultural sphere, awarded for Turkish cinema, TV, and music, is the “Golden Butterfly.” The legendary Algerian-born, French-Sephardic Jewish musical superstar, Enrico Macias, has won many awards in his lifetime (including the ASF’s Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement), but not the “Golden Butterfly,” one of whose sponsors is Turkey’s Hürriyet newspaper. In a playful, post-performance, Paris interview with Hürriyet after a concert celebrating Macias’ glorious 60-year career (published in the entertainment section dedicated to “butterflies”), Macias noted how two prominent Turkish artists had been recognized by France. He then added that Turks are always telling him how much they love his work. Which leads to a reasonable question, that Macias asked with a laugh, “‘I wonder if I did not deserve the Golden Butterfly award of the Hürriyet Newspaper?’”
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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 Dr. Marc D. Angel
This unique Sephardic Passover Haggadah will be valued by Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike. Hakham Rabbi Angel provides a new, readable translation of the classic Haggadah text. Added to it are some selections in Judeo-Spanish as well as the popular “Bendigamos” blessing after meals.
This special edition of the Haggadah includes a running commentary, drawn from the teachings of Sephardic sages through out the generations, with insights from such Sephardic luminaries as Rabbis Moses Maimonides, Yitzhak Abravanel, Hayyim Y. D. Azulai, Benzion Uziel, Hayyim David Halevy and many others, ancient and modern. The Haggadah also includes a number of Sephardic customs which will enrich anyone’s Passover Seder.
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.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
My Jewish Learning and the American Sephardi Federation present:
Seharaneh Storytime: Tales from Jewish Kurdistan
Monday, 25 April at 2:00PM EST
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
Seharaneh is the post-Passover festival celebrated by Kurdish Jews for thousands of years. Traditionally, participants sing, dance, take long walks in beautiful springtime nature, feast, and tell stories. With My Jewish Learning, enjoy a springtime afternoon complete with four Jewish folktales from Kurdistan. Make sure to bring a cup of tea! Brought to you in partnership with the American Sephardi Federation.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The American Sephardi Federation presents:
The Ten Commandments, The Musical
(U.S. Premiere)
One of France’s most successful musicals, The Ten Commandments, is coming to America. The Ten Commandments’ Off-Broadway cast features new diverse talent from musical theater and operatic backgrounds. Twelve artists will bring to life the story of Moses and the Jewish people.
Thursday, 5 May at 3:00PM EST
Sunday, 8 may at 6:00PM EST
Tuesday, 10 May at 8:00PM EST
Thursday, 12 May at 8:00PM EST
Sunday, 15 may at 6:00PM EST
(Tickets: $26 G/A; $36 VIP)
The Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York City
Sign-up Now!
About the musical:
David Serero, starring as Moses, will lead the cast composed of DaShaun Williams (Ramses), Aria Critchley (Nefertari), Stephanie Craven (Sephora), Lisa Monde (Bithia), Cale Rausch (Joshua), Zachary Harris Martin (Aaron), Kristyn Vario (Myriam), Shane Patrick Watson and Julia Anne Cohen (Various roles and U/S).
All performers will sing the beautiful music of Pascal Obispo, one of France’s most famous composers, with original lyrics by Lionel Florence and Patrice Guirao. The musical was originally created by Elie Chouraqui (ASF Pomegranate Awardee, 2020), who wrote the book. David Serero adapted the musical to English and is staging the show with respect to Broadway standards and culture.
“The Ten Commandments” dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and after that leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Five Pillars of Islam - A Jewish Perspective
Rick Sopher will explain the so-called “Five Pillars of Islam” (declaration of faith, prayer, giving, fasting and pilgrimage) and look at connections, similarities and differences with Jewish Practise. He will explore the basis of these practises and how one might have influenced the other.
Bonus: Rick will also look at the basis of the very close practises of Jewish and Muslim dietary laws and explain the history of this connection, which was first stated explicitly in the Qur’an.
Monday, 9 May at 12:00PM EST
(Ticket: $10)
Sign-up Now!
About the author:
Rick has a financial background and is the CEO of Edmond de Rothschild Capital Holdings, which he joined in 1993. He is the Chairman of the world’s longest established investment fund of its type. Prior to that he worked at BDO Stoy Hayward, where he was appointed the youngest ever partner. He has received various industry awards including the Outstanding Contribution Award from Hedge Fund Review and the Decade of Excellence Award by Financial News.
Rick graduated from Cambridge University and has more recently worked in the area of interfaith relations with the Woolf Institute, Cambridge as a member of their Council.
During the lockdown period, Rick convened an online dialogue between Professors of Religion at the world’s leading universities to discuss the relationship between the Qur’an and the Bible and has himself dialogued with Muslim leaders on the subject.
Rick was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in 2007 from President Chirac for his contribution to religious education in France and is Chairman or Director of several educational charities in the UK.
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)
11 May
(10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 5pm UK / 7pm Israel / 8:30pm Iran - note time - US Daylight Savings)
Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (University of Cambridge; ASF Broome & Allen Fellow) 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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Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum presents:
The Seventh Annual Greek Jewish Festival
Sunday, 15 May 12:00-6:00PM EST
Join us as we celebrate the unique Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of the Jews of Greece!
Experience a feast for the senses including authentic kosher Greek foods and homemade Greek pastries, traditional Greek dancing and live Greek and Sephardic music, an outdoor marketplace full of vendors, arts and educational activities for kids, and much more!
Learn more at www.GreekJewishFestival.com
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The Greek Jewish & Sephardic Young Professionals Network in partnership with the Association of Friends of Greek Jewry present:
Special Young Professionals Tour of Jewish Greece
(Summer 2022)
Join to trace the roots of our families, visit the beautiful cities of Thessaloniki (Salonika), Veroia, Kastoria, Ioannina, Athens, and Rhodes, and connect with other young Jews in Greece.
Check out the full itinerary here!
For more information email GreekJewishYPN@gmail.com