In Honor of the 46th Anniversary of the Green March (6 November 1975), when Morocco’s King and 350,000 Moroccan civilians heading his wise words realized a world-historic achievement: the peaceful liberation of the Moroccan Sahara from Spanish colonialism. The Anniversary, which is patriotically observed by the Moroccan Jewish Community, has a new salience since HM King Mohammed VI achieved US recognition of the Kingdom’s territorial integrity
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
⚖️“Where’s the outrage over the Jew-killers in Iran’s new Cabinet?”
Karmel Melamed, JNS
The AMIA reduced to rubble by an Iranian regime terrorist attack on the Jewish community. 25 years later, justice for the victims, survivors, and Argentina is as far off as ever
(Photo courtesy of the WJC)
The 1994 suicide van-bomb attack on the AMIA (Argentinian Israel Mutual Association), the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, was directed by the Iranian regime and executed by Hezbollah. The attack killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. Today, two Iranian terrorists involved in that bombing, Ahmad Vahidi and Mohsen Rezaei, are not only living freely, they’re serving in Iran’s presidential cabinet. Says Karmel Melamed, “It’s high time for American-Jewish leaders to speak up and shame the ayatollah-led regime in Tehran at every international forum for making these mass murderers of Jews a part of its leadership.”
Feature: Watch as Wynton Marsalis Receives the Inaugural “Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence”🏆
The American Sephardi Federation, The Jazz Leadership Project, and the Combat Antisemitism Movement joined forces to present the world-class composer, musician, bandleader, and educator, Wynton Marsalis, with the inaugural “Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence” on Day One of the recent online event, “Combating Racism and Antisemitism: Shaping an Omni-American Future.” Marsalis was Murray’s student, and as Marsalis says about his teacher, “Above all he was about excellence…”
🤝“Moroccan Muslim scholars of Jewish law co-host conference in Israel”
Lazar Berman, The Times of Israel
Dr. Shimon Ohayon, Director of the award-winning Aharon and Rachel Dahan Center for Culture, Society, and Education in the Sephardic Heritage at Bar-Ilan University, “The End of Jewish Communal Life in the Arab Lands,” Leo and Julia Forchheimer Auditorium, Center for Jewish History, 2 December 2019
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
The new phase in relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and Israel ushered in by HM King Mohammed VI bore impressive intellectual-cultural fruit this past week, as an eleven-person academic delegation from Morocco arrived to co-host a two-day conference with the ASF’s friends and partners at Bar-Ilan University’s Aharon and Rachel Dahan Center for Culture, Society, and Education in the Sephardic Heritage devoted to “Jewish Culture and Law in Morocco.” Abderrahim Beyyoudh, head of Morocco’s diplomatic mission at Tel Aviv, explained the importance of the academic exchange, said: “‘This conference comes from the dream of the preservation of Jewish heritage… The Moroccan Jewish heritage is the foundation of the relationship with Israel.’”
🏛️ “Family vault of banker Abraham Camondo awaits repair in Istanbul”
Demirören News Agency, Daily Sabah
A portrait of Abraham Salomon Camondo
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia)
Jewish Ottoman-Italian financier and philanthropist Abraham Salomon Camondo (1781-1873) “was… the founder of the Ottoman financial system.” Camondo passed away in Paris, but his body “was brought to Istanbul according to his will and buried in the family vault he had built in Hasköy Jewish Cemetery on April 14, 1873.” Today, however, the vault “is in disrepair… [and] used as a shelter by the homeless and drug addicts.”
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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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Sculpted by Oded Halahmy
The Historic Synagogues Of Turkey / Turkiye'nin Tarihi Sinagoglari
(In Turkish and English)
By Joel A. Zack
Photographs by Devon Jarvis
Drawings by Ceren Kahraman
Published by the American Sephardi Federation
This project testifies to a historic Jewish community of vibrancy and dynamism that once dotted Turkey. Dating back to Roman and Byzantine times, Jews thrived on Turkish soil, finding refuge in the tens of thousands after their expulsions from Spain, Portugal, and Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Joel Zack and his team have performed an important cultural service, retrieving for posterity rich testimony of the Jewish architectural heritage in Ottoman and modern Turkish History.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
The Voice of the Mothers:
A Look into Sephardi Feminist Approaches to Tradition
Join us for a look into Sephardi Feminist approaches to tradition with
Dr. Angy Cohen!
Monday, 15 November at 12:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
This talk will explore the experiences of Sephardi women who are building a feminist discourse that speaks the language of Sephardi tradition, tells the story of the grandmothers, reclaims the intellectual and moral authority of our foremothers, establishes a public Sephardi and feminist voice, and educates towards a more fair and tolerant Israeli society. We will dive into the experiences of the members of the Greater Sephardi-feminist Beit Midrash Arevot in Jerusalem, the only one of its kind in Israel, who have been working on the development of “traditionist feminism” (feminism masorati in Hebrew).
About the speaker:
Dr. Angy Cohen is the inaugural Belzberg Postdoctoral Associate in Israel Studies at University of Calgary. She is a cultural researcher whose work deals with personal narratives and identity construction among Moroccan Jews in Israel and Argentina and the experiences of Greater Sephardi women in the development of a feminist approach to tradition. Her approach to ethnographic work weaves together cultural psychology, narrative psychology, sociology, and anthropology. She is currently working on the manuscript of a book about personal narratives of Spanish-Moroccan Jews in Israel and Argentine, from a comparative approach.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Why am I Bukharian if I am not from Bukhara?
We will explore important parts of Bukharian Jewish culture, the Bukharian language (also known as Judeo-Tajik or Bukhori), life cycle events and traditional clothing. We will look at fascinating artifacts and traditional clothing from the Bukharian Jewish Heritage Museum and talk about their importance and how they differ from the local community in Uzbekistan.
Tuesday, 16 November at 1:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
Manashe is a fourth generation community organizer, serial entrepreneur, and social innovator who builds and consults organizations on Jewish diversity.
At his previous role as a Director of Community Engagement and Development at Queens College Hillel, he focused on building a real diverse Jewish community, creating Sepharadi and Mizrahi Leadership pipeline while expanding Sephardi and Mizrahi student life programs at five CUNY Hillel campuses.
Currently, Manashe is an Adjunct Professor in Jewish Studies, with a specialty in the History and Culture of the Central Asian Jews at Queens College. He is the founding president of SAMi Sephardic American Mizrahi Initiative that focuses on the Leadership Development of under-served Jewish communities on college campuses. In 2021 Manashe was appointed by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz as a member of the Jewish Advisory Council. Manashe also just accepted a position with Moishe House as their new Eastern Community Manager.
Manashe is founder of the Bukharian Jewish Union, an organization for the young professionals in their 20’s and 30’s, the founder of AskBobo.org, the only Bukharian online dictionary, and the founder of The Jewish Silk Road Tours™, an initiative that helps to introduce NYers and tourists from around the world to the diversity of NYC.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
New Works Wednesday with Yolande Cohen and David S. Koffman
Join us for a New Works Wednesdays with Professor Yolande Cohen and Associate Professor David Koffman discussing their new book No Better Home?: Jews, Canada and the Sense of Belonging.
No Better Home? begins with an audacious question: Has there ever been a better home for Jews than Canada? By certain measures, Canada might be the most socially welcoming, economically secure, and religiously tolerant country for Jews in the diaspora, past or present. No Better Home? takes this question seriously, while also exploring the many contested meanings of the idea of “home.”
Wednesday, 17 November at 12:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
Contributors to the volume include leading scholars of Canadian Jewish life as well as eminent Jewish scholars writing about Canada for the first time. The essays compare Canadian Jewish life with the quality of life experienced by Jews in other countries, examine Jewish and non-Jewish interactions in Canada, analyze specific historical moments and literary texts, reflect deeply personal histories, and widen the conversation about the quality and timbre of the Canadian Jewish experience. No Better Home? foregrounds Canadian Jewish life and ponders all that the Canadian experience has to teach about Jewish modernity.
About the Authors:
Yolande Cohen has been a professor of contemporary history at the University of Quebec in Montreal since 1976. Specializing in the history of women and migration, heads the History, Women, Gender and Migration research group.
David S. Koffman, the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, an Associate Professor in the Department of History, is a cultural and social historian of modern Jewish life, with a specialization in Canadian and U.S. Jewries.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
A Bukharian Jew in Uzbekistan
Manashe Khaimov was born in a city along the Silk Road, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where his ancestors lived for over 2000 years. Join Manashe as he will explore the story about being a Bukharian Jew in Uzbekistan. He will discuss his experience in the Uzbekistan school system, his education in the underground yeshiva, and his relationship with his family mikvah (ritual bath), the only mikvah in Samarkand at that time.
Tuesday, 23 November at 1:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
About the speaker:
Manashe is a fourth generation community organizer, serial entrepreneur, and social innovator who builds and consults organizations on Jewish diversity.
At his previous role as a Director of Community Engagement and Development at Queens College Hillel, he focused on building a real diverse Jewish community, creating Sepharadi and Mizrahi Leadership pipeline while expanding Sephardi and Mizrahi student life programs at five CUNY Hillel campuses.
Currently, Manashe is an Adjunct Professor in Jewish Studies, with a specialty in the History and Culture of the Central Asian Jews at Queens College. He is the founding president of SAMi Sephardic American Mizrahi Initiative that focuses on the Leadership Development of under-served Jewish communities on college campuses. In 2021 Manashe was appointed by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz as a member of the Jewish Advisory Council. Manashe also just accepted a position with Moishe House as their new Eastern Community Manager.
Manashe is founder of the Bukharian Jewish Union, an organization for the young professionals in their 20’s and 30’s, the founder of AskBobo.org, the only Bukharian online dictionary and the founder of The Jewish Silk Road Tours ™ an initiative that helps to introduce NYers and tourists from around the world to the diversity of NYC.
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Reclaiming Identity: Jews of Arab Lands and Iran share stories of identity, struggle and redemption
Join us for a global virtual event marking the November 30, Israel's national day of commemorating the effectual end of Jewish in many Arab lands and Iran. We will discuss questions such as: What is my true identity? How does my family narrative coexist within the wider Jewish world? Why, when, and how did I reclaim my heritage identity? Featuring guests from Dubai to Los Angeles!
Tuesday, 30 November at 9:00AM EST
Sign-up Now!
On 23 June 2014, the Knesset adopted a law designating 30 November as an annual, national day of commemoration for the 850,000 Jewish refugees who were displaced from Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century.
This year on 30 November, Jews across the world will share personal experiences of their families who left those countries only to once again face losses in the experience of living their heritage and identity. It is time to reclaim our Jewish heritage!
Sponsorship opportunities available:
info@americansephardi.org
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The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Eid Al-Banat
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience and the Mizrahi Dance Archive invites you to a unique global celebration of Eid Al-Banat!
This year for the North African holiday of Eid Al-Banat (The Festival of Daughters, in Judeo-Arabic), or Hag HaBanot (Hebrew), we are bringing together female Greater Sephardi talents to virtually celebrate North African Jewish traditions, female leadership, music, dance, and so much more.
Sunday, 5 December at 12:00PM EST
Sign-up Now!
This festival honors the story of Jewish heroines like Judith and Queen Esther and the important role of women in Jewish life until today. It is customary to sing, dance, and light the night’s menorah candle and focus on bringing together generations of mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters and the extended community. Women would traditionally get together to bake sweet treats and give gifts to each other. They would sing piyyutim and pray for the health and wellbeing of the women in their lives. It is a celebration of women, past and present.
In this year’s celebration, we will be featuring musician Lala Tamar, a world-renowned Israeli singer, who will be streaming a concert from Morocco accompanied by local female musicians. Lala is known for her bold and feminine style where she incorporates her Moroccan roots and the ancient Judeo-Spanish language of Haketia.
Jackie Barzvi will be leading us in celebratory dance to Jewish Moroccan music, where anyone can follow along, without any previous dance experience. Jackie is a professional Raqs Sharqi (belly dance) instructor and performer and the creator of the Mizrahi Dance Archive.
Dr. Hélène Jawhara Piñer, author of Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora from the 13th Century to Today will be sharing a new recipe created uniquely for this program that incorporates the historical and modern significance of the day in the context of specific food items.
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, 10 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