Hazak u’Barukh to Ethan & Andrew Marcus on fulfilling Haham Alkalai’s vision for Jewish unity with the American Sephardi float at the Celebrate Israel Parade!
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💽“Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa on their ‘love letter to Arabic music”
By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, The Financial Times
Jarak Qaribak جارك قريبك (Album Cover)
A receptive spirit within North African and Middle Eastern culture that embraces individuals no matter their origin is re-emerging. As is often the case, music is leading the way. The most recent example is the collaboration between the Iraqi-Jewish Israeli guitar player, singer, song writer and producer, Dudu Tassa, and the British guitarist, keyboard player, and bandleader of Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood. Long-time partners, Tassa and Greenwood’s newest collaboration is Jarak Qaribak “an excellent album of reimagined Arabic songs” featuring “a jumbled mix of geographies and vernaculars” in which “Traditional Arabic instrumentation is intriguingly blended with Radioheady guitars and vintage modular synths.” The album features vocal contributions from Moroccan, Egyptian, Emirati, Iraqi, Palestinian, and Israeli artists, and, says Tassa: “‘I consider this project as a love letter to Arabic music in general… In my childhood, every Friday, Arabic movies were screened on TV and everyone was hooked to them. Today people are very nostalgic about it. Young people now say, ‘I’m Iraqi, I’m from Iraq,’ to me.’”
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Feature: Dudu Tassa and the Birth of a Modern, Receptive, Middle Eastern Mode🎶🎙️
Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood
(Photo courtesy of Shin Katan/Financial Times)
The Israeli contribution to Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood’s collaboration, Jarak Qaribak is Ahibak, “I love you,” originally recorded by the Israeli Arab Orchestra in the 1960s and performed on the album by Dubai’s Safae Essafi. As Tassa and Greenwood explain “Jarak Qaribak translates, more or less, as “Your Neighbour Is Your Friend.” It’s an expansive, inclusive sentiment. The songs on the album, and the singers, are drawn from all over the Middle East – and, in keeping with the theme established by the album’s title, each singer takes a turn at a tune from a country other than their own.” Essafi swings naturally with the song of longing, flowing over Middle Eastern rhythms powered by a clear backbeat and accompanied by Arabesque musical flourishes and coloring. Take a listen and hear for yourself.
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✡️“Popularity of Abu Dhabi’s Abrahamic Family House exceeds expectations”
By Anjana Sankar, The National News
Passover Seder, Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue – Abrahamic Family House, Abu Dhabi, UAE
(Photo Courtesy of the Abrahamic Family House)
A promising sign of the emergence of a tolerant stream within North African and Middle Eastern religious culture has been attendance at the UAE’s Abrahamic Family House. In short, the site is proving to be far more popular than expected. Dr Mahmoud Al Khalaf, the Imam of the Eminence Ahmed Al Tayeb Mosque, noted how 350 people were expected to attended Friday prayers, but “‘Last Friday, we had more than 1,000 worshippers.’” Likewise, according to Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, the Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue has become the spiritual center of UAE Jewry: “‘We have had phenomenal celebrations in the lives of people and families, we've had weddings, we’ve had baby naming.’” R’ Sarna considers last April’s overlapping celebrations of Ramadan, Easter, and Passover within the Abrahamic Family House as embodying a new paradigm for religious co-existence in the region: “‘We were literally within the same geographic area where thousands of people coming together, celebrating each in their own way, but also with an awareness that just next door there's another group, also celebrating their faith… And rather than being a point of tension, it's a point of inspiration.’”
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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.
Jewish Women from Muslim Societies Speak
Published by the American Sephardi Federation and Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Woman at Brandeis University
Jewish women from Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran were invited to share their personal stories. It could be said that these women's voices are from the last generation of Jews to have an intimate personal knowledge of the Muslim world, the enormous diversity within and among Middle Eastern Jewish communities.
We hope that these essays, told through the medium of vivid personal stories, will stimulate discussion about contemporary dynamics in the Muslim world and raise awareness of Jewish women’s history in North Africa and the Middle-East.
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Upcoming Events or Opportunities
The Algemeiner and the American Sephardi Federation present:
‘Der Jude’
An exclusive glimpse into the world’s largest collection of Antisemitic artifacts.
A conversation with Arthur Langerman (Antisemitica Collector) and Ben Cohen (Senior Correspondent, The Algemeiner)
Tuesday, 20 June at 12:00 PM EDT
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
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ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Living the Parsha with Mati Seri
Join us for a discussion of actor, singer, presenter and author Mati Seri’s new book “52 Weeks of Devotion” on the weekly Torah portion. The presentation will be accompanied by musical interludes by the singer.
Sunday, 25 June at 12:00 PM EDT
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
Sponsorship opportunities available:
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ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience presents:
Houses of Life:
Synagogues and Cemeteries in Italy
We invite you to a virtual tour of an exhibit currently on display at MEIS - the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah.
Curated by Andrea Morpurgo and Amedeo Spagnoletto, this exhibit offers an innovative in-depth approach focusing on the architecture, rituals, and the roles played by both synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in the Jewish community. Visitors will explore the specifically Italian nature of these two places, while understanding the over two thousand years of history of the country’s Jewish community.
The history of cities and of human beings intertwine in the exhibit, through their original architecture, artifacts that are passed down in and between families, and are on display. Among these are prestigious loans such as the Aron ha-Qodesh, the holy Ark, of the Vercelli Jewish Community and many precious documents from both State Archives and Italian Jewish Communities.
Monday, 26 June at 12:00 PM EDT
(Complimentary RSVP)
Sign-up Now!
About the curators:
Andrea Morpurgo is an architect and architectural historian. He graduated from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, then moved to the Netherlands where he earned a Master of Excellence in Architecture at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and later a PhD in History of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Polytechnic of Turin. He is author of the book “The Jewish Cemetery in Italy: History and architecture of an identity space” (Quodlibet), professor of the “Synagogal Architecture” course of the three-year University Diploma in Jewish Studies promoted by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, and member of the board of the “Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy”.
Amedeo Spagnoletto is the Director of the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah. He is also a sofer, a Jewish ritual scribe. From 2017 until 2019 he was Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Florence. From 2011 until 2019 he was teacher of Jewish Law Principles, Exegesis and Bible, in the Jewish Studies Degree of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
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.