In Memory of the more than 130 Libyan Jews killed, 35 Torah scrolls desecrated, and nine synagogues burned during the pogrom of 5-7 November 1945 in British-controlled Tripolitania
(See: Jewish Life in Muslim Libya: Rivals and Relatives)
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
📜“Revealed: Stirring Words from the Victims of the Mexican Inquisition”
Mark Schneegurt, The Librarians
"Principal tortures of the Inquisition," as depicted in Charles H. Davie's book, History of the Inquisition: From its establishment to the present time, with an account of its procedure and narratives of its victims (1851).
(Photo courtesy of of the National Library of Israel)
Some of the Jews who fled the Inquisition were compelled, in the New World, to live as Crypto-Jews, appearing to be Christian while holding on to “threads of a Jewish life.” And sometimes these hidden Jews were murdered nonetheless, burnt at the stake for being Jewish. Remarkably, we possess some of their writings, “The sacred writings of crypto-Jews in Mexico 400 years ago ring with a desperation tempered by deep faith in… the God of their ancestors.” What’s more, “[A] new publication, Anthology of Religious Poetry from the Mexican Inquisition Trials of 16th-Century Crypto Jews, brings these cultic compositions together in the most comprehensive collection…to date.”
Feature: Telling the Story of Sigd in the City of David ☂️☂️☂️
Iyov Goshen and Reut Wilf in the City of David, Jerusalem, Israel
(Screenshot courtesy of YouTube)
Ethiopian Jews brought a festival to Israel that has become a national holiday - Sigd. Celebrated fifty days after Yom Kippur, Sigd ends with community members ascending to a hilltop and looking towards Jerusalem. This year the holiday ran from sundown Wednesday through sundown Thursday. In honor of Sigd, Iyov Goshen, a father of three and Jerusalem municipal worker, tells his amazing Ethiopian-Jewish-Israeli Aliya story while walking though the newly excavated ancient boulevards of the City of David.
Learn more about Sigd with this ASF Institute of Jewish Experience video clip
Watch Ethiopian-Israeli star Gili Yalo and his band at the ASF & Chassida Shmella’s 10th Annual NYC Sigd
Watch the ASF Institute of Jewish Experience’s Sigd: An International Celebration 2020
✈️ “The End of Exile: Iraqi Jew Recalls Escape From Baghdad 70 Years Ago”
Maya Margit, The Media Line
Baruch Meiri and some of his siblings, Baghdad, Iraq, 1947
(Photo courtesy of Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center)
The ASF’s friends & partners at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, Israel, marked the mass Aliyah of Iraqi Jewry with a special event this past Tuesday, “Marking 70 Years of the Aliyah from Iraq - Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.” The event featured Iraqi-Israeli artists, public figures and writers, such as the award-winning journalist and author, Baruch Meiri: “‘Iraqi Jews understood that the only way to succeed in Israel was through hard work and studying. There are no shortcuts. They understood that Israel… was a poor country that had only just been founded.’”
📖 “Interview with Rabbi Moshe Maimon about His Edition of R’ Avraham b HaRambam's Peirush on Chumash”
Eliezer Brodt, The Seforim Blog
Traditional portrait of the RAMBAM with signature
(Photo courtesy of the Jewish Encyclopedia)
Avraham, son of the legendary Rambam (aka Maimonides), was a learned scholar, judge, communal leader, author and mystic (who was deeply influenced by Sufism). An updated version of Avraham’s commentary to Genesis was recently prepared by New Jersey-based Rabbi Moshe Maimon, who explains: “The decline of the Judeo-Arabic world caused much of the important works of the Geonic-Andalusian school to [be] lost.” That said, “Rabbenu Avraham’s peirush (interpretation, ed.) [is] hewn from the almost forgotten Geonic and Andalusian sources and permeated entirely with the spirit of the Rambam’s original thought.”
~~~~~~~
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!
~~~~~~~
The Wolf of Baghdad (Memoir of a lost homeland)
By Carol Isaacs
In the 1940s a third of Baghdad’s population was Jewish. Within a decade nearly all 150,000 had been expelled, killed or had escaped. This graphic memoir of a lost homeland is a wordless narrative by an author homesick for a home she has never visited.
Transported by the power of music to her ancestral home in the old Jewish quarter of Baghdad, the author encounters its ghost-like inhabitants who are revealed as long-gone family members. As she explores the city, journeying through their memories and her imagination, she at first sees successful integration, and cultural and social cohesion. Then the mood turns darker with the fading of this ancient community’s fortunes.
This beautiful wordless narrative is illuminated by the words and portraits of her family, a brief history of Baghdadi Jews and of the making of this work. Says Isaacs: ‘The Finns have a word, kaukokaipuu, which means a feeling of homesickness for a place you’ve never been to. I’ve been living in two places all my life; the England I was born in, and the lost world of my Iraqi-Jewish family’s roots.’
Maimonides, Spinoza and Us: Toward an Intellectually Vibrant Judaism
By Rabbi Dr. Marc D. Angel
A challenging look at two great Jewish philosophers, and what their thinking means to our understanding of God, truth, revelation and reason. RAMBAM/Maimonides is Jewish history’s greatest exponent of a rational, philosophically sound Judaism. He strove to reconcile the teachings of the Bible and rabbinic tradition with the principles of Aristotelian philosophy, arguing that religion and philosophy ultimately must arrive at the same truth. Baruch Spinoza is Jewish history’s most illustrious "heretic." He believed that truth could be attained through reason alone, and that philosophy and religion were separate domains that could not be reconciled. His critique of the Bible and its teachings caused an intellectual and spiritual upheaval whose effects are still felt today.
R’Angel discusses major themes in the writings of Maimonides and Spinoza to show us how modern people can deal with religion in an intellectually honest and meaningful way. From Maimonides, we gain insight on how to harmonize traditional religious belief with the dictates of reason. From Spinoza, we gain insight into the intellectual challenges which must be met by modern believers.
~~~~~~~
Upcoming Events or Opportunities
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.
On Mondays
8 November
A Hanukah Tour Through Ancient Greece - Greek Exhibits in Museums Around the World
Sign-up Now!
10 January
Tour the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda
Sign-up Now!
(Registration required for each session)
@ 9AM PDT ◊ 12PM EDT ◊ 5PM London ◊ 7PM Jerusalem ◊ 8PM Dubai
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
===
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
===
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.
Monday, 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
===
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.”
Monday, 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, analyse 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
===
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.
Monday, 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
===
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!
Monday, 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
===
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.
Monday, 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