In Memory of Nessim Joseph Dawood, z’l, the Baghdadi Jewish translator of the world's most popular English-language Qur'an.
David Sassoon (seated), the Baghdad-born 19th century patriarch of a commercial empire that spanned across Asia. Sons Elias, Albert and David are shown, each of whom managed the family business in different ports of call.
Amongst the first entrepreneurs to relocate to the newly opened market of Hong Kong were Baghdadi Jewish adventurers like the famous Sassoon and Kadoorie families. Today, 5,000 Jews live in Hong Kong, where a Jewish Film Festival is enjoying its 15th year and the Jewish and Chinese communities are said to view each other with “mutual respect.”
In order to gather 10 Jews for a prayer quorum out of the 40 who live in New Dehli, a city of 25 million, the community’s unofficial rabbi has authorized women to read from the Torah, “We are a microscopic minority and cannot afford to be so rigid and orthodox.”
Ezekiel Isaac Malekar at Judah Hyam Synagogue (Photo courtesy of Raj K Raj/HT Photo).
Flory Jagoda sings her Ladino composition “Ocho Kandelikas” (1983). Although contemporary, the song has its roots in the traditional Sephardi music she experienced growing-up in Bosnia.
Farideh Goldin imagines a dialogue with her Iranian-Jewish father, who even after fleeing the country during the Islamist revolution, never stopped pinning for the Iran of his dreams: “Baba, I can’t imagine Iranian Jews being brave enough like the Macabees to rise up against those who wish to annihilate us, to assimilate us, to kill our traditions.”
Farideh Goldin (Photo courtesy of the author)
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The American Sephardi Federation's Sephardi House is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011).