Jews immigrated to Israel from Iraq in the early 1950’s. Now firmly rooted in their Israeli identity, Iraqi Jews are exploring the rich Iraqi Jewish culture that was suppressed when they arrived in the country. As prominent writer Eli Amir notes, “Their language was the enemy language and their music was the music of the enemy.”
2016 Pomegranate Award Winner Ema Shah with Pomegranate Award creator and President of the American Friends of the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center Oded Halamy, Opening Night of the 19th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, 10 March (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
The 19th NYSJFF featured a film starting Bollywood pioneer Pramila, who also appeared in the ASF exhibit Baghdadis & The Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond: Indian Jews in the Movies
Baghdadi Jews first immigrated to India at the end of the 18th century, and despite their small numbers, they made an impressive contribution in business, the arts and even the military. Unsure of their future, however, Baghdadi Jews began leaving India in 1947. Today only forty Baghdadi Jews remain, in Calcutta and Bombay.
Special Yom HaShoah Feature: A Diarna Interactive Tour of Holocaust Camps in North Africa
The Holocaust was primarily, but not only, a European event. During World War II, labor and internment camps were built by Nazi collaborators across North Africa, some Sephardim and Ashkenazim were deported out of major cities, and a number were even transported to Europe, where they eventually met their fate in Nazi death camps.
In honor of Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Memorial Day, The Diarna: Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life presents a digital map showing several different Holocaust sites in Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. There are additional camps in Yifrin, Sidi_Azaz, Gharyan, Tigrinna, and other locations still to be identified.
To view the interactive Diarna map, which includes site descriptions and photographs, you will first need to download Google Earth. The map is available here. Please contact info@diarna.org if you or someone you know has information and/or documentation on Jewish sites (synagogues, schools, shrines, and other structures) in the Middle East and North Africa.
India is known for its rich history of religious diversity, and the country has six officially recognized religious minorities: Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism. Judaism, however, is not on the list, and Indian Jews are beginning to wonder: will Pesach ever become an officially recognized Indian Festival?
May 19th at 6:30PM Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York City
Presented by the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at Center for Jewish History and American Sephardi Federation
Sarina Roffé, founder of the Sephardic Heritage Project and an expert on Brooklyn’s Sephardic Jewish community, traces the journey of the Kassins, a rabbinic dynasty with rumored Converso heritage, from Spain to modern Brooklyn, using traditional genealogy methodology as well as DNA testing. Roffé also explores the claims that some descendants are rabbis who serve a secret Jewish community in Ireland. The last descendant of the Kassins is currently serving as Chief Rabbi of Brooklyn’s Sephardic community.
May 22nd from 12-6PM
at the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue & Museum
280 Broome St (between Allen St and Eldridge St on the Lower East Side of Manhattan).
Join ASF at the Greek Jewish Festival as we celebrate the unique Romaniote and Sephardic heritage of the Lower East Side. Experience authentic kosherGreek 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!
Othello by William Shakespeare in a Moroccan Adaptation
June 16th, 23rd, 26th, 28th and 30th Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York City
ASF’s theatrical season (Merchant of Venice, Nabucco) concludes with David Serero’s Othello, a Moroccan adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play about love and war, reason and race, fortuna and virtù. The production features Serero (as Othello), a diverse cast, and traditional music.
Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom
April 7th through September 9th Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York City
The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present a new exhibition in the Leon Levy Gallery honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the courageous and creative Portuguese diplomat who saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of other Holocaust refugees.
Please click here for additional information and viewing hours
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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, New York, 10011).