20 May 2016 In honor of Carlos Benaim, a distinguished member of the American Sephardi Federation’s Board of Directors and world-renowned perfumer from Tangier, Morocco
The story of the Jewish role in popular North African music during the first-half of the twentieth century has yet to be told. When it is, Messaoud Habib will feature as one of the top pianists in the entire Maghrib. Stunningly prolific, Habib recorded nearly every musical genre of the era—from tango to ghaita—on nearly every label of the time—including Pathé, Columbia, Polyphon, Odeon, and the local Bembaron label—with every major Tunisian recording star of the day—from Habiba Messika and Khailou Esseghir to Bachir Fahmy.
Messaoud Habib, Dalila Taliyana, Acher Mizrahi, Paris c. 1930
The Bene Israel community in Western India has often been treated as a curiosity, and its self-professed Jewish identity taken with a grain of salt. A new study, however, claims that the Bene Israel descend, at least in part, from Middle Eastern Jews: The results point to Bene Israel being an ‘admixed’ population, with both Jewish and Indian ancestry.
May 24th at 7PM Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York City
Presented by the Sousa Mendes Foundation and American Sephardi Federation
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese Consul-General in Bordeaux, France, courageously rescued thousands of refugees, many of them Jews, from the Nazis in the spring of 1940 by issuing visas contrary to the strict orders of his government. In June 2013, filmmaker Semyon Pinkhasov followed a group of visa recipient families, along with members of the Sousa Mendes family, as they embarked on a pilgrimage retracing their families’ footsteps after 73 years. They were “searching for Sousa Mendes” – looking for traces and clues of a lost history.
Screening $5; tickets are available at the door.
Guided tours of the exhibition will be given prior to and following the screening.
May 22nd from 12-6PM
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue & Museum
280 Broome Street (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!
June 2nd-9th Manhattan JCC 334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th Street
New York
Celebrate the best new movies coming out of Israel's thriving industry at the Israel Film Center Festival, New York's leading festival for Israeli film. Join actors, directors, and more for a week of great cinema at JCC Manhattan, June 2-9.
And join the American Sephardi Federation for a focus on Sephardi and Mizrahi culture, with an Opening Night screening of Baba Joon, winner of the 2015 Ophir Award for Best Picture and Israel's first Persian-language film, as well as Encirclements (Hakafot), a touching and complex portrait of a Mizrahi family starring Lior Ashkenazi (Walk on Water) and Assi Levy (Aviva, My Love).
Purchase tickets here starting May 18th with discount code "SEPHARDI"
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.
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).
