9 October 2015 In Memory of Egyptian playwright Ali Salem, “a brave and perhaps irreplaceable” advocate for a cosmopolitan Middle East, free of the “culture of death”
The American-China Public Affairs Institute (ACPAI) recently screened the 2002 documentary, “Shanghai Ghetto.” Clandestinely filmed, the movie examines what happened to the small Jewish community of Sephardim and Ashkenazim who lived in Shanghai amongst 100,000 Chinese peasants during WWII.
Ohel Rachel Synagogue, Shanghai, China (Photo courtesy of John S Y Lee)
Israel’s wildly popular “The Revivo Project” began as an homage to Yemenite-Jewish hafla (party) music, featuring eight-minute medleys, soulful singing and lots of qat, the mildly narcotic plant favored by Yemenis and Ethiopians, including Jews. The group soon became a national phenomenon, earning 50 million (!) YouTube views. The Sephardi World Weekly wishes our readers a hearty Shabbat Shalom with The Revivo Project’s raucous medley of Shabbat piyyutim:
An etrog being carefully wrapped for shipping (Photo courtesy of Aviram Valdman)
Looking for the lemon-like etrog, one of the ‘four species’ that Jews use in celebrating the autumn holiday of Sukkot? Then think about visiting Morocco, a country that has become one of the main suppliers of etrogim. Photographer Aviram Valdman has chronicled his etrog-filled travels from “the city of Marrakesh to the Atlas Mountains and then to the Sahara Desert” in a striking photo essay.
Sima Goel, author of Fleeing the Hijab: A Jewish Woman’s Escape from Iran, remembers life in pre-revolutionary Iran: “At the age of six… as I played with a new friend in the park, the girl’s mother recognized that I was a Jew. She pulled my friend away, muttering, ‘Najest – dirty, impure Jew.’ “While under the Shah, “the word of a Jew was equal to that of a Muslim in court… on the playground, the narrow-minded dictated their own rules.” With the Ayatollahs in power, however, the narrow-minded have moved from running the playground to running the country.
2nd Annual Concert for Daniel Pearl: “Building Bridges: From Bene Beraq to Baghdad” (Jews of Iraq Series)
12 October at 7PM at the Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY
Daniel Pearl, armed with a pen and a fiddle, loved to connect with people the world over, forming friendships and building a coalition of the decent. The American Sephardi Federation is proud to honor his legacy with a special concert bringing together diverse peoples and music. This concert is part of the “Daniel Pearl World Music Days” occurring in more than 60 countries throughout the month of October. A feature of this concert is a recording of Daniel’s mother, Ruth, talking about her experiences as a survivor of the Farhud, the 1941 anti-Jewish pogrom at Baghdad, Iraq.
Three Sephardic singers are headlining this year’s concert:
14 October at 7PM
at the Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY
The American Sephardi Federation invites you to a conversation with Seth M. Siegel, author of Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution For A Water-Starved World. Mr. Siegel’s book treats the remarkable story and global implications of how Israel developed the world’s most sophisticated water management system. The evening will also include a special presentation on the unknown story of how Israel came to develop Iran’s water system prior to the Revolution.
Opening of Jewish Rhodes Exhibition and Ladino Concert
18 October at 1PM “It was Paradise: Jewish Rhodes”
at the University of Hartford
200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT and at 7PM Ladinofest Emanuel Synagogue
160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford, CT)
Rhodes was home to one of most ancient Jewish communities of Europe, dating back 2,300 years. An intellectual and commercial center for Sephardim, there were as many as 6 synagogues, a rabbinical college, schools, scholars and a unique culture, before the community was deported, on July 23, 1944, en masse by the Nazis to Auschwitz.
The American Sephardi Federation is proud to partner with The Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies and Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford in presenting their new exhibition “It was Paradise: Jewish Rhodes.” The exhibition, which is being made possible in part by the generosity of the Avzaradel-Capuano Rhodes Fund and the Korowitz Family Fund, features artifacts on loan from the Rhodes Jewish Museum, historical photographs, maps, and photos of ongoing excavations.
Renowned archaeologist Richard Freund, who directs the Greenberg Center and the university’s archaeological project on Rhodes, will inaugurate the exhibition with a discussion of exciting discoveries made during recent excavations.
The day will conclude with Ladinofest, a concert featuring Susan Feltman Gaeta and Cantor Sanford Cohn preforming Sephardic songs.
To RSVP: Call (860-768-5018) or email (mgcjs@hartford.edu)
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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).