The ancient Jewish community of Rhodes, destroyed by the Nazis, was a microcosm of Sephardic history. According to the distinguished archaeologist Prof. Richard Freund: “The customs were an amalgam of Spanish, Roman, Babylonian, Judean, and North African… the art of Rhodes combined styles from the Muslims, Templars, Europe, and the Jews of Spain.” The ASF is proud to take part in presenting Prof. Freund’s exhibit, “It Was Paradise: Jewish Rhodes,” scheduled to open on Sunday, Oct. 18, at the University of Hartford’s Museum of Jewish Civilization.
Greece’s Oldest Synagogue, Khal Shalom Synagogue, La Juderia (Jewish Quarter), Rhodes (Photo courtesy of Louis Davidson/Synagogues360 -- click to explore a panorama of the synagogue
Israeli guitarist and vocalist Micha Shitrit applies his raspy vocals and folksy style to Yehuda Halevi’s 11th century Song of Zion, the celebrated piyyut, “My Heart is in the East.” Israeli saxophonist Daniel Zamir complements Shitrit onstage with a graceful and probing soprano sound. This month’s issue of Sephardi Ideas Monthly is dedicated to Yehuda Halevi’s “Songs of Zion.”
In 1996, Simcha Abergel founded a nursery for young children in Singapore. Today, the nursery is an international Jewish school that sports a new $40 million campus and serves children from ages 18 months to 14 years. Simcha’s husband, Rabbi Mordechai Abergel, considers the campus to be “the crown jewel” of Singapore’s flourishing Jewish community.
Seven elderly women, six of them over the age of 80, are all that’s left of Cairo’s Jewish community. 63 year-old Magda Haroun, the community's “leader,” fears for the future, “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I’m crying. Because I don’t know what will happen. When the phone rings, I don’t know who died, who is sick. It’s very hard to explain. It’s very heavy. It’s very sad. It’s very frightening.”
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.
2015 Al Warshawsky Memorial Lecture: Professor Stefan Reif on “Geniza Insights into the Jewish Homeland of a Thousand Years ago”
22 October at 8PM at the Congregation Shearith Israel: The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue 8 West 70th Street, New York, NY
David E.R. Dangoor (President, American Sephardi Federation) and Jeffrey Mosseri (Shearith Israel League) co-chair a lecture by Dr. Stefan Reif, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Hebrew Studies and Fellow of St John’s College at the University of Cambridge, for an exploration of the Rambam (Maimonides’) thought.
The founding Director of the Geniza Research Unit at Cambridge University Library (1973-2006), Professor Reif is the author of many books (A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo, Problems with Prayers, Charles Taylor and the Genizah Collection, and Death in Jewish Life) and articles, and has lectured throughout Europe, Israel, Canada, and the USA. He holds senior research posts at the Universities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, and is currently working on a volume describing and analyzing medieval liturgical fragments from the Cairo Geniza.
28 October at 7PM at the Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY
Babylon figures prominently in Jewish history as the birthplace of Abraham, the place by whose rivers the Jewish refugees of Nebuchadnezzar wept, and home to the academies where the Talmud (Bavli) was incubated. In modern times, Iraq boasted a rich Jewish cultural life from the river island of Zakho in Iraqi-Kurdistan to the bustling business centers of Baghdad and Basra. Today, six decades after denationalization, few Jews remain, but many structures and stories live on.
Join Dennis Shasha, one of the editors of Iraq’s Last Jews, as he presents recollections from this remarkable collection of first-person accounts. More than their own stories or even the history of the community, the book provides critical insights into the indelible Jewish imprint on Iraq’s history and culture.
Donate nowand your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF “Connect, Collect, and Celebrate” Sephardi culture throughout the year with engaging programs and compelling publications.
Contact us by email or phone (212-548-4486) to sponsor future issues of the Sephardi World Weekly in honor or memory of loved ones.
Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.
The American Sephardi Federation's Sephardi House is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, New York, 10011).