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1 April 2016
Mazel tov/Mabrook to Simo ElAissaoui, a Moroccan immigrant who is bringing the “Moroccan example” of tolerance to New York City by co-organizing monthly meet-ups for Moroccan and American Jewish professionals
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Kuwaiti singer opens Sephardic festival
By Point of No Return 
 
Ema Shah is a taboo-breaking, superstar vocalist from Kuwait who dresses as she pleases─no simple matter in a region rife with Islamists─and sings Hebrew songs. In recognition of Shah’s “interfaith approach to music and civil society activism,” the American Sephardi Federation (ASF) recently granted her the Pomegranate Award, and her opening night performance at the ASF’s 19th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival included, fittingly enough, songs by 2014 Pomegranate Award recipient Enrico Macias and Ofra Haza.

Ema Shah preforming at Closing Night of the 19th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, 17 March (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)

2016 Pomegranate Award Winner Ema Shah with Pomegranate Award creator Oded Halamy, Opening Night of the 19th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, 10 March (Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)
Oded Halahmy
By Rahel Musleah, Na'amat (pp. 12-17)

The art of Oded HalahmyAmerican Sephardi Federation Board Member, proprietor of the Pomegranate Gallery (in SoHo and Jaffa), and founder of the Oded Halahmy Foundation for the Artsis rooted in Iraq, the land of his birth, but extends to Israel and New York City, the two places where he lives and creates today. Combining traditional religious forms, mythic figures, natural elements (especially pomegranates), and Halahmy's desire to create a world in which Iraq, Israel, and the U.S. live in harmony, Halahmy's work has been shown at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and in ASF's new gallery at The Center for Jewish History.
Video of the Week: “El Melech Go’el u’Mo’shiya” (“God is a King who Redeems”)


R’ Moshe Havusha, R’ David Menahem, and Yoni Sharon (Photo courtesy of YouTube)   
 
With Passover less than a month away, SWW hopes to get you in the mood with a special collaboration between R' Moshe Havusha and R' David Menahem singing the Passover piyyut, "El Melech Go'el u'Mo'shiya” (“God is a King who Redeems”)
Rare Ethiopian Torah scroll given to National Library
By Yori Yalon, Israel HaYom
 
A 400 year-old copy of an Ethiopian Bible was recently donated to Israel's National Library in a festive ceremony. Written in Ge’ez and called the “Orit,” from the Aramaic word “Oraita” traditionally used to refer to the Torah, the scroll contains the five books of Moses, as well as Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.

The Israel National Library’s latest acquisition (Photo courtesy of National Library of Israel)
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“Like” ASF on Facebook to keep up-to-date on our projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts



Nabucco, Opera by Verdi

April 6, 10, 12, 14, and 17
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York City

An opera by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by and starring David Serero as Nabucco. Building on the biblical accounts of the Babylonian Exile found in Jeremiah and Daniel, Verdi’s Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar) combines political and love intrigues with some of the greatest songs ever written (including Va pensiero, The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves).
 

Please click here to purchase tickets
(General Admission $26; VIP $36)



Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom

Thursday, April 7 at 6:00PM
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street, New York City

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, will be honored on April 7 at The Center for Jewish History. Join the American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal, for a reception inaugurating a new Leon Levy Gallery exhibition, which will run through Friday, September 9, 2016.

Please click here to RSVP 



The ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’: The Rise and Fall of the Jews of Salonica

Wednesday, April 13 at 7:30PM
Sephardic Temple in Cedarhurst
775 Branch Boulevard, Woodmere, NY

Once home to the largest Ladino-speaking Jewish community in the world, the Aegean port city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) provides a unique window into the broader Sephardic Jewish world. In this lecture, Professor Devin Naar, Isaac Alhadeff Professor in Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington and The American Sephardi Federation’s representative on The Center for Jewish History’s Academic Advisory Board, will explore the history of this “Jerusalem of the Balkans,” where Jews represented half of the city’s residents and the port closed every week in observance of Shabbat. 

Drawing on original research materials in six languages that form the basis of Naar’s forthcoming book, Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece (Stanford University Press), the lecture will focus on the dramatic changes that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of modern Greece in the 19th and 20th centuries. To what extent could Salonica’s Jews remain Jewish while also becoming Greek? Ultimately, the Nazi occupation of Salonica resulted in the complete destruction of the city’s Jewish community and few echoes of the memory of Jewish Salonica may be heard today.

The American Sephardi Federation invites you to experience 

THE POMEGRANATE CARD

Your Cardholder Benefits Include: 

  • Subscription to the print edition of The Sephardi Report, a magazine that shines a light on contemporary Sephardi creativity and excellence in the arts, scholarship, entrepreneurship, rabbinic thought, and philanthropy
     
  • Subscription to Sephardi Ideas Monthly and Sephardi World Weekly
     
  • Invitations to special events across the country  
     
  • Discounts at Sephardi businesses around the world, including restaurants, salons, and boutiques 
     
  • Reduced ticket prices and back-stage access at the annual NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
Reserve your card now:

$72

($54 tax-deductible)



Contact us by email or phone (917.606.8266) to sponsor future issues of the Sephardi World Weekly in honor or memory of loved ones. 
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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).

www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486

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