Quarter to Africa is the name of a band led by Yakir Sasson and Elyasaf Bashari, two Mizrahi Jews from Israel who refer to their look as “Afro Arab” and whose music is, “one part African rhythms, one part funky jazz and one part traditional Arabic makam scales….” That said, it’s 100% Israeli, a scene that, according to Bashari, is “full of super talented people, who are very high level and original… it’s beautiful.”
Elyasaf Bashari of Quarter to Africa playing an electrified oud (Photo courtesy of Quarter to Africa)
Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates Mimouna in 2015, Or Akiva, Israel (Photo courtesy of Israel HaYom)
How was Mimouna, the North African, post-Passover holiday, celebrated in Morocco? According to Dr. Yehuda Maimran, CEO of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Israel, “Back in Morocco it was a Jewish holiday that Jews and Arabs would celebrate together… For us it was a holiday of love and opening your house to everyone.” Today, it’s become a national party in which, “on the morning after Mimouna, it’s a safe bet you’re going to see a picture of Shimon Peres in a fez.” In order to bring Mimouna back to its roots, Maimran is organizing Mimouna events in Israel’s south, bringing together Israeli Jews and Bedouins.
The crossing of the sea as depicted in a fesco, formerly found at Dura Europos Synagogue, Syria (Photo courtesy ofBecklectic/WikiMedia)
Rahum Ata, sung here by Raphael Tabboush, mentions the drowning of the Egyptians and contains allusions to the Shirat HaYam (Song of the Sea) recited by the Israelites as they crossed the sea, making it applicable to the 7th day of the holiday when tradition holds that the crossing took place.
When did Sephardic Jews begin singing the playful tune that closes the Passover Seder, “Had Gadya,” or as it’s known in Ladino, “Un Kavretiko/Un Kavrito?” According to Professor and ASF Advisory Board Member Devin Naar, while “authoritative scholarly works such as the Encyclopedia Judaica indicate that Had Gadya ‘was never part of the Sephardi… rituals,’” things changed at the end of the 19th century, when “Had Gadya” began appearing in the Ladino translations of the Haggadah. Today? Excepting the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam and London, everyone sings the song.
The title page of the Haggadah according to the Sephardic tradition of the Magreb written in the Judeo-Arabic of Algerian Jews was originally produced by Austrian publisher Joseph Schlesinger, c. 1900. The work was recently republished in Memory of Louis and Molly Wolff (Lupu), A”H
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.
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.
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).
