Copy
13 FEBRUARY 2015                                                 
In Memory of Sir Martin Gilbert, z’l, most recently the author of In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands

In 2014, international recording star Enrico Macias announced that he would be making aliyah. Born in Constantine, Enrico, along with most of Algeria’s Jews, fled to France shortly after the murder of Cheikh Raymond, his father-in-law and musical mentor.  Click here to watch the Diarna Geo-Musem’s Insights video about Cheikh Raymond’s record store and Enrico’s journey (Photo courtesy of Ilan Costica)
French Immigrants To Israel Bring Part Of Home With Them”  
By Emily Harris, NPR

While French Jews previously moved to Israel primarily on account of Zionist principles, today’s more numerous olim often cite security, and unlike past arrivals are abjuring assimilation. Living in French enclaves, the “majority of French Jews… have roots in North Africa….  Avraham Azoulay, 51, was born in Morocco and moved to Toulouse, France, as a child. He felt his heritage set him apart. ‘When I came to Toulouse, I felt first and foremost a Jew. But everybody told me you’re Moroccan. So I said I’m French,’ he recalls. ‘Later they said you are a Jew. Israel is the only place I can be a Jew and an Israeli. I feel like I arrived at the right place.’”
 
Hispanic Catholics rediscover Jewish roots” 
By Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Hearld

Some Hispanic Catholics are discovering why they don’t celebrate Christmas or eat pork, relatives are buried within a day of death, and their women cleanse themselves in a river after their menstrual cycle: they are descended from Anusim, Jews who were coerced into converting to Catholicism and continued in the confession even after escaping the Inquisition’s clutches by fleeing to the Americas

 

Moses Lvovich Maimon’s 1893 painting, “The Marranos,” depicts a secret Passover Seder held by Conversos (B&W excerpt shown above).
 
Site of the Week: The Shrine to Shlomo ben Lhens in the Ourika Valley, Morocco
 

The Jewish “monk,” Hananiyah Alfassi, z’l, caretaker of the shrine for over 30 years (Photo courtesy of Diarna Geo-Museum - D'fina: Jewish Treasures of Morocco)
 
Perched on the edge of a mountain above a river valley sits the 500 year-old tomb of an emissary from the land of Israel who died while on a fundraising trip in southern Morocco. The Rabbi Shlomo (Solomon) has been given the moniker “Ben Lhens” (“Son of the Snake”) and remains one of the most revered Jewish “saints” in Morocco, including by Muslims, who call him “Mul Asguine.” What made his shrine all the more remarkable was the man who resided there for decades until his death in 2013: Hananiyah Alfassi. The last Jew in the Ourika Valley, Hannaniyah’s passing marked the end of an era in Judeo-Moroccan saint veneration.  This video, exploring the history of the shrine, is part of an online exhibit, D’fina: Jewish Treasures of Morocco, featuring exclusive documentation from multiple Dairna research expeditions over the past six years.
Speaking on Salonica’s Sacred Ground”  
By Devin Naar, The Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

Built atop what was “once [an] expansive and historic Jewish burial ground,” Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, was silent for over seventy years about the fifty thousand Salonican Jews deported and murdered at Auschwitz. Now, thanks in part to the efforts of Professor Devin E. Naar, there is a memorial commemorating the annihilation of this community, who constituted “the largest Ladino-speaking Jewish community in the world,” and the obliteration of physical remnants of “the centuries-long Jewish presence in this once cosmopolitan city— from the more than three dozen synagogues to the vast Jewish cemetery—... partly at the initiative of local Greek Orthodox residents and leaders themselves.” 
 
Devin E. Naar, Chair of the Sephardic Studies Program at the University of Washington and an ASF Representative on the Center for Jewish History’s Academic Advisory Board, stands amidst Aristotle University’s new Holocaust memorial (Photo courtesy of Iosif Vaena)
ASF is now on Facebook! “Like” our page to keep up-to-date on projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts
ASF is now on Facebook! “Like” our page to keep up-to-date on projects, programs, and publications, as well as to share your thoughts

 
Join the American Sephardi Federation & The Times of Israel on Sunday, February 15th at the Waldorf Astoria New York to honor some of Israel’s most influential citizens (entrepreneurs, philanthropists, political and military leaders, celebrities) and friends. To RSVP, please click here or call 1-844-864-4252. Email us to learn about a special rate for ASF members. 

Come visit ASF’s Leon Levy Gallery at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street) to view “Echoes of Jewish Morocco: A Photographic Exhibit by Joshua Shamsi for the Diarna Geo-Museum” on display now through 20 March.
Announcement: The polls are now open for the 37th World Zionist Congress (WZO) elections. The WZO decides on the allocation of funding for Jewish educational programs in Israel and around the world. ASF Board Member Rabbi Elie Abadi, M.D., is leading the only Sephardi slate, “Ohavei Zion - The World Sephardic Zionist Organization,” which is committed to “shar[ing] the beauty of our Sephardic Heritage with our Jewish brethren.” Josephine Mairzadeh, ASF’s Director of Development, is also an Ohavei Zion candidate. Click here to learn more about the WZO and Ohavei Zion.
Donate now and 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 (212-294-8350) to learn about opportunities to underwrite our newly designated office spaces and publications in honor or memory of loved ones. 
Share
Tweet
Forward
+1
Share
Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

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, NY., 10011).

American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 294-8350

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences