Erez Bitton, the “founding father of Sephardi poetry” in Israel, who was recently honored at the 18th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival with the Pomegranate Award for Lifetime Achievement, is now receiving the Israel Prize for Poetry and Literature. The first Sephardic Jew to ever win this award, Bitton graciously acknowledged that “I feel more accepted, more belonging, no longer skipped over.”
As part of its campaign to emphasize and preserve Morocco's mosaic culture, the Moroccan government continues to restore synagogues in Casablanca, including most recently the Temple Beth El (click to see a photo montage).
Flory Jagoda sings “Pesah ala Mano” (“Passover is at hand”), a Ladino song that asks “God to grant us good fortune,” as all the final Passover preparations—matzot are baking, Grandmother is scouring for any remaining crumbs, the Rabbi is coming by to inspect—are being made.
What was life like for Jews who were exiled to Babylon in 586 BCE? The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has put on display 100 palm-sized tablets from the Babylonian Exile that provide details of the Jews’ entrepreneurial endeavors in their new land. According to the exhibit’s curator, “They were free to go about their lives; they weren’t slaves. Nebuchadnezzar… knew he needed the Judeans to help revive the struggling Babylonian economy.”
The Akkadian script, an extinct Semitic language, describes Jewish life 2,500 years ago in Babylonia (Photo courtesy of Tel Aviv University).
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The American Sephardi Federation is co-sponsoring Andrée Aelion Brooks’ “Spain, Maimonides, and His Turbulent Times,” a midday, mini-course from April 14th-May 5th at the Jewish Community Center (West 76th Street – Amsterdam Avenue). The course will provide background on Jewish life in Spain during the Middle Ages, the itinerant years of Maimonides’ early life, his works in Jewish thought and medicine, a sampling of his remedies, and the controversies that erupted over his ideas after his death.
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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, NY., 10011).