What do Seattle’s Sephardim think about Spain offering citizenship to the descendants of Sephardi exiles? Professor Devin Naar, a member of ASF’s Academic Advisory Board and Chair of Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington, notes that this isn’t the first time that Spain has attempted, in trying economic times, to entice Jews to return to the country. Seattle-born Rabbi Marc Angel is unabashedly cynical: “This enterprise is more in the category of a public relations stunt than a genuine effort to ‘atone’ for 1492.” Meanwhile, Doreen Alhadeff, co-founder of the Seattle Sephardic Network, plans on moving to the Iberian Peninsula: “I’m going to move forward with it and I think the cynicism is unwarranted… This is the land of our ancestors.”
Composed in 1350s Barcelona, Spain, The Sarajevo Haggadah, journeyed with Sephardic Jews into exile after the Expulsion of 1492 (Photo courtesy of Goodoldpolonius2/Wikimedia)
Mehereta Baruch-Ron (Photo courtesy of onlifeWOMEN)
Kai EL’Zabar, Executive Editor of the African-American weekly, The Chicago Defender, recently visited Israel as a guest of the Foreign Ministry. When meeting with the Ethiopian-born Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv, Mehereta Baruch-Ron, “Meheretha made it clear that the experience of the Ethiopian Jew in Israel is not the same as the Africans in America and elsewhere… They did not come as slaves.”
A relief in Rome’s Arch of Titus depicts plunder form the Temple at Jerusalem, the fall of which is one of the causes for lament on Tisha B’av (Photo courtesy of Dnalor 01/Wikimedia)
R’ David Edri leads the Ensemble of Payytanim from Ashdod’s Center for Piyyut and Shira in a traditional kinah (lamentation), sung on the night of the 9th of Av, according to the Spanish-Moroccan tradition.
While Ashkenazi Jews have been getting tested for genetic diseases since the mid-1980’s, genetic testing doesn’t exist at comparable levels in the Sephardi community. Researchers and rabbis, however, are working to change the situation, especially for couples contemplating marriage.
The Ketubah of Rivkah bat Binyamin and Shalom Bar Ahron, Bombay, India, 1911 (Photo courtesy of Yale University Library)
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