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15 September 2017
In honor of Captain Elgen M. Long, the last surviving Alaska Airlines crew-member who brought Yemeni Jews on eagles’ wings to Israel, who this week received The American Sephardi Federation’s Maimonides Friendship Award for his courage, ingenuity, and determination to help the Jewish People in a program co-presented with StandWithUs.
Morocco’s Muslim Monarch is Trying to Preserve the Country’s Jewish History  ̶  Before It’s Too Late” 
By Yardena Schwartz, Newsweek

Mimouna isn’t only the name of a post-Passover holiday celebrated in many North African Jewish communities. It’s also the name of a Moroccan civic organization partnered with the American Sephardi Federation and run by a Muslim, Elmehdi Boudra, who aims “to educate this majority-Muslim country about its Jewish past… and to support its dwindling Jewish community.” The tolerant character of Moroccan culture derives support from the country’s King, Muhammad VI, who, in 2010, “initiated a program to repair hundreds of ancient synagogues and cemeteries scattered throughout Morocco. Since then, the kingdom has spent millions of dollars to repair nearly 200 of these sites.”

ElMehdi Boudra speaking at ASF and Association Mimouna’s Moroccan Jewish Caravan, Congregation Shearith Israel: The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, 22 October 2014 
(Photo courtesy of PAYAM Studio)
 
Professor Ephraim Isaac, speaking at ASF’s Mexico and Moral Courage: Celebrating 50 Years Since Jerusalem’s Reunification & Honoring Ambassador Andrés Roemer’s Stand for Jerusalem at UNESCO, The Center for Jewish History, 21 May 2017
(Photo courtesy of Chrystie Sherman)  
Prof. Ephraim Isaac, World [re]nown Scholar of Ancient Semitic Languages & Civilization, Princeton, NJ, U.S.” 
By Yinon Roichman, Looking at Zion

An interview with the celebrated scholar, Prof. Ephraim Isaac, touches on the broad range and sophisticated perspective of this distinguished Board Member of the American Sephardi Federation, prodigiously learned linguist, and deeply committed Jew: “Ethiopian and Yemenite Jews to whom I am connected all their lives prayed daily for the return of the Jewish people to Zion. Their hearts and minds lived in the Land of Israel, so to say. The Jewish people have no other homeland except Erets Israel....Fanaticism has no place in Judaism. I think Jews should read and re-read the Prophets as well as the Oral literature, Then the ‘Orthodox’ will be less fanatic and the Reform will be less hateful of the Orthodox. So, let us dialogue….”
Feature of the Week: “Tunisian-Sephardi Adon HaSelichot

 

Etti Ankri’s
(Photo courtesy of the artist)


Etti Ankri is a popular Israeli vocalist from a Tunisian-Jewish family who, in recent years, has become more religiously observant. In this video, Ankri puts her sweetly intimate touch on Adon HaSelichot (“Lord of Forgiveness”), a traditional piyyut sung in Sephardi synagogues in the period leading up to Yom Kippur.
Portugal’s sneaky sausage that saved Jews” 
By Theodora Sutcliffe, BBC

Beginning in September, the Museum of Jewish Montreal will be launching weekly Sephardic walking tours that tell the story of the city’s Moroccan, Iraqi, Iranian, Egyptian, and Lebanese Jewish communities. Among other stops, the two-hour tours include, “the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, which is also the oldest synagogue in Canada; the Grand Rabbinat du Quebec, Montreal’s Moroccan Religious Body, and… Moroccan fish stores and butchers.”

Jews hiding from the Spanish Inquisition were identified by the lack of sausage hanging from their homes
(Photo courtesy of Peter Ptschelinzew/Getty Images/BBC)
 
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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
Upcoming Events:

Jewish Heritage of the Deccan Book Talk with 
Dr. George Michell, Editor 
and 
Kenneth X. Robbins, Author


Thursday, October 26
6:30 p.m.

Oded Halahmy Gallery at ASF
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
 
 
Please join us to celebrate the Deccan Heritage Foundation's new publication; Jewish Heritage of the Deccan; Mumbai, The Northern Konan, Pune.
 

Co-authored by Kenneth X. Robbins and Pushkar Sohoni, this guidebook is illustrated with splendid, newly commissioned photographs by Surendra Kumar. It is the first such publication to describe the synagogues, cemeteries, libraries, schools and research centers of the Bene Israel community and the more recent émigré Baghdadi Jews in the state of Maharashtra, India. Monuments and sites of both communities are preserved in Mumbai (Bombay) and Pune (Poona), as well as in the smaller towns in the northern Konkan region. 
Descriptions are arranged according to itineraries to encourage citizens of Mumbai and Pune, as well as visitors to these cities and the towns of the Konkan, to discover this often overlooked aspect of local history. Intended as a handy reference to the Jewish presence in Maharashtra, the volume should contribute to a better appreciation of this significant aspect of Deccan history, and hopefully to the preservation of Jewish sites and monuments for future generations.
 
DR. GEORGE MICHELL trained as an architect and studied Indian archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London. He has conducted research projects at many historical sites in India, including Hampi Vijayanagara. Among his many publications are Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates, Mughal Architecture & Gardens, Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad, Late Temple Architecture of India, and Mansions of Chettinad. He is based in London, and is a founding trustee of the Deccan Heritage Foundation in the UK.
 
KENNETH X. ROBBINS is a psychiatrist based in Washington D.C., as well as a collector of South Asian art, and historian of expatriate communities in India. He is co-editor of African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat (Ahmedabad, 2006) and Western Jews in India (New Delhi, 2013), and curator of an exhibition on Jews in India held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, in 2017. He is also interested in Maharajas, Nawabs and Indian Princely States. 
 
 

Please click here to reserve tickets

27th Conference of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies
“Crypto-Judaism in the Americas”


November 5 - 7
Philadelphia, PA 
 
 
Academics, genealogists, and the interested public are invited to the 27th conference of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, an international academic research and cultural association devoted to the history of the descendants of Jews who were persecuted in Spain and Portugal from the 15th-18th centuries.

This year’s theme, “Crypto-Judaism in the Americas,” explores crypto-Judaism from many disciplines (e.g., anthropology, history, sociology, philosophy, literature, music, art history, etc.) and from many geographic locations or time periods, especially the issue of crypto-Jewish identity, both historic and contemporary.

Keynote speaker Professor Ronnie Perelis, PhD,  of Yeshiva University, scholar of medieval and early modern Jewish history, professor of Sephardic Studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies of Yeshiva University, and author of Narratives from the Sephardic Atlantic: Blood and Faith, will discuss the Inquisition, crypto-Judaism, and Sephardic culture. We are further proud to present noted academic, author and specialist in Spanish language, literature and Hispanic-Judaic studies, Dr. David Gitlitz, who will present “The First Practicing Crypto-Jewish Family in Mexico.”
 

Please click here for additional information

Nosotros: Strengthening Bonds Between Jewish and Latino Communities

Through December 2017
in ASF’s Leon Levy Memorial Display

Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 

The Philos Project and American Sephardi Federation cordially invite you to “Nosotros," an art exhibit featuring the work of two renowned Latino artists, Angel Urrely (Cuba) and Carlos Ayala (Puerto Rico)--as a symbolic recognition and “step forward” to improving Jewish-Latino relations.  We thank the Dominican artist, Juan Bravo, for exhibiting his pieces for the exhibit’s Opening Night. Each piece reflects the shared roots of Jewish and Latino communities and expresses hope for a more positive future from the perspective of each respective artist.

Each artist has displayed their works in hundreds of exhibits in both the US and Latin America, having many of them included in some of the most coveted collections in the world. We are very excited to bring them and their works to celebrate the importance of uniting us (or Nosotros), the Jewish and Latino communities, and having this art displayed in a very powerful way at the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History.

 
Artists:
 
Angel Urrely is to the point. This son of Cuba does not beat around the bush. At least not for what the brush comes to reveal—his theory is clear and sharp. Each frame creates a specific, assertive and brutal connection. The reading of his work is—from the perspective of the viewer—very simple, to the point that if you assume an interpretation of what you are reading, believe me: Urrely is addressing exactly what you are thinking. Urrely has something to tell you and will let you know one way or another.
 
Carlos Ayala presents himself as the “Benjamin” of the tribes, the youngest of them all. This son of Puerto Rico presupposes that his youth may seem an obstacle to you, so he shows you his clutched fists from the introduction. This young man is fierce. Carlos shows us the deepest pains experienced by man, and brings them to an entertained, distracted and ill-bred public. He does not sit down to dream on the Caribbean coast and wait for boats loaded with promises. He does not have the time for it, but rather wants to remind you that even at the best moments pain is present. And at any moment it can befall us.
 
We look forward to having you join us!


Please click here for additional information and viewing hours

 and your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF preserve and promote the Greater Sephardi history, traditions, and culture as an integral part of the Jewish experience! 

Contact us by email or phone (917) 606-8266 to learn about giving opportunities in honor, or memory of loved ones

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The American Sephardi Federation is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th Street, New York, New York, 10011).

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