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11 October 2017
In memory of Ruth Schloss Stanton, A”H 
The Last Jews of Cochin, India” 
By Rachel Reed, Pacific Standard

Sephardi Jews who immigrated from the Iberian Peninsula to India during the 15th and 16th centuries are known as Paradesi Jews. Sarah Cohen, 95, is one of five Paradesi Jews remaining in Mattancherry, a neighborhood known locally as, “Jew Town” in India’s southwestern city of Cochin. Sarah’s caretaker, Thaha Ibrahim, is Muslim. “The Jewish tradition is special to Cochin,” Ibrahim says, “We are all just people.”

Sarah Cohen enjoys “dosa, idli, challah bread” and “spends the majority of her day... singing prayers and people-watching,” Mattancherry, Cochin, India, 2017
(Photo courtesy of Rachel Reed/Pacific Standard)
 
Feature of the Week: Ashorer Shira (“I’ll write songs…”)

 

The great Moroccan-Israeli payytan Rabbi Haim Louk
(Photo courtesy of Haim Louk)


The great Moroccan-Israeli payytan, Rabbi Haim Louk, teams up with the Israeli jazz maestro, Omer Avital, for a stirring rendition of Rabbi Raphael Toledano’s (1890-1971) classic piyyut, Ashorer Shira (“I’ll write songs…”), a communal love song to the Torah traditionally sung on Simhat Torah.
Ibn Shushan Synagogue, Toledo, Spain
(Photo courtesy of World Jewish Congress)
A Spanish Odyssey: Digging Up Sephardi Roots” 
By Marion Fischel, The Jerusalem Post

In 2015 the Spanish government decided to offer citizenship to descendants of Spanish Jewry exiled in the 15th century. Some in Spain feared that the country would soon be overrun with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Sephardi applicants. However, thanks in large part to a complicated application process that requires Spanish language proficiency and proof of genealogy, only 7,000 have applied. In many cases, even Ladino isn’t proof enough: “These people have kept a link to medieval Spain, with their language and customs… if they speak Ladino, they shouldn’t be expected to speak Spanish,” says Myriam Nahon, an Israel-Based Sworn Translator for Spain.
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Upcoming Events:


Rescuing Endangered Jews: The Unit for Aliyah, Absorption, & Special Operations

And meet Arielle Di Porto – instrumental in special operations to ex-filtrate Jewish refugees from hot spots 


Thursday, October 19
7:15 P.M.

Kovno Room
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
 
 
The Jewish Agency for Israel and American Sephardi Federation invite you to meet Arielle Di Porto, who grew-up in a Moroccan-Sephardi home, made Aliyah at age 17, and has dedicated her life to ensuring the safety of every Jew. For several decades she has worked tirelessly to facilitate the Aliyah of Jews who choose to make Israel their home -- whether by choice or circumstance. Di Porto’s strong sense of love for the Jewish People and State of Israel and drive to rescue endangered Jews characterizes a career in which she participated in some of most critical and sensitive emigration missions in Jewish history, including special operations to ex-filtrate Jewish refugees from Cuba, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and other hot spots. 

Today, she serves as the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Director of the Aliyah Division of the Unit for Aliyah, Absorption & Special Operations, responsible for Aliyah from around the world, including the United States, as well as directly charged with Aliyah from France and clandestine Aliyah efforts from countries in the Middle East. 

The American Sephardi Federation is proud to partner with the Jewish Agency for Israel to provide a rare look behind-the-headlines at the vital, life-saving work of Arielle Di Porto and her colleagues on behalf of the Jewish People and State of Israel. 
 

Please click here to reserve tickets

The American Sephardi Federation and New York Jewish Travel Guide proudly present: 

Jewish Heritage of Malta
An evening exploring a beautiful island's connection to Jewish history and culture


Monday, October 23
6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Leo & Julia Forchheimer Auditorium and
Paul S. & Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
 
 
 
Evidence of Jewish history dates back to Roman times (4-5 Century) as seen at the St. Paul’s Catacomb site at Rabat, Malta, where several Jewish catacombs (pictured above) can be found alongside Christian burials.  

The contemporary Maltese Jewish community is composed of immigrants from Gibraltar, England, North Africa, Portugal, and Turkey, arriving over the course of French and British rule starting in 1798.  During the early 20th century, the islands Jews did not have a rabbi of their own and rabbis would often be flown in from Sicily to perform ceremonies.  During World War II, Malta was the only European country not requiring visas for Jews fleeing German rule. Numerous Maltese Jews, moreover, fought Germany in the British Army during the war. Today, a small but active community of under 200 Jews live on Malta with their own synagogue and rabbis.

Featuring guest speaker Dr. John Baldacchino (Director, University of Wisconsin-Madison Arts Institute), the program will present multimedia presentations showing Jewish heritage sites in Malta today.

 
Please click here to reserve tickets

Presented in Partnership with:
The Malta Tourism Authority
Exclusively Malta Luxury Travel, Ltd.
Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa


   

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. 
 
ASF proudly worked with Dr. Robbins to create the traveling exhibit, “Baghdadis & the Bene Israel in Bollywood & Beyond,” which was covered by NBC News, Desi Talk (the NY Metro print edition of The New Times India), The Jewish Week, and The Jerusalem Report. The exhibit was inaugurated with a talk by India’s Consul General at New York.  


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 
Gallery
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

Echoes of Jewish Morocco: A Photographic Exhibit by Joshua Shamsi/Diarna: The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life

Through October 20
in ASF’s Myron Habib, A”H Memorial Display
Selma L. Batkin Mezzanine

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


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).

www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@AmericanSephardi.org | (212) 548-4486

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