03 November 2017 Mabrouk/Mazel Tov to ASF’s Partner Association Mimouna on its successful 3rd Edition of the Moroccan Jewish University, which was part of this year’s world-renowned Festival des Andalousies Atlantiques at Essouira, Morocco
Ge’ez is an ancient South Semitic language that became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court. While Ge’ez is fast disappearing, even among Ethiopian Christians, the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel is helping to preserve the language by using it as part of their liturgy: “You could say that the relative survival of the Ge’ez language could be credited mainly to the Jews of Ethiopia.”
Minister of Education Yitzhak Navon, A”H, visiting kindergarten class of Ethiopian olim (immigrants), Pardres Channa, 1985
(Photo courtesy of Israel Government Press Office)
ASF’s Founding President, Professor Daniel J. Elazar, A”H, was concerned about the Ashkenazification of Sephardim. This week’s feature represents something of the reverse: vocalist Amir Benayoun puts a soulful Moroccan spin on the Chabad niggun (melody), Avinu Malkeynu (“Our Father, Our King”).
Jerusalem-born Kurdish Jew Eliyahu Avrahami says “‘My family fought for this country before it was a country,’” including two sisters, Shoshana and Rashel, who served in the Irgun. He is proud of this history despite enduring discrimination during the decades Israeli society was dominated by the Ashkenazi socialist elite
(Photo courtesy of Eliyahu Avrahami)
The history of the approximately 200,000 Kurdish Jewish immigrants and their descendants in Israel today is little-known yet important when considering the popular “narratives” that portray Kurdish Jews, like other Greater Sephardic communities (including Mizrahim), as necessarily coming to Israel as persecuted refugees in contrast to the Ashkenazi state-builders and Zionists.
Many Kurdish Jews, however, made Aliyah to Israel out of “emunah, faith, not desperation.” As one child of Kurdish immigrants who made the approximately 750-mile trek to the Promised Land “on foot and donkey” in the 1920s remembers, “‘Zionism and the religion were not separate to them. The prayers ended with ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ and one year, they made it happen…The Kurdish people were always reasonable. No fundamentalists.’”
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.”
Tuesday, November 7
7:30 p.m.
Leo & Julia Forchheimer Auditorium
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
At a time when the freedom of the Kurdish people is imperiled, the American Sephardi Federation is hosting a two-part program.
First, researchers from the Diarna Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life will present a virtual guided tour of Jewish historical sites in Iraqi-Kurdistan, ranging from synagogues and communal caves to the purported shrines of Biblical prophets and the tomb of the first woman rabbi.
Afterward, ASF Board Member Jamil Ezra, a native of Baghdad, will share his inspiring story of fleeing 1970s Baathist Iraq with the help of the Kurdish fighters known as Peshmurga, who included a young Masoud Barzani. Now President of the Kurdish Regional Government, Barzani personally drove Jamil to freedom.
The Diarna virtual guided journey to Jewish-Iraqi Kurdistan is the product of nine years of research and multiple research expeditions.
Just before the rise of ISIS, a team of researchers from Diarna journeyed to Iraqi-Kurdistan to document the last remnants of Jewish life, more than fifty years after the community disbanded. Warmly greeted by Kurds who fondly remembered their Jewish neighbors and Peshmurga who invited them for tea at a checkpoint, the Diarna researchers discovered hidden Jewish history in caves and behind crumbling walls. Learn about fascinating sites in Amediye, Akre, al-Qoosh, Betanur, Kirkuk, and elsewhere.
More recently, as detailed in Newsweek’s March 3, 2017 cover story, a Diarna researcher survived an ISIS chemical attack at Sinjar as work continues to discover and document the area's rich Jewish history.
Reservation required. Please click here to reserve tickets
Sunday, November 19
7:00 p.m.
Leo & Julia Forchheimer Auditorium
Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
The Algemeiner Editor’s Club and the American Sephardi Federation cordially invites you to join us for a discussion and exclusive book signing with Jere Van Dyk, former CBS journalist and captive of the Taliban. The conversation -- which will be moderated by Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune -- is titled: From Daniel Pearl to Steven Sotloff: Jews and Political Kidnapping.
Van Dyk is one of the most celebrated journalists covering the Middle East, and his new book THE TRADE: My Journey Into the Labyrinth of Political Kidnapping adds to his list of already impressive credentials. His unheralded knowledge positions him as an authority to discuss breaking news in relation to Middle Eastern geopolitics as well as his own experience being held hostage by jihadists and the ever-evolving business of political kidnapping.
The discussion will be followed by a Q & A session and a book signing. VIP entry to the event includes access to an exclusive reception preceding the talk and a signed copy of the book.
Limited seats are available, reservation required. Please click here to purchase tickets
Sunday, January 28, 2018
2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Leo & Julia Forchheimer Auditorium and
The Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall Center for Jewish History
15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Join the American Sephardi Federation for a festival of stories and songs celebrating Ladino, the remarkable language also known as Judeo-Spanish.
Dr. Jane Mushabac will perform excerpts from her highly acclaimed 2016 novel, rich with Ladino expressions: His Hundred Years, A Tale. Also hear wonderful singer/accordionist Jane Carver; renowned Sephardic thought leaders, Rabbi Marc Angel and Rabbi Nissim Elnecavé; and a musical finale by the illustrious Trio Sefardi, with Howard Bass, Tina Chancey, and Susan Gaeta, who has toured with the legendary Flory Jagoda.
In 2013 Yitzhak Navon, Israel’s 5th President and Director of the National Authority for Ladino, endorsed the idea of International Ladino Day. Since then, celebrations have been held in Jerusalem, Seattle, Istanbul, Madrid, Dallas, and Forest Hills. This will be the first festival in Manhattan!
Ladino is a bridge between cultures—it’s a Spanish language that includes words in Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, and more. It was the mother tongue of Jews in the Ottoman Empire for 500 years. In the early 20th century, about half a million people spoke Ladino. Now there are 50,000-100,000 speakers. The international resurgence of interest in Ladino and its culture is seen in distinguished university programs, publications, and events of many kinds.
Co-presented by The American Jewish Historical Society and American Sephardi Federation
Light refreshments will be served.
Please click here or call (800) 838-3006 to purchase tickets
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
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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).
