14 April 2017 Mabrouk/Mazel Tov! ASF Young Leadership Board President Lauren Gibli and her team for sponsoring a successful Young Professionals Night (Love, Sephardi Style) during the 20th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival
Jews escaping the Inquisition found a tolerant home in 17th century Amsterdam, where, in short order, they established a house of learning named Ets Haim (“Tree of Life”). A simple space striking in its nobility, the school and library enabled Jews who had recently returned to the fold to explore their tradition (even as a few of those students, such as Baruch Spinoza, chose not to reject it). Ets Haim is now included in “UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register” with “nearly 30,000 printed works dating back to 1484 and more than 500 manuscripts dating back to 1282.”
The great Moroccan-Israeli payytan Rabbi Haim Louk
(Photo courtesy of Haim Louk)
The biblical Splitting of the Sea is commemorated on the seventh day of Passover. In this video, the premier Moroccan-Israeli payytan of the present generation, Rabbi Haim Louk, sings Shirat HaYam(“The Song of the Sea”; Shemot/Exodus 15:1-19), the biblical poem commemorating that event, according to the Moroccan tradition.
Congregation Or VeShalom 100th Anniversary (1914-2014) Banner
(Image courtesy of Congregation Or VeShalom)
The Atlanta congregation Or VeShalom was founded in 1914 by families from Turkey and Rhodes. Since its inception, Or VeShalom has inculcated an ethic of leadership in its members, and today three congregants find themselves leading Atlanta’s most important non-profit organizations. According to Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla, “The families value leadership in the community... When they came, they wanted to be a fountain; they didn’t want to be a drain.”
Sephardic Communities in New York, Miami, and Seattle, are joining together to create a Sephardic Birthright Israel Trip this Summer from August 7th to August 17th! If you've never been on Birthright before and want to go to Israel for free, this is your chance! For 10 days, you'll be able to travel around the country with amazing people with Sephardic, Greek, and Turkish backgrounds, all while exploring everything Israel has to offer. You'll be able to ride camels in the desert, raft down the Jordan River, explore the Old City in Jerusalem, and a whole lot more.
The trip is totally free and anyone between the ages of 18 and 26 who hasn't been on a Birthright Israel trip before is eligible. What's more, we are working on creating an extended portion of the Trip to Greece! Even if you've been to Israel before on a non-birthright trip you may still be eligible.
Register HERE today and be sure to select the "Sephardic Experience" Trip. Registration takes less than 10 minutes and no final commitment is necessary. If you have any question, be sure to email us at info@sephardicbrotherhood.com and be sure to check out some of the amazing pictures from last year's trip and our promo video made by one of our very own trip participants!
Note: While not an ASF program, ASF is proud of the members of our Young Leadership Board who are involved in organizing this trip
When Baghdadi Jews Baruch and Ellen Bekhor (née Cohen) succumbed to the camera’s gaze for their denaturalization pictures in 1951, they became stateless. Ellen was in her eighth month of pregnancy. Permitted to bring no more than a few kilos of belongings out of Iraq, Ellen carried their wedding picture and ketubah in her pocketbook. Laissez-Passer, Royaume D’Irak by Leslie Starobin (2016)
Through April 2017
in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display
Center for Jewish History 15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
The American Sephardi Federation proudly presents excerpts from The Last Address, a multi-year, photo-montage series and oral history and book project by award-winning artist Leslie Starobin that explores the enduring texture of memory and culture in the lives of Greater Sephardic families from dispersed Jewish communities in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon.
Leslie Starobin is a Boston-area photographer and montage artist. Her work is in the permanent collections of many academic (Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University) and public (Jewish Museum, MoMA) museums. Starobin is the recipient of numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation of the Arts/Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. Most recently, she received two Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Grants for this series, The Last Address.
Her exhibition in ASF’s Myron Habib Memorial Display is sponsored in part by CELTSS: The Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship and Service at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, where Starobin is a Professor of Communication Arts.
Please click here for additional information and viewing hours
Through June 2017 Center for Jewish History 15 W 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present an exhibition in the Leon Levy Gallery honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the courageous and creative Portuguese diplomat who saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of other Holocaust refugees.
Please click here for additional information and viewing hours
Donate now 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
Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.
The American Sephardi Federation is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, New York, 10011).
