During the 1980’s and 90’s, Menashe Raz was responsible for documenting the Israeli Air Force’s special operations, including the clandestine rescue of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan. This year during Pesach cleaning, Raz was astounded to find an old cardboard box with original footage from the rescue mission: “The videos were from a dramatic period of seven years… when I was involved in one of the most secret and amazing operations the State of Israel was ever involved in: bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel.”
Ethiopian immigrants arriving at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Israel
Israelis celebrating Mimouna
(Photo courtesy of YouTube)
The Moroccan Jewish holiday of Mimouna is observed on the day following Passover. In Israel, the holiday has become a national excuse to celebrate, even if the participants don’t know exactly what it is they’re celebrating:
The Israelites crossing the Sea of Reeds (popularly known as the “Red Sea”) from Seder Agada shel pesah im pitron be-lashon Sefaradi
(Image courtesy of Susan Solomon/Stroum Center for Jewish Studies)
Kuando el puevlo de Yisrael d’Ayifto salieron kantando (“When the people of Israel left Egypt singing”) is a ballad about the Exodus from Egypt that was sung in Ladino by Ottoman Jewish communities as part of the Passover Seder. The song has also been documented among Portuguese Crypto-Jewish communities, leading to the conclusion that it originates from Medieval times in the Iberian Peninsula. Amazingly, Jews from Seattle’s close-knit Sephardi Jewish community have preserved the song, as can be heard in this 1973 recording.
Correction: last Friday’s article on “Biblioteca Ets Haim” should have read: “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 to reject it).” We regret the error.
The Lounge at WeWork
154 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
The Middle East is the cradle of the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Today, the Christian population is rapidly decreasing due to systematic persecution and mass migrations abroad. Very few Jewish people live in the region outside of the Jewish State of Israel. These realities are alarming for the future of religious pluralism in the region.
April 24 is Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we remember the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazi Reich. In pledging "Never Again," it is appropriate that we seek to preserve the mosaic of religious minorities in the cradle of their heritage.
Please join The Philos Project for a networking reception and panel presentation on vanished Jewish heritage in the Middle East. Panelists will include Jason Guberman-P., Executive Director of the American Sephardi Federation, Edwin Shuker, an Iraqi-Jewish entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Vice President of the European Jewish Congress, Mina Abdelmalak, an Egyptian-Coptic activist and Arab outreach specialist at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Robert Nicholson, Executive Director of The Philos Project.
Please click here to make a reservation (Tickets: $10)
Special Announcement
Sephardic Birthright Trip Summer 2017
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
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The American Sephardi Federation is located at the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, New York, 10011).